Getting started

On Windows, double-click the installer you downloaded and follow the steps on screen. You do not need to be an administrator. When it finishes, open Desktop Plan from the Start menu or the desktop shortcut.

For more details, see Installing Desktop Plan: what you need, the portable copy, and installing a newer version or uninstalling. On a Mac, see Desktop Plan on a Mac.

When Desktop Plan opens for the first time, you see an empty plan. With a licence it is called Untitled project. In the free version it is your free plan, called project and kept in Documents\DesktopPlan, with the two sample plans in tabs beside it. To start another empty plan at any time, choose File › New (Ctrl+N, licensed version). The Project details box opens first, so you can give the plan its name, its lead and its language.

The grid on the left says No tasks yet. The chart on the right shows the coming weeks, with a red line on today’s date. Weekends are shaded.

A new plan starts in the Bright Sky theme, the one in the pictures in this guide. To change a plan’s colours, see Changing the look.

Step 1: name the plan

1. Click Untitled project in the coloured band across the top. It becomes a text box.

2. Type the name of your project, for example Oakfield Villa Build, and press Enter.

3. Click Add a lead just below it, type the name of the person in charge, and press Enter.

Step 2: type your tasks

1. Click Type here to add a task… at the bottom of the grid.

2. Type the first task, for example Client brief, and press Enter.

3. The cursor stays on the empty row, ready for the next one. Type Architectural drawings, press Enter, then Permits approved and Enter.

Each new task starts today and lasts one working day, so all three bars sit on the same day.

Step 3: say how long each task takes

1. Click the Duration cell of Client brief, type 2d (two days) and press Enter.

2. Do the same for Architectural drawings: type 3d.

3. For Permits approved, type 0. A task that lasts no time at all is a milestone. Desktop Plan turns it into a diamond and tells you so at the bottom of the window.

You can type durations in days (3d), hours (4h), weeks (1w) or minutes (90m). A number on its own means days. See Dates and durations.

Step 4: link the tasks so they follow each other

The drawings can’t start until the brief is done. To tell Desktop Plan:

1. Click the Client brief bar on the chart. Two small circles appear, one at each end of the bar.

2. Press on the circle at the right-hand end, drag down onto the left half of the Architectural drawings bar, and let go. The label beside the pointer reads Finish to start.

Architectural drawings now starts the day after the brief finishes, and an arrow joins the two bars. Do the same from the end of Architectural drawings onto Permits approved.

From now on, if the brief takes longer, the drawings and the permits move later on their own. There is more about this in Linking tasks.

1. Choose File › Save (Ctrl+S), or click the disk icon in the top-left corner.

2. The first time you save a new plan, Windows asks where to put the file. Choose a folder, check the name and click Save. (Your free plan already has a file, so it is saved straight away.)

Plans are saved as .dplan files. To open one later, choose File › Open (Ctrl+O), or double-click the file in File Explorer if you used the installer (the portable copy cannot open plans that way).

The window title shows the file’s name. A * in front of it, or a dot on the plan’s tab, means there are changes you have not saved yet.

If you close a plan, or Desktop Plan itself, with unsaved changes, you are asked whether to Save, Don’t save or Cancel.

To send the plan to someone who doesn’t have Desktop Plan, or to print it, click Export on the ribbon and save it as a PDF or an Excel workbook. See Exporting to PDF and Excel.

You can use Desktop Plan without a licence, with these limits:

• a plan can hold a limited number of tasks;
• you work on one plan of your own, and can open one other plan at a time to look at;
• the critical path, float, Critical only, the full-page dashboard, the team calendar and your own wording are not available.

Entering a licence key removes these limits in the copy you already have. Nothing needs to be reinstalled. See Licence and updates.

• A tour of the screen explains every part of the window.
• Adding and editing tasks shows the other ways to add, change and remove tasks.

Carry on through the guide and your plan will end up like this: the whole of Oakfield Villa Build, with its four phases, twelve tasks, two milestones and the links between them.