For people new to using Primavera P6 Professional, learning what information the myriad data columns can provide can be a little daunting. Fear not, help is at hand.
Hint Help is a neat little tool built into Primavera P6 Professional that gives detailed information about the columns and fields you see displayed in on the interface. So if you ever find yourself wondering how a particular column calculates its data, Hint Help is a quick way to find out.
Go to the View menu and locate the Hint Help option; or if you prefer shortcut keys, Alt+F1 will also switch on this feature.
This is a toggle switch that invokes a handy popup. Whenever you place the cursor over a particular column of field, Hint Help will display a yellow box with details about the values displayed therein.
For example, if you’d been wondering how best to use the Activity % Complete field, or how it differs from the Units, Physical or Duration Percent Complete fields, hovering over the field will prompt you with an explanation.
There’s also a push-pin icon in the corner of the popup that allows you to lock down the position of the Hint Help popup, controlling where it appears on your screen. And it doesn’t have to be within the Primavera P6 Professional window either.
Hint Help can also be invoked from within the Columns dialog using the Available Options drop-down menu.
A good way to educate yourself about the different data columns in Primavera P6 is to switch on Hint Help in the Columns dialog, then Group and Sort by List in the Available Columns area. As you walk down the list, Hint Help gives you an explanation for each of the fields. Keep in mind that not all fields have a Hint Help entry. This is because they are either a user defined field, code field or a very self-explanatory field that didn’t warrant an entry.
So whenever you find yourself wondering what a particular Primavera P6 column of data is; remember to hit the Alt+F1 key for an explanation.
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