Input of Schedules

MinuteManPlus can accept schedule data from a spreadsheet-format file. This is useful if you have created basic task information using a spreadsheet. Also, this allows you to port schedules to MinuteManPlus from other programs that support spreadsheet-format outputs (See Microsoft Project further in this section.)

MinuteManPlus accepts schedules in comma-delimited text file format, which as an industry standard has ".CSV" as a file extension.

In order to input a spreadsheet file, use the usual IMPORT button in the main Project Summary view. When the dialog box appears, in the field for "File of Type" select "Comma Delimited Spreadsheet files" and then browse and select the desired file.

MinuteManPlus requires that some minimal information be present in the file in order to create a meaningful schedule. Following is a description of the format expected.

Summary;

The file must be comma-delimited text. The first line must have Titles ("Fields") corresponding to the data in each column. The expected fields are described below. MinuteManPlus will ignore fields and columns beyond the ones described below. (i.e extra columns won't prevent the file from being read.) Each line after the first line will correspond to the data for a single task. There may be up to 200 tasks entered.

Following is a detail description of the file requirements; The following verification rules are applied to any imported spreadsheet file. If any of these conditions are not met the whole file will be rejected.

Overall

1. Only comma-delimited files are accepted
2. The first line must include Field Names.
3. The program will use Field Names from the following list; Description, Start Date, Start Time, End Date, End Time, Duration, Predecessors
4. Spelling of Field names must be exactly as above. Field names are not case-sensitive.
5. The listed Field names may appear in any order or position in the first line.
6. Some of the Field Names are Mandatory. Others are Optional; the program will attempt to compute missing optional Field Names. See the description "For Each record"
7. Other field names may be present but they will be ignored.

For Each Task Record

1. Each Task shall be on one line with comma-delimited data Fields corresponding to the Field Names in the file's First Line
2. There must be at least one Record in a file.
3. There can be no more than 200 Records in a file.
4. Each Record must have a Description and Start Date
5. If a Start Time is not specified, the Start Time is set to the first working hour of the specified Start Date
6. If an End Date is Specified but not an End Time, the End Time is set to last working hour of the specified.

End Date

1. If an End Date is specified, the Duration (in days) will be calculated from the Start Date/Time and End Date/Time
2. If a Duration is specified but no End Date is specified, the End Date/Time will be calculated from the Duration and the Start Date/Time
3. The Description shall be any text. Descriptions longer than 50 characters will be truncated.
4. Start Date and (if present) End Date shall be a date only (not including time) and shall be compliant with Windows usage.
5. The Start Time and (if present) End Time shall be 12-HR AM/PM format i.e. "8:00 AM", "11:00PM".