WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) Changelog

What's new in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0025

Jan 23, 2020

This version greatly improves the appearance of WBS, Network and Gantt Charts in WBS Schedule Pro
Here is what we have improved or added to improve the appearance of charts:
Better rounded corners - We've incorporated "anti-aliasing" which is a Windows feature that smooths out rounded corners so they not only display nicer on the screen but print even smoother
Gradient Fills - You can now select that a Box or Cell color have a Gradient Fill which means the color will fade from dark to light or from light to dark for added affect
Improved Callouts (Text Boxes) - The Text Boxes used to annotate your charts are now called Callouts and have an improved look In addition, Callouts can now be added to Gantt Charts
Images! - You can now add graphic images to the Headers and Footers for printing You can also add images to any chart by pasting an image from the Clipboard This is great for adding Corporate Logos or any type of picture that you might need to illustrate an idea
Indicators in WBS and Network Charts - WBS and Network Charts can now display a little icon next to a box to indicate when a Task has a Note, a Constraint or when the Task is 100% Complete Hover over the indicator in the chart to display information about that topic Toggle these On/Off in the Indicators group under the Format tab
New Views - Where appropriate we have added the improved look to each WBS, Network or Gantt View Many of the WBS and Network Views now use rounded corner boxes, gradient fills and other features to make them appear sharper and more visually appealing These new Views are automatically installed on new installations of WBS Schedule Pro If you are updating an older version with this version you can manually install these new Views by following the instructions here: Updating Views
Other improvements include:
Instant WBS Codes - We have added an option to quickly display the WBS or Outline Code next to the Task Name in all charts Choose the Format Tab in any View and select WBS Codes to place this code before the Name of the task For example, "Task Name" becomes "122 Task Name" when selected
Organizer - There is now an Organizer to make it easier to manage default and custom Views, Page Layouts and Calendars The Organizer is accessed from the File menu, from the Project tab or from the Views Pane by selecting the Organizer icon
Copy Picture/Save As Picture in Gantt Charts - The Copy Picture command and File-Save As Picture command are now enabled in Gantt Charts
Row and Date Selection when using Copy Picture and Save As Picture in Gantt Charts - When using the Copy Picture or Save As Picture command in a Gantt Chart you now have the option to copy the selected Rows and/or select a Date Range to copy
Fixed Overlapping Lines and Boxes in WBS Charts - There were instances where lines, boxes and/or shadows would overlap in a WBS Chart This was especially prevalent when using the Adjust for Page Breaks feature Now fixed
Simplified Line Widths - Instead of the many, and sometimes confusing, number of line width options, we now offer thin, medium and thick line widths only These are available for Box Borders, Callout Borders, Connector Lines in WBS Charts and Dependency Lines in Network Charts Dotted, Dashed and Dot-Dash lines are still available
In a WBS Chart, holding the Shift key down and dragging with your mouse will now create a New Task This is similar to a feature we had in our old WBS Chart Pro software
Fixed several instances where if you created a Task by entering Duration/Rem Dur/Act Dur/% Comp, etc it wouldn’t trigger the various other fields to be calculated correctly Now it does
In a WBS Chart if you had selected a Summary Task and selected the "List All" command to display its subordinates vertically, adding new tasks or making various other changes would not add these new tasks with the same arrangement Now fixed so it consistently lists Tasks under their respective Summary Task correctly
On certain machines running Windows 10, with WBS Schedule Pro closed, doubleclicking a wbs file would open the program but not open the file This has been fixed

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0024 (Jan 22, 2018)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0021 (May 11, 2017)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0020 (May 11, 2017)

Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0019:
Multiple Calendars - WBS Schedule Pro now supports multiple calendars. Create calendars with different workweek and workday configurations and assign them to the various tasks in your project. There are now 3 built-in calendars to help you get started. Select the Project tab and select the Calendars drop down arrow to select a calendar, create a new one or modify an existing one. There is also a Calendar Organizer for transferring calendars between projects and for setting a default calendar for all new projects.
Project-wide Default Calendar - Along with the ability to define multiple calendars is the ability to set one of these as the project-wide default. Set the Default Project Calendar in File-Options-Settings.
Calendar Day Repeating Patterns - You can now define a repeating pattern for any day in your calendar. This is great for defining Holidays in your project once and having it repeat throughout the project.
Gantt Chart changes - There are now additional fields that can be displayed around Task Bars. Text within a Task bar now resizes the bar. Text within a Task bar can now extend beyond the bar and includes an option to “clip text” if you don’t want text to extend beyond the bar. Adding Milestone Text now has a different dialog more relevant to Milestones. Alignment of text around a Task bar or Milestone Symbol is now relative to the bar/symbol.
In a Gantt Chart Timescale there was not a setting to display the Day number (1,2,3,etc), only the day count from the project start. There is now an option to display the day number.
Exporting Outline Level to MS Word & Excel recalculated the values and started with 0 at the top which did not match the Outline Levels as displayed in WBS Schedule Pro. Now fixed to match the Outline Levels as displayed.
Unlinking from MS Project would sometimes display the message “Encountered Improper Argument” and then fail. Now fixed.
Certain quote characters in the Notes field would cause the Word Export to fail. Now fixed.
If you applied a filter in MS Project, created a chart in WBS Schedule Pro and then selected the MS Word Export it would export the entire project and not the filtered tasks. This is now fixed so that it exports only the filtered items to MS Word.
If the Word Export failed or needed to display a message we weren’t handling this well. This message might not appear or it would lock the temporary text file and you couldn’t run the Word Export again. We now handle Word Export errors better.
Added an option to the Word export to omit Summary Tasks when exporting.
In a Network Chart if you had a Text Box or Linked Text Box selected and Inserted a Task or Pasted a Task the program would react in unpredictable ways. In a WBS Chart, only Pasting a Task would cause problems. Both of these have been fixed.
In various places, if you were editing a cell and clicked outside of that cell without accepting the edits it could cause problems. This is now fixed so the edits are handled properly when clicking elsewhere.
Upgrading to Project 2016 and not re-configuring Project 2016 would display the message “...can’t communicate with MS Project, there may be a Report or Graph selected..." This is only partially true. It could be that Project needs to be re-configured by running the MS Project Setup from within WBS Schedule Pro. The message has been changed to say "... can't communicate with MS Project because it may need to be configured OR there may a Report or Graph selected..."
In a WBS or Network Chart if you zoomed by holding the CTRL key and scrolling with the Mouse Scroll Wheel the zoom factor was not being saved which meant that the next edit to the chart would reset to the last used Zoom. The Zoom factor is now remembered when using the CTRL+ Mouse Scroll Wheel combination.
When creating charts from MS Project plans, Text fields were Read-Only. Now they are Read-Write if there is no Lookup Table and Read-Only if there is a Lookup Table since we can’t manage MS Project’s Lookup Tables.
When creating plans from the German version of MS Project the Start and Finish dates were incorrectly displayed in WBS Schedule Pro. This is because requesting the Start and Finish fields in English would incorrectly return the Schedule Start and Scheduled Finish dates. We now request the Start and Finish fields in German which fixes the problem. If you are using a non-English version of MS Project and the Start and Finish dates are not displayed correctly in WBS Schedule Pro, contact us and we will fix it. We have many, but not all, non-English versions of Project so would need to find out how your Start and Finish fields are displayed in your version of MS Project.
The drop down lists in File-Options-Settings would allow edits which wouldn’t work. Now they are Display-Only drop down options.
There is now a Custom… option when you Right-Click the WBS and Network Charts and select Zoom.
Several Quick Access Toolbar commands were missing icons. Icons are now present for the most popular commands.
In the Format tab of the Gantt Charts, Tooltips were added when hovering over the icons on the Ribbon.
You can now Right-Click in WBS and Network Charts and select the Modify Styles commands. This can be quicker than selecting the Format tab.
Transferring a Standalone WBS Schedule Pro chart to MS Project where a Text field contains greater than 255 characters would cause MS Project to import nothing into that field. Now, when sending large Text fields to MS Project it truncates to 252 characters and adds … to the end to indicate a truncated field since Project can’t handle more than 255 characters in a Text field.
The old PERT Chart EXPERT software was not saving the Ungrouped command so opening a file saved in PERT Chart EXPERT would always open Grouped. Now WBS Schedule Pro opens an Ungrouped PERT Chart EXPERT file as Ungrouped.
When Unlinking from a MS Project plan the Status field would disappear. Now fixed.

