Map Out Your Project

Overview

Having a place to map out all the steps of your project, or just put down the next step or two required on a project, is an important way to be more successful with a project.  In addition, allowing you to get all of the project information out of your head and into a system you can trust will go a long way in reducing your stress.  The Project Window in Foresight is your tool to help you accomplish all of this.

Setup / Configuration

The Project Window requires no setup.

Using

The Project Window goes beyond acting like a file folder.  In it, you can arrange Tasks and Calendar Items in a logical order that will let you be successful with getting the project done.  Many times, Tasks or Calendar Items actually consist of multiple steps that need to be accomplished.  The Foresight Project Window will let you easily create multiple sub-tasks under a Task or Calendar item.  For example, maybe you have created a  project called the "Software Marketing Project," or SMP for short.  The first (next) step on this project is to have a Project Kick-Off Meeting next Monday.  So, you create that Calendar Event right in the Project Window.  However, if you think about it, there are some tasks that must happen to make this meeting a reality.  The Project Window lets you easily map these tasks out, right under the meeting.

How to Open The Project Window and Add a New Project

1) Click Projects at the top of the Foresight-Today window to open the Projects Whiteboard.

2) On the Projects Whiteboard window, click the Add Project toolbar button.

3) Fill out the information on the Project Window form and close the window when you are finished to save the Project.

How to Open The Project Window and View / Edit a Project

There are a couple of different ways to open a Project:

• From the Projects Whiteboard window (see above), double-click on the project you want to open.
• Click on the project in the Projects Widget.
• Click on the Folder Icon in the Calendar Widget.

How to Delete a Project

1) Open the Projects Whiteboard window (see above).

2) Click once on the project you want to delete (do not double click or open the project).

3) Click the Delete Project toolbar button.

Note: You will be presented with a couple of different warnings, including what you want to do with Calendar Items and Tasks attached to the project.  Please make sure to read the warnings and decide if you want to keep these items in Outlook, or, have these deleted also.

Project Window Highlights

Identifier

This field lets you create a short-hand name, or code name, for the project.  For example, if you have a project called the "Software Marketing Project", that is a lot to type anytime you want to reference it (like during a Quick Capture).  Creating a short identifier for it, like "SMP" makes it much easier to quickly reference the project.

If you assign project numbers to your project, those could be put here also.

Tasks Tab

The Tasks Tab is the place where you create and arrange all Tasks and Calendar Items related to a project.

It consists of 7 columns of information including:

• Bullet (for controlling how much information is seen in the project; see below)
• Completion Status
• Type Icon (Calendar or Task item)
• Subject (the actual item title or description)
• Category
• Information Icons
• Due Date

The Tasks Tab is discussed in more detail below.

Tasks Tab - Bullets

The small blue triangles to the left of the items allow you to see any sub-tasks under the current task.  If the current task (or Calendar Item) contains sub-tasks, a balloon will indicate such when you hover your mouse over the bullet as shown in the example above.  Clicking the the bullet will show the rest of the items.  Clicking the bullet again will hide the sub-tasks.

Using the bullets lets you zoom in and out on a project, letting you see more or less of the project and focus on mapping out particular areas.

Tasks Tab - Add Button

Allows you to add a Calendar Event or Task to the Project (and Outlook).

(Click here to learn how to open the Project Window and find this button.)

Tasks Tab - Delete Button

Deletes the currently highlighted Calendar Event or Task from the Project (and from Outlook).

Tasks Tab - Arrow Buttons

Allows you to arrange the currently highlighted Calendar Event or Task in the project.

• You can move the item up or down by using the Up or Down arrow buttons.
• Indenting: You can make the item a sub-task, or child, of an item by moving the item below the main task (or parent), then using the Right arrow button.
• Outdenting: You can remove the item from being a sub-task, or child, by using the Left arrow button.

Tasks Tab - Keyboard Shortcuts

• You can use the arrow keys to navigate among the different items (Calendar Events and Tasks) in the Tasks Tab.
• You can press [Enter] to open an item.
• You can use [ALT] + [Arrow Keys (Up, Down, Left, Right)] to arrange Calendar Events and Tasks within the project.
  • This is the same functionality as discussed in the Arrow Buttons section above.

Tasks Tab - Information Icons

  - Indicates that the item has contacts attached to it.

  - Indicates that the item contains notes in the items Notes field.  Hovering over this icon will display the notes.

Tasks Tab - Show Completed Items

The Tasks Tab will, or will not, show completed items based on the setting of this checkbox.

Whether or not this checkbox is set is remembered for each project, allowing you more control on how each individual project is displayed.

Files Tab - Add

Allows you to add a reference to a project related file on your personal computer or network.  This provides for easy access to project related files.  Instead of looking through many files (such as the many in your My Documents folder) for only those related to this project, you can look at one, small, consolidated list. 

Pressing [Enter] on the file will open the file.

Notes

• You can also Drag & Drop files into the Files Tab window to add files.
• These are shortcuts, or references, to the file only.  The file will remain in its original place on the computer and is not copied.
• If the original file is moved or deleted, Foresight will detect this and prompt you to tell it where the file was moved to, or, if you want to remove it from the project..

Files Tab - Remove

Removes the reference to the project file from the list.

Note: Only the reference, or Shortcut, to the file is removed.  The file is not deleted from your computer or network.

Files Tab - Import Favorites

Allows you to add websites that are related to your project to the Files list for easy, future reference.  To add a website to the Files Tab:

1) Find the project related website in Internet Explorer.

2) Add the website to your Favorites list.

3) Repeat steps 1 and 2 for all the websites you would like to add to the project.

4) In Foresight, click on the Import Favorites button.

5) Locate the Favorites you created in step 2 and use the Add button to add them to your project.

Notes

• You can also Drag & Drop shortcuts into the Files Tab window.
• Only Internet Explorer Favorites are supported at this time.

E-Mails Tab

Allows you to add a reference to a project related E-mail.  This allows you to quickly and easily find project related emails without having to search, sort or hunt through the many emails in many places in Outlook.

To add an e-mail, simply drag and drop it into the E-mail Tab window.

Notes

• This is only a reference to the original e-mail; a copy of the email is not made.
• If you move the original e-mail, you will need to re-add the e-mail to your project as the reference to the e-mail will be lost.