How does a scheduler add curtains for holiday shutdowns on the Gantt chart? Let’s take a look.
Schedulers can add curtains to the Gantt chart to display non-working periods that document delays caused by permits, other external dependencies and holiday shutdowns. These curtains are static and do not affect task start and finish dates. They are helpful to document past periods of non-work days that had a material effect on the schedule outcome.
The curtains are a useful utility for better presenting the schedule’s past and current state. For upcoming holiday shutdowns, they more clearly highlight these non-work periods to help the project manager anticipate, assess, and plan for future construction downtime.
The scheduler prints a hard copy of the schedule or generates a PDF for distribution, or embeds the PDF as an object in a PowerPoint slide for presentations. Either printing a hard copy or making a PDF file requires a basic understanding of how to print the schedule. Some of the basic elements of printing a schedule are discussed in the following article:
It is also beneficial to understand the sizing of the activity table and Gantt chart for printouts. Refer to the following article for help sizing and printing a view of the activity table and Gantt chart on an 11×17 sheet of paper.
On the Gantt chart, light gray shading indicates the non-work days. But I find that this light gray shading does not provide sufficient contrast to clearly distinguish non-work times from standard work days in the schedule. Hence, the need for Holiday curtains.
This article demonstrates how to add and edit viewable curtains to better present holiday shutdowns.
Demonstration
In Figure 1, we have our demonstration P6 Professional schedule.
This schedule has a 4×10 calendar including holiday shutdowns. These non-work periods on the calendar are highlighted in light gray shading.
Published Schedule
We proceed to publish this schedule: first, we create a preview; second, we print to PDF. Figure 2 shows a print preview of the schedule, with holiday shutdowns highlighted in light gray.
In the print preview, Figure 2, identifying the shutdowns is difficult due to insufficient contrast with the work periods.
We generated a PDF of this print preview and displayed it in Figure 3.
In Figure 3 of the published PDF, the shutdowns are again difficult to distinguish from regular workdays due to poor contrast between the light gray curtain and the background.
Contrast Holiday Shutdowns
We want to insert curtains to better distinguish these holiday shutdowns. We plan to overlay these curtains on top of the holidays’ non-work shutdown periods. When doing so, we apply colors to better contrast shutdown periods with regular work days.
Including Timestamps
When adding curtains, it is helpful to display an AM/PM timestamp. This ensures our curtains align well with the start and end times of each shutdown. Click Edit | User Preferences, and as in Figure 4, (1) click the Dates page, (2) toggle the user Time (of day) preference to display and (3) view the Sample to confirm the timestamp is active.
Adding a Curtain
Curtains are inserted directly onto the Gantt chart. In Figure 5, we right-click anywhere on the Gantt chart for a pop-up menu of Gantt chart-related tools to appear (see numbered “1” star stamp).
Next, we perform a series of left-clicks, indicated by sequentially numbered circular stamps, on the Gantt chart in Figure 5. The final left-click (3) in Figure 5 adds a curtain. Note the AM/PM timestamp for milestone tasks, as timestamps apply to all date labels.
Specifying Curtain Details
In Figure 6, we perform several clicks to (1) set the start and (2) set the finish dates of the curtains, (3) select the fill pattern, (4) modify its color, (5) choose the periwinkle color from the palette of basic colors, (6) click OK to exit the color palette, (7) click OK to complete insertion of the curtain with our settings.
Figure 7 shows our Thanksgiving holiday shutdown, shaded in blue (periwinkle).
Note also the light gray (poorly contrasted) shading for our December shutdown, Figure 7.
Adding Text Labels
We want to add a text label to our Thanksgiving holiday shutdown. To do this, we perform the series of left- and right-click operations in Figure 8.
In Figure 8, circular stamps represent left-clicks and star stamps represent right-clicks. We proceed and (1) left-click to select a task in the activity table, (2) move the cursor onto the Gantt chart, keeping the mouse in the same row as our selected activity-table task and right-clicking (see red star) for the pop-up menu to appear, (3) left-click Attachments, and (4) left-click Text. We continue in Figure 9 by typing the “Holiday Shutdown” label and clicking OK to insert it.
In Figure 10, we left-click this text box and drag it into position over the Thanksgiving holiday shutdown curtain.
Figure 11 showcases the Thanksgiving holiday shutdown with a label on the Gantt chart in P6 Professional.
Holiday Shutdown Publication
We proceed by publishing our task table and Gantt chart: first, generate a print preview, then export it to PDF.
Print Preview
Figure 12 shows a preview of the schedule, highlighting the Thanksgiving holiday shutdown curtain.
Observe the better contrast for November’s shutdown than December’s Shutdown. However, this is only a preview; we have not yet published the schedule.
Print to PDF
We continue and print the schedule to Adobe PDF, Figure 13.
Figure 14 displays the final PDF printout with the Thanksgiving holiday shutdown curtain.
What happened to our curtain? Adobe PDF converted the curtain’s fill pattern to a solid and painted it a darker shade of blue, Figure 14. This is not what we intended.
Modifying Curtain Details
The solid pattern is okay, but we want to adjust the curtain’s shading. In Figure 15, we left double-clicked on the Thanksgiving holiday shutdown curtain to edit its color shading.
In Figure 16, the Curtain Attachment dialogue, we (1) click the color field, (2) in basic colors, choose the periwinkle color, (3) move the vertical shading slider to make the color shading lighter, (4) click OK to exit the color dialogue and (5) click OK to update our curtain and exit the curtain attachment dialogue.
Figure 17 is a Gantt chart view in P6 Professional, showing the Thanksgiving shutdown with a lighter shaded periwinkle curtain.
It appears somewhat on the light side of shading. But we learned from experience that the PDF will become darker. There is some trial and error with this procedure to achieve an acceptable color shading for our curtains in the published PDF.
Figure 18 displays the resulting PDF output, which appears to have acceptable curtain shading, and the curtain’s label is readable.
In Figure 18 (P6 Professional screenshot), we updated the Gantt chart to include our December holiday shutdown.
Curtains Final Publication
We print the Gantt chart (with tweaked curtains) to PDF, then insert (or embed) the PDF as an object into Microsoft PowerPoint for use in a stakeholder presentation.
PDF Printout
Figure 20 shows the final PDF printout with holiday shutdowns; it looks good.
PowerPoint Slide Presentation
Figure 21 displays a Microsoft PowerPoint slide with the holiday shutdown PDF file inserted as an object.
Embedding the PDF into PowerPoint slightly darkened the curtains, but their graphics are still presentable.
Contrast Demonstration Conclusion
We now have the schedule with well-contrasted holiday shutdown curtains in PDF format for distribution and in PowerPoint for presentation. Achieving a suitable color shading requires some trial and error. We found the PDF darkens the shading; the preview appears lighter than the PDF and the PowerPoint slide.
Summary
Schedulers can include labeled curtains with suitable color shading to contrast non-work periods with working days. Make sure to update the user preferences to timestamp the date and ensure the curtain start and finish dates are precisely aligned with these non-work periods.
Remember that Adobe converts curtain fill to solid and tends to darken the shading. A solid pattern is acceptable, but adjust the vertical shading slider in the Color dialog to achieve an appropriate lighting effect. Last, add a text label and position it as suitable to identify each holiday shutdown, permit delay or other external dependency delay. For further contrasting of non-work periods, see the following article on showing calendar non-work time and activity non-work intervals, with task-bar narrow-necking.