If you cannot produce a legible schedule report for your stakeholders, your scheduling software has limited value to them. Primavera P6 Professional supports report fonts, but you will have to know where to look to change these fonts.
Yes, it is possible in Primavera P6 Professional to change the report fonts for activities, work breakdown structure (WBS) elements, headers, and legends. But finding where to change these report fonts in P6 is much like finding hidden software Easter eggs. Report fonts in P6 are not intuitively located.
This article provides quick tips on where to look to make respective activity table and Gantt chart report font adjustments in Primavera P6 Professional.
The following is a list of Activities Table and Gantt chart report text items and where to go to change the associated fonts:
Activities Table
WBS Elements – WBS elements are your deliverables, which are the whole purpose for the project. Obviously changing the look and feel of WBS elements is imperative. Changing the font of WBS elements is done in one place; the group and sort dialog, Figure 1.
Figure 1
Note the font & color column in the group by frame. It is possible to specify a separate font and background color for each level of the WBS. The assumption here is that you are grouping by WBS levels. Of course whatever you specify as your group by parameter becomes the object of the group and sort font feature.
Activities – Activities describe the work required to produce the deliverables. Again, adjusting the activity fonts is important for the look and feel of your stakeholder’s schedule report. To find activity font features select View | Table Font and Row. The Table Font and Row dialog, Figure 2, will change the text font and background color of all activities and Gantt chart labels together.
Figure 2
So Table Font and Row has significant leverage over the look and feel of the schedule, and it’s found in the view drop down menu.
Column Headers – If you want to change the font of your activity table column headings don’t right click on any column header. A menu appears when you right click on any column header, but it is unhelpful. Included in that popup menu is the Table Font and Row feature, which does not support column header fonts. So intuitively right clicking on the activity table column headers is not the way to find features for adjusting column header fonts. Instead right click anywhere on the Gantt chart. Up pops a menu with a Timescale option. Select Timescale to access the Timescale dialog, where a button to change fonts is front and center, Figure 3.
Figure 3
You may be asking, but I want to change the activities table column headings? Well, the timescale font is your one stop shop to change the font of both the Gantt chart timescale labeling and activities table column headings. So when you want to change activity table column headings think timescale.
Gantt Chart
Activity Labeling – The Gantt chart activity labeling is tied to the same font feature for changing the font of activity text in the activities table. Again, it is found by selecting View | Table Font and Row, Figure 2.
Summary Bar Labeling
The Table Font and Row feature, Figure 2, also changes the font of Gantt chart summary group name labeling.
Timescale
As mentioned above fonts of the timescale labeling and activity table column headings are specified in the same place; the timescale dialog, Figure 3
Legend
The feature to change the printable legend fonts is a well-hidden software Easter egg. Select File | Page Setup, Figure 4.
Figure 4
Select either the Header or the Footer tab. Both headers and footers can be divided up in your desired number of sections. In any section select the options menu. In Figure 4 we select the options menu for section 1 and choose Gantt Chart Legend. When you select Gantt Chart Legend a font button magically appears, Figure 5.
Figure 5
This mysterious font button allows you to change the font of text in the printable Gantt Chart Legend. Again, this is for adjusting the font of the printable legend.
To view a nonprintable Gantt chart legend on the screen interface you must right click on the Gantt chart and choose Bar Chart Options, and select the General tab and toggle on show legend. The fonts in this legend are specified in the View | Table Font and Row feature. The same feature used to change the activity fonts and Gantt chart labels.
Summary
Once you have located all the hidden software Easter egg font features, you will find that Primavera P6 Professional’s support of schedule report text fonts is sufficient for producing a legible activity table and Gantt chart report. A topic of discussion for another day is Primavera P6 Professional’s report wizard, and associated fonts.