Introduction
This paper gives the business and technical overview of Seavus Project Viewer for Mac: the benefits of the application, and a description of its features and functions.
Seavus Project Viewer is a complete viewer for Microsoft Project files that supports cooperation in projects where stakeholders need to view and share project information. It is a fast, lightweight standalone application that reads the native .mpp format and does not require a previous installation of Microsoft Project on the user's computer.
Who uses it
Users of Microsoft Project plans divide into those who create and modify them, such as the project manager, and those who only need to review and analyze the information in plans others prepared.
The viewer is built for the second group. Keeping a competitive price while offering complete, high-quality features reduces license costs substantially, and brings in the many users who were fed project information through file exports or printed plans because a full Microsoft Project license was too costly or complex. They can now work with the same information as the rest of the project.
The viewers are:
- Team members — responsible for many of the day-to-day activities scheduled in one or more projects they are assigned to, who frequently look at their assignments to follow the schedule
- Executives — responsible for one or more projects, such as a department or region, who need visibility into all of them to determine overall status and confirm the work aligns with strategic goals
- External project stakeholders — vendors, distributors, suppliers, subcontractors and customers from other organizations who are involved directly or indirectly and need to review their assignments or follow the overall status
Analysis shows that the number of viewers is much greater than the number of authors.
Supported file format
The native .mpp format is supported in the versions saved by Microsoft Project 2016, 2013, 2010 and 2007.
Microsoft Project 2016
The 2016 edition views, analyzes and prints project files created in Microsoft Project 2016, in addition to every previous version from Project 2007 onward. The user sees the same visual effects as in Project 2016, including the new Gantt bar styles for auto-scheduled and manually scheduled tasks, the inactive task style, and the bar style colours and fonts.
Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.11 “El Capitan” is supported, in addition to 10.10 “Yosemite” and 10.9 “Mavericks”.
Supported views
The standard views available by default in Microsoft Project are supported: Gantt Chart, Task Sheet, Resource Sheet and Team Planner. Their presentation fully matches Microsoft Project, so any stakeholder sees the same project information as the project manager.
Graphical reports
The viewer adds visual reports and dashboards for reading the health of the plan: upcoming tasks, tasks behind schedule and critical tasks for team members; task and resource costs against the budget, and project status through the burndown reports, for team leads and stakeholders.
The reports are grouped as:
- Dashboard — Cost Overview, Project Overview, Upcoming Task, Work Overview
- Resources — Resource Overview
- Cost — Cost Overruns, Resource Cost Overview, Task Cost Overview
Opening XML files
Plans can be saved in XML instead of .mpp, which lets project managers publish project information to web pages or corporate intranets, or send the same file by email to the team. The viewer recognises the format, opens the plan and displays all details as in the original plan.
User interface
The interface closely matches Microsoft Project, so it requires no additional training and flattens the learning curve for anyone with experience of, or training in, Microsoft Project. The goal is to reduce the cost of the project management solution, and to value the organization's investment in its people with a product that does not ask for extra training to start using it.
Online help
Because of its low cost, the viewer reaches many users who previously reviewed project information in exported files or on paper. For them, and as reference for any user, the application includes an extensive help manual integrated with it. It provides reference information for menus and views, and overviews and best-use scenarios for a particular view or function, so users with no Microsoft Project experience can learn how to use the product and the best ways to use its functionality.
Performance
- Files up to 1 MB in less than 3 seconds
- Files up to 10 MB in less than 20 seconds
- Large
.mppfiles up to 10 GB
Actual limits and performance depend on the computer's configuration, and out-of-memory errors may occur before the listed limits.
The paper's platform note for these figures names Windows 2000 Professional SP3, Windows XP SP1, Vista and 7 — a leftover from the Windows edition. The current System Requirements document is the authority on supported platforms.
Improved relationship with customers
Users can email Seavus support directly from the application or start a chat with a support officer, and can send proposals, suggestions or comments on new features from a dialog form inside the application.
Basic functionality
Views
Views present a subset of the information the project manager enters in Microsoft Project in a particular format. That subset is stored in the .mpp file and can be displayed in any view that calls for it, and the viewer supports an extensive list of standard and user-defined views.
Before distributing a plan, project managers often format the view — highlighting milestones, changing task bar colours to match corporate standards, or changing field titles to the organization's terminology. That formatting is saved in the same .mpp file, and the viewer reads it on opening, showing the same formatting and visual styles as Microsoft Project.
Tables
Both the predefined Microsoft Project task and resource tables and user-defined tables created by the project manager are available, so a view can show only the fields wanted. The table associated with the active view is changed from the application menus. Users can edit or create their own tables, or manipulate the active table directly and insert, modify or remove fields from its columns.
Printing
Views and reports can be printed with the exact information wanted. A Print Preview window shows the view or report first, and page setup options set orientation, scale, paper size and margins, plus view- or report-specific options: print a legend on each page, print the first three columns of the table on each page, print notes for tasks and resources, or enter a header and footer for the plan.
Outlining
Outlining options show information in task and assignment views such as the Gantt Chart, Task Sheet and Resource Usage. The names of child tasks can be indented below a summary task, the outline symbol and number shown, and an outline level chosen to expand or hide the tasks at that level.
Sorting
Tasks and resources can be sorted with the predefined options — tasks by start date, priority and others; resources by name, cost and others — or with custom sort criteria.
Zoom and sizing
Zoom in and out changes the timescale resolution, and the Zoom To dialog sets a resolution in days, weeks or months. Timescale units can be resized by dragging the separator lines between the bottom time tiers, and rows or columns can be resized by dragging the sizing grips, or auto-fitted to their content by double-clicking a grip on a column header.
Information dialogs
Project, task, resource and assignment information dialogs show scheduling options and other information, including notes. They match their counterparts in Microsoft Project.
Additional features
Filters
All standard task filters and resource filters available by default in Microsoft Project are supported. Project managers can create a new filter or modify an existing one by customizing its criteria in Microsoft Project, and those new filters and customizations are available in the viewer too. AutoFilter adds filter criteria to each field in the table separately.
Shared resource pools
When a project whose resources are shared in a resource pool file is opened, the viewer loads task information from the project file and resource and assignment information from the resource pool file. When opening a project that uses a resource pool, the viewer lets the user choose whether to load the pool, and the precedence of shared resources over local ones with the same name.
Master projects, subprojects and external tasks
Opening a master project loads all of its inserted subprojects. Inserted projects are marked in the Indicators column, and pointing at the icon shows a tooltip with the location of the subproject file.
Tasks from different subprojects can be linked into predecessor/successor dependencies. Opening one of the subprojects shows all predecessor tasks from other subprojects next to the local tasks, with a different bar or box style and font — grey, for example — so they are visually distinct. With the external tasks shown, the viewer draws the links between them and the local task, giving a more realistic view of the whole set of tasks and their dependencies.
Supported languages
The application is translated into English, German, French, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese (Brazil) and Chinese (Simplified). The order of languages is set in Language & Text preferences: if the first language in the list is not available, the next one is used.
Upgrades and technical support
The company runs a Customer Support Centre for any help customers need with Seavus Project Viewer. It can be reached through the contact form on seavusprojectviewer.com, by email at [email protected], or by telephone on 888-573-2887 (toll free) for the USA, and +46 40 645 9956 or +389 2 3253 606 for Europe. Standard working hours are Monday to Sunday, 8:00 AM to 12:00 AM CET / 2:00 AM to 6:00 PM EST.