Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!hybrid!scifi!bywater!uunet!vtserf!cohill
From: cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu (Andrew M. Cohill)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Re: Project Planners
Keywords: project planners,gantt
Message-ID: <958@vtserf.cc.vt.edu>
Date: 9 Jan 91 15:14:56 GMT
References: <1991Jan7.184508.17676@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> <954@vtserf.cc.vt.edu> <42302@ut-emx.uucp>
Organization: Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA
Lines: 33

Hmmm....seem to have started a thread here.

In fact, I use MacProject II just about the way Kathy Strong has
described--small projects, just to see how tasks hook together and to
get a general feel for the time needed and where critical tasks lie on
the timeline.  MacProject II is fine for that, but I still maintain that
it is inexcusable not to put in some rudimentary reporting capabilities.

If you are going to spend $400-$600 on a project management package, you
ought to get one that works with both small and large projects, or at
least small and medium-size.  There are times when I want some tabular
reports, and I get mad as hell at all the back-flips I have to do just
to print out 10 or 15 lines of information.  

MacProject II has this pseudo-spreadsheet thingy with tabular info in
it.  You open it, and displays 20 or 30 mostly empty fields that you
have to manually close up, a la Excel, because you are probably only
interested in 4 or 5 date and time fields.  This is a pain in itself;
you ought to be able to save the format.  Then you have to load your
query, which will select the rows you want.  Then you have to export the
data.  Then you have to move to a spreadsheet and import the data.  Then
you will spend more time fiddling with the formatting.  Then, finally,
you print it.  Now do all that again for the list of tasks for the
*next* person on your project.  Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera....

That's not what using computers is supposed to be about, and Claris
ought to know better.  My two cents, anyway....

-- 
|          ...we have to look for routes of power our teachers never       
|              imagined, or were encouraged to avoid.   T. Pynchon          
|                    
|Andy Cohill        cohill@vtserf.cc.vt.edu            VPI&SU