We
completely redesigned how project management works with SmartDraw 2012, which
makes managing even the most complex projects a breeze. I’ll walk you through
some of our great new features and how to use them.
Redesigned Project Charts
Now project charts can always fit on a single page,
conforming to Visual Grammar, and are much more manageable thanks to brand new
zoom and scrolling controls.
Managing projects is difficult enough without having to fight
a complicated software interface or waiting for technology to catch up with
you. Because we rebuilt how project charts work from the ground up, SmartDraw
works at the speed you think! Even if projects with thousands of tasks or ones
that span years are now a breeze to work with.
What is this about a new toolbar? We’ve added an intuitive
floating toolbar to control zoom, scrolling, and the timeframe displayed so you
can control the level of detail you want to see. Then, you can scroll through
the timeframe displayed.
New Assignment Views and Task
Assignment Features
The new Assignment view lets you see who is doing what at a
glance. You’ll be able to see the progress for each task, color coded to show
when a task is late and when it is complete.
This feature provides built in accountability that you can
use when checking the status of your project or even during a project status
meeting. Each task will have the appropriate icon that provides an easy visual
queue to whether a project is on time, running late, late, or complete.
Plus, when you are managing projects with SmartDraw, it will
now remember who is on your team. Once you enter a person’s name in a project
chart, SmartDraw will add it to your virtual list of team members and offer it
to you every time you build a new project chart. Just start typing and a list
of names to select will pop up. You can choose a name or just keep typing to
enter a new name to your list.
Creating Custom Task
Libraries
Do you or your team perform some tasks repeatedly? For
example, when we launch new features and upgrades of SmartDraw, there are
certain tasks such as updating the website that we need to do every time. You
can now save time by creating your own custom libraries of common tasks to
reuse again and again.
Your library will not only save the hierarchy of the tasks
you add, but also the person assigned to each task and the duration of the
tasks added. Then, when you want to add that group to a new project, you can
simply drag-and-drop it into your chart instead of typing in the same sequence
repeatedly.
Try SmartDraw 2012
What
are you waiting for? Try out SmartDraw 2012 now! Plus, be sure to check out a full tutorial and video on using all of these new features here.