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0019 (May 11, 2017)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0018 (May 25, 2016)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0017 (Apr 12, 2016)

The WBS Schedule Pro setup files are now signed with a new Digital Signature to allow for successful downloads from Internet Explorer 11 and Edge in Windows 10.
When creating charts in WBS Schedule Pro with certain Microsoft Project plans it would stop in WBS Schedule Pro and display the message "Microsoft Project is exporting additional data" in the lower left corner of the screen. Now fixed. WBS Schedule Pro now defaults to NOT exporting this additional data which allows these MS Project plans to be displayed. See Help in File-Options-Advanced for a detailed explanation.
Added compatibility for the Simplified Chinese version of Microsoft Project. Before this, only the Traditional Chinese version of MS Project was supported.
Added compatibility for the Portuguese (Portugal) version of Microsoft Project. Before this, only the Portuguese (Brazil) version of MS Project was supported.
Added an Advanced tab in File-Options for various program settings. See Help within the Advanced tab for an explanation of these settings.
Now includes an AutoRecovery feature. This automatically saves current open projects to temporary files in the event WBS Schedule Pro shuts down unexpectedly. When this happens, WBS Schedule Pro will restart and display the last autosaved versions. This is not an AutoSave feature where the files are automatically saved to their given filenames but an AutoRecovery system to restore files that were present when the program shut down. Set the time between AutoRecovery saves in File-Options-Advanced.
You can now turn off the Tooltips that are displayed when you hover over a Task or Link. This option is in File-Options-Advanced.
When importing a file from Excel to WBS Schedule Pro or from a Text file into WBS Schedule Pro, a blank line would be turned into a Task. Now blank lines are ignored.
Fixed all instances where pressing F1 would display a â€œFailed to Launch Help message and then still display Help. This message no longer appears.
In Page Headers and Footers, if you highlighted all text in the Left or Right Header or Footer and pressed the Delete key it would put the text into the Center. Now fixed.
Fixed several instances where lines were not appearing when printing a Gantt Chart.
Added the ability to display Column Headers on each page of the Gantt Chart when selecting the "Header/Footer/Legend on Every Page" option in File-Page Setup-Chart.
From within WBS Schedule Pro, clicking Excel Setup adds the WBS Schedule Pro installation folder to the list of Trusted Locations to allow the Excel Wizard to work with Windows 10 without additional user intervention.
When printing a single digit page number in a Header or Footer it would print every other page number. Now fixed.

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0016 (Apr 12, 2016)

01) Version: 5.1.0017
02) Version: 5.1.0016
When going from Microsoft Project to WBS Schedule Pro we fixed several instances where the message "Encountered Improper Argument" was displayed and no chart appeared. This was a major inconvenience that is now fixed! This issue was difficult to pinpoint but we are happy to report it is finally fixed. Sorry to those affected.
If a project is Grouped by something other than Outline, you can now rearrange Group Headers in the Network Chart by right-clicking on a Group Header and selecting Move Group Up or Move Group Down. This works great when Grouped by the Text fields or Resource Names in a Network Chart and you need to rearrange the order of these Groups.
The Goto Task feature (the Goto button or Ctrl-G) would not select the correct task if you were Grouped by something other than Outline or if you were displaying a chart from MS Project that included hidden tasks. Goto now selects the proper task under all circumstances.
The Print Layout option is now enabled in Network Charts. This had been disabled while we worked on a fix.
Trace is no longer saved On in the Network Chart View. This avoids the situation where Trace is applied when opening a New project. Trace is also removed and all Tasks are shown if the Traced Tasks are deleted or become hidden. Traced Tasks are also updated better when links have been modified in MS Project and you return to a Traced Network Chart.
With no Printer installed on the computer where WBS Schedule Pro is running, any attempt to Print, use Print Preview, open the Page Layout dialog or switch to Print Layout mode would cause problems. Although rare to have no printer installed, this issue is now fixed.
Under certain conditions, WBS Schedule Pro wrongly displayed the message "Microsoft Project has not been configured to enable WBS Schedule Pro to seamlessly exchange information. Would you like to Configure MS Project?". We now display the correct error message depending on the situation.
Notes can no longer be entered into Text Boxes. The Text Boxes used to annotate WBS and Network Charts are not Tasks and cannot store Notes data. Before this fix, Notes were being stored in the Project Summary Task (Task 0) which will now stop happening.
Fixed compatibility issues with Project 98, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007. WBS Schedule Pro now works better with these versions of Microsoft Project.

