Frequently Asked Questions

How can I copy a project?

Instead of copying a project you can create templates and reuse them anytime you want. With this simple trick you can avoid the rewriting/ recreating of every activity and to-do.

Go to the Project list, by clicking on the Home icon in the Planzone navigator (top left menu) and on the "Projects" tab. Then click on the active menu icon in front of the project name from which you want to create a template. This opens a pop-up menu in which you can select the action "Create template". In the confirmation dialog, just type in the name of the new template and validate.

The template will be created by copying the selected project. All project-related data will be copied: activities (including dates and allocated hours), to-dos, milestones, wiki. Documents will be copied only if you have checked the option in the confirmation dialog. The project team members will be transformed to virtual members in the new template. The template schedule will be an exact copy of the original project schedule, except that % complete is forced to 0.

Now you can create a new project from this template.

How/Where can I archive my projects?

Click on the project tab to see the list of all open and closed projects. If a project is completed you can archive it by using the menu icon in front of the project. Click on Close and the project is automatically sent to the "Closed projects" list. All activities, to-dos, milestones, wiki pages... are saved and if you wish you can reopen the project.

To use the content for another project you can create a template. See more on Templates in the user manual

If you do not need any information of your project you can delete it.
To delete a project, you first need to close it by selecting "Close" in the project menu icon or selecting the "Close this project" link in the project overview.
Once closed, select the project menu icon in the "Closed projects" list. You'll see an option to delete the project with a trash can icon next to it. Select this option.
Note that once deleted, projects cannot automatically be un-deleted, but Planzone Support does offer a paid service for recovering a deleted project. If you need this, please contact us.

Can I have several to-do lists?

In Planzone, the way to organize the project to-dos is to group them by activity. The project can be broken down into different activities. And activities can also be broken down into sub-activities, and so forth. In the project "To-dos" tab, you can see the structure of activities in the left panel. When you select an activity in this panel, you see on the right the list of to-dos linked to the selected activity (and its sub-activities). You can link a to-do to another activity by a simple drag and drop from the to-do list (on the right) to the activity structure (on the left).

Can I see the to-do list of every team member?

Yes. Click on "Search by assignee" (search box on the top right). Then click on the blank and select one team member from the list.

When should I use activity dependencies?

This feature is perfect if all sub-activities of a given activity have "finish-to-start dependencies". This means that a sub-activity cannot start before the previous one is completed. If this is the case, you just have to define the parent activity in cascade mode.

If the finish date of the first sub-activity is delayed, the following sub-activities will start with that same delay (in cascade).

Is my data safe when stored in Planzone?

You can rest assured that we at Planzone take reasonable measures to ensure that the platform and your data are available and secure. The site uses 256-bit SSL encryption and data is backed up regularly. Please remember that your Planzone login and password are personal and should be used in a secure manner.

Can I import a schedule from a Microsoft Project file?

Yes. When you create a project, you can select the option "Import a Microsoft Project file" and provide a MPP/MPT file. Use this option to pre-fill your project schedule with existing planning information extracted from Microsoft Project. You can select any MPP or MPT file, saved in "Microsoft Office Project 2007" or "Microsoft Project 2000-2003" format. The file should not be password-protected.

The tasks in the MPP/MPT file will be imported as activities in the project schedule. Tasks under the 5th level will be ignored. The dates will be rounded to day boundaries. The tasks marked as milestones will be imported as real milestones.

The resources in the MPP/MPT file will be imported as virtual team members in the project team. And their assignments will be imported too.

Why do I get a warning on invalid format when I try to import a Microsoft Project file?

When you create a project and select the option "Import a Microsoft Project file", you have to provide a MPP/MPT file. When you click on "Next", the file is checked to detect if it is in a valid format. This is helpful because, if you selected the wrong file, you don't want to wait for the end of the project creation process to get an error about an invalid format. However this preliminary check works only if the MPP/MPT extensions are recognized on your computer. Usually this is the case only if you have installed Microsoft Project on your computer. So if you upload a MPP/MPT file from a computer on which Microsoft Project is not installed, you will likely get the warning about the invalid format and you can safely ignore it if you are sure of your file.

What are the recommended steps in setting up a project schedule?

By default, when you create a project you are taken to the "Schedule / Timeline" view page for your project. We suggest you begin on that page and do the following to set up your project schedule:

Break down your project into activities
The project schedule is designed to help you break down your project into activities (and sub-activities if needed) to get a timeline view of your project. This is a high-level organization of your project that usually shows the major project phases, typically at the level on which you want to communicate with your boss, your colleagues or a client. Enter these major phases first. You can always make them more detailed afterwards.

Estimate the dates and duration of the activities
Create the project schedule by adding activities and setting the estimated start and finish dates.

Update and re-organize the activities
Once an activity is created, you can change the activity dates and any detailed information related to an activity by clicking on the name of the activity. Click on the icon to the left of the activity name to move activities up or down in the timeline view.

Select the timescale
The timeline view shows an overview of your project schedule for a given time period. You can change the timescale by using the navigation arrows to scroll and zoom in or out.

Monitor project progress
You can track the progress of your project by entering a "% complete" on each activity. This will show up in the timeline view on the bar that represents the activity date range.

Plan your resources
If you want to start your resource planning, you can allocate time (hours) on resources for the project activities. Resources can be your project team members or other non-staff project resources that you define in the Directory section of the Planzone navigator to the left. The allocated hours can be compared to the resource availability, to ensure a more realistic schedule. Then you (or your project team members) can track the progress of each resource on each activity, by entering a "% complete" figure. This will be automatically rolled-up as a "% complete" on your whole project. And of course you can re-estimate the allocated hours, or re-assign the activities to other resources at any time during the project lifecycle. For all these actions, open the Activity details page by clicking on the activity name.

However, first of all, use the button "Create a new activity" to enter your first project activity!

What is a document tag and what are they used for?

Tags are keywords or phrases associated with a document that can be used for searches. To add a tag, click on the file name in a document list to access the document details page. In the "Tags" section, enter text in the input box. Use the [Enter] key or click on "Add tag" to save the tag. Phrases containing multiple words will be entered as one tag.

As soon as you click in the input box, tags that have been already entered for documents in the same project appear in a dropdown list. Select that tag from the list to reuse it. As soon as you start typing characters in the input box, the list is restricted to those tags starting with the characters that you typed (this technique is known as "autocompletion").

After you add a tag, if you click on the tag text it will take you back to the document list and display all documents in the project associated with that keyword and to which you have access.

Delete a tag by clicking on the icon next to the tag.

If I delete a template, will it delete any projects created from it?

No. Planzone makes a copy of the template information and uses it for project creation. The template and projects made from it are not linked.

If I delete a template that I've published, does it delete the public template?

No. The public version of the template is a copy. It is not deleted when you delete the template from your Planzone.

If you want to delete the public version of your template, click on the Withdraw link in the template list.