Columns, sorting and filtering

1. Click Settings on the ribbon (or Project › Project settings…) and choose Columns.

2. Tick the columns you want to see, and untick the rest.

3. To change their order, drag a column by its handle, use the ↑ and ↓ arrows, or press Alt+Up or Alt+Down anywhere in its row.

The Task column is always shown.

The columns you choose, their order and their widths are saved with the plan, so each plan can show its own. A new plan starts with the columns you chose last. On a plan you can only view, you can still change them, but only until you close it.

The columns you can show:

Drag the right-hand edge of its heading. Double-click the edge to fit the column to its contents. Settings › Columns › Reset column widths puts every column back to its first width.

Changing a width counts as a change to the plan, so Desktop Plan asks you to save it when you close. It can’t be undone with Ctrl+Z: drag the edge back instead.

For anything Desktop Plan doesn’t track, such as a site, a supplier or a reference number:

1. Go to Settings › Columns and click Add custom column.

2. A column called Custom 1 is added. Type your own heading in its box, for example Supplier.

3. Close Settings and type into the new column like any other.

A plan can have up to 20 custom columns. Custom columns, their headings and what you type in them are saved in the plan. You can type into them on phases too.

To delete one, click its × in Settings › Columns. Desktop Plan says how many tasks have something in it and asks first.

Click a column heading to sort by it. Click again to reverse, and a third time to go back to the plan’s own order. A small arrow shows the sort. Click the WBS heading to clear the sort at any time.

Tasks are sorted within their phase. While the list is sorted, adding, indenting and moving tasks is turned off, because "the row above" no longer means anything.

Type in Search name or notes (press Ctrl+F to get there from anywhere). Only tasks whose name or notes contain what you typed are shown, along with the phases they belong to (drawn faintly). Capitals don’t matter.

The status bar at the bottom of the window says how many rows are shown, for example Showing 2 of 16 rows. Phases kept in view above a match count as rows, so this can differ from the number of tasks on the dashboard.

Click Filter at the right of the view row, then tick any of these:

• Hide completed: hides tasks that are 100% done.
• Milestones only: shows only milestones.
• Critical only: shows only critical tasks (licensed version).

You can tick more than one: Hide completed with Critical only shows the critical work still to do. The list stays open while you tick; click anywhere else, or press Esc, to close it. While a filter is on, the button shows how many, for example Filter (2).

Click Clear sort and filter to show everything again, or press F3 to clear the search and the filters and keep the sort. Sorting and filtering only change what you see. Nothing in the plan changes, and nothing is saved in the file.

You can copy one column at a time between Desktop Plan and Excel (or any program that takes text). This works for the Task, Start, End and Duration columns.

From Desktop Plan: select the rows, click a cell in the column you want and press Ctrl+C.

Into Desktop Plan:

1. In Excel, copy one column of cells.

2. In Desktop Plan, click the first cell you want to fill and press Ctrl+V.

The values fill downwards, one per row, and are checked as if you had typed them. If any line can’t be used, nothing is pasted and you are told which line is the problem.

To make a list of new tasks quickly, copy a column of task names from Excel and paste it into Type here to add a task…. Every line becomes a task. If you paste more names into the Task column than there are rows, the extra names become new tasks too.

There is no cut (Ctrl+X). Copy, then delete.