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0015 (Jan 26, 2016)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0014 (Nov 2, 2015)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0011 (Oct 21, 2015)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.1.0010 (Oct 10, 2015)

New in WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) 5.0.0724 (Jul 30, 2014)

Combined WBS Chart Pro and PERT Chart EXPERT:
WBS Schedule Pro combines the features of WBS Chart Pro (for creating WBS charts) and PERT Chart EXPERT (for creating Network charts) plus adds many new and exciting features to make it a complete, full-featured project planning application.
New User Interface:
WBS Schedule Pro contains an all new user interface complete with dockable Panes (see below) and a new Ribbon instead of a Toolbar. On the Ribbon, common commands can be found on the Home tab, program-wide settings on the View tab, Project-wide settings on the Project tab and to modify settings of the current View, select the Format tab (the options under Format change based on the View you have selected.
Tasks Pane, Views Pane and Notes Panes:
The three Panes on the left side of the screen make working with your project easier by displaying certain data in addition to the main chart on the screen. The Tasks Pane is a Directory-style listing of Task Names in your project. The Views Pane lists the various Views to display your chart in various styles and the Notes Pane is useful for editing the Notes field in a project.
Task Sheet View:
Used for displaying data in a Spreadsheet-style view. Customize the Task Sheet by Inserting or Hiding the Columns to display the information you need to see.
Multiple Hierarchies (Grouping):
Display various breakdowns of your project using many different fields. This feature is called Grouping. A "Grouped" WBS chart is a top-down representation of the different levels of a project. A Grouped Network chart displays horizontal bands across the page to represent the various levels of a project. A Grouped Task Sheet uses an Indented list to represent the various levels. See Groups and Outlining Defined
Support for the Notes field:
The Notes field allows you to enter extensive descriptive text for a task. You can access the Notes field by doubleclicking a task, by displaying the Notes field in a Task Sheet or by using the Notes Pane.
Annotate WBS and Network Charts:
Add free-form Text Boxes to the WBS or Network Charts. This feature is useful for displaying information in a chart that can be placed anywhere in a chart. You can optionally link the Text Box to a task or to multiple tasks. Right-click in the chart or over a task to add the Text Box.
Create a WBS Dictionary via the MS Word Export:
Export a WBS Schedule Pro project to Microsoft Word and merge into a pre-defined WBS Dictionary. Several templates are provided or you can create your own.
Exporting to Excel:
Export to Microsoft Excel using the Excel Wizard. Specify the fields you wish to export and the resulting Excel spreadsheet is nicely formatted complete with indenting and grouping. If you have ever exported your MS Project plans to Excel you may have noticed that the Indenting is lost in the Excel file. Exporting WBS Schedule Pro files to Excel maintains the indenting of the tasks and clearly displays Summary Tasks and Tasks with proper indenting.
Importing from Excel:
Import hierarchical data into WBS Schedule Pro from Excel. Use a variety of hierarchical data to create breakdowns of projects or anything that needs to be displayed in a hierarchical format.
Additional ways to Link Tasks:
Create links (dependencies between tasks) in any View using a variety of techniques. Use the Link button on the Ribbon to link the selected tasks. Select a group of tasks (Ctrl-click) and select the "One to Many" option to link the active task (with the red box) to the other selected tasks. Select the "Many to One" option to link the selected tasks to the active one.
Multiple task selection:
Select multiple tasks in a chart to set certain attributes on all selected tasks at once.
Box Style Attributes Combined:
Define how tasks are displayed in the chart by combining styles. In prior versions you could define how a Critical Task was displayed or how a task is displayed when the Flag field was set but you could not combine these. Now, for example, you could define that the task's shadow displays the Critical Path information but that the interior color of the task displays using a Flag field.
Date Pickers:
Select dates in certain date fields from a drop-down calendar.
Value and Pick Lists:
Define value and pick lists for Text and Outline Code fields.
Spell Checker: Click the Spell check toolbar button or press F7 to start the Spell check.
Copy Picture:
Use the Copy Picture command to paste charts into other applications instead of using Save As Picture. These are a higher quality image then the other available options and are scalable.
Save As Picture to a .EMF file:
This scalable format is better for pasting chart images into other applications such as Word or PowerPoint.
More Colors:
More Colors available in the color picker in addition to allowing unlimited custom colors.