Primavera P6 has a rather involved process of adding notebook topics to the Gantt chart, but if you are looking for a quick way to annotate the Gantt chart then read on.
Let’s say you have a set of notes that you want to track across Enterprise Project Structure, Project, Work Breakdown Structure, and Activity views in addition to displaying them on the Gantt chart. If this is the case then you may want to familiarize yourself with Primavera P6’s notebook topics, and how to display them on the Gantt chart. Check out our previous blog showing this “Assigning Notepad Labels to Primavera P6 Gantt Chart Bars”.
However, if all you want to do is insert a label or note directly to the Gantt chart, then there is a much simpler way to do this. Primavera P6’s Attachments feature allows you to quickly add text or curtains to the Gantt chart. A curtain is a vertical shaded area on the Gantt chart used to draw attention to one or more periods.
This article describes briefly, a straight forward approach to adding labels and/or curtains directly to the Gantt chart.
In Figure 1 we have a sample project listing activity information in the activity view and displaying activities and their relationships on the Gantt chart.
Figure 1
Suppose we want to add a few details further describing the Mobilize activity on the Gantt chart. To do this simply highlight the Mobilize activity and select View | Attachments > Text. Up will pop a Text Attachment dialog box also displaying the Activity ID of the associated activity, Figure 2.
Figure 2
Before you begin typing in your text note, set the Font using the Font button. Now type in your text, which for our example is “Set up office Space, post schedule, and acquire drawings”. A text box labeled with the activity ID will appear on the Gantt chart. Click on the edge of the box until arrows appear, and then make the text box the appropriate length, Figure 3.
Figure 3
Now to locate the text box to your desired location, hover over the text until a hand appears, and move as you wish. In our example we move the text to the right of the activity ID, Mobilize, Figure 4.
Figure 4
And that’s it! You’re done!
Because we are highlighting the attachments feature lets show another simple yet cool feature associated with this tool, curtains. Suppose you wanted to highlight a blackout period during the winter when no work can be performed because of the cold weather. You can highlight this period with a curtain. Select View | Attachments > Curtain > Add Curtain. P6 automatically adds a curtain and displays the Curtain Attachment dialog, Figure 5.
Figure 5
The first setting to note in the Curtain Attachment dialog is the Display curtain Attachment toggle. If you uncheck this toggle and click OK, the curtain will disappear. So if you want to remove a curtain left double click on the curtain to bring up the Curtain Attachment dialog, then simply uncheck the Display curtain attachment toggle and select OK. The delete button also appears in the Curtain Attachment dialog when you left double click on an inserted curtain.
Also note in the Curtain Attachment dialog that you can set the start and finish date of the curtains, as well as, the color and fill pattern. After closing the Curtain Attachment dialog you may change the start and finish date by hovering for example the cursor over the finish date line until a double arrow appears, Figure 6.
Figure 6
You may also move the whole curtain along the timeline by left clicking on the curtain and dragging when the helpful hand appears, Figure 7.
Figure 7
Note: text annotations and Curtains can be saved into your current layout using the View | Layout | Save Layout… menu option.
Summary
You do not have to involve yourself with the intricacies of notebook topics if all you want to do is add a text label to the Gantt chart.
The attachments feature is the fastest way to add text to the Gantt chart. Select your preferred font and move the text to the desired location on the Gantt chart. Also included in the attachments feature are curtains, which are a nice way to highlight blocks of time on the Gantt chart. Choose a light color for your curtain and you can easily view overlaid text on the curtain.