MerlinUserGuide

MERLIN
The Quick Start Guide
to professional project management

© 2009 ProjectWizards GmbH, Melle, Germany. All rights reserved.

INTRODUCTION
Welcome to the quick start guide to Merlin!
Thank you for choosing the leading software solution for project management on the Mac.
This document will introduce you to the basic functionality of Merlin.

System requirements
To run Merlin you need an Apple Macintosh computer with G4 processor and Mac OS X 10.4.9
or newer. We highly recommend the latest version of Mac OS X 10.6.

Merlin Free Trial
The free trial of Merlin allows you to try it out for an unlimited period of time. This is a fully-
functional version that supports projects containing up to 40 activities. For projects
consisting of more than 40 activities, certain functionality is disabled such as saving,
printing, exporting and publishing a project.

Merlin Quick Guide. © 2009 ProjectWizards GmbH, Melle, Germany. All rights reserved. 2

HELP AND SUPPORT
For assistance and support please visit our website:

‣ www.projectwizards.net

We also invite you to take advantage of these additional support resources:

‣ Merlin 2 help

‣ Google groups (in English and German)

Or contact our support team directly:
support@projectwizards.net


INSTALLING THE LICENSE

Contact our support team directly:
support@projectwizards.net


STARTING MERLIN
When launching Merlin, the welcome screen opens with the following options.
Please select one of them:

‣ view the Merlin tutorial

‣ open an existing project

‣ create a new project from a template

‣ create an empty project

You also have the following options:

‣ check for Merlin updates at startup

‣ decide what is displayed when launching
Merlin, e. g. your most recent projects


MERLIN 2 - THE MAIN WINDOW

Views Icons
select a view from the for frequently used
main content area functions

Outline Gantt Chart The Inspector
context sensitive
control of all your
Main content area
project items
this is where you work
on your projects!

Supplementary
field
Configure the main content area for resources and
organize, enlarge, reduce and overview planning conflicts

THE INSPECTOR
The Inspector lets you take control of all kinds of objects used in Merlin.
All selectable objects in Merlin can be viewed with the Inspector. The Inspector covers:

‣ projects
‣ activities
Tabs
‣ resources
‣ elements
‣ dependencies

Simply click on the project* to open the Project Inspector. Each
Inspector includes several tabs that cover all available options.
* The project is always the topmost item in the outline.


VIEWS
Merlin oﬀers four project views:

‣ activities

‣ net plan

‣ resources

‣ utilization

Simply click on the corresponding buttons to navigate
between views.

Each view has its own structure which can be
conﬁgured by the user by altering its display options.


ACTIVITIES
The “Activities“ view is generally the most often used as you plan the majority of your projects. To
accomplish this, activities and allotments can be modiﬁed in both the outline and in the bar chart. You can
fully customize your column settings based on the information you would like to display and edit in the
outline view. You can also deﬁne numerous column sets, which can be individually saved for future
reference. Simply right click on the columns to customize them.

Merlin‘s standard columns


NET PLAN
The “Net Plan“ view provides a clear and fully-editable visualization of the logical links and
structure of your project from beginning to end.


RESOURCES
The “Resources“ view helps you manage all resources available and assigned to the project.
A resource may consist of one of the following types:
‣ person

‣ material

‣ company

‣ equipment


UTILIZATION
The “Utilization“ view contains a list of all resources assigned to a project. The diagram displays
the daily utilization value for the respective resource. This provides you an overview of the
utilization of every single resource and helps you detect and resolve potential resource overload.*

‣ Green:
Optimal utilization
‣ Yellow:
Suboptimal utilization
‣ Red:
overloading, something needs
to be done here!

*Utilization requirements for overloading and derating can be adjusted in the “Edit> Resource leveling > Leveling settings“ menu.


THE TOOLBAR
The toolbar provides immediate access to those Merlin functions used most often. With the
help of the following icons you will access key functionality very quickly:

‣ Publishing: retrieves the dialog for publications. [Command + Shift +P]

‣ Settings: retrieves the dialog for all project settings. [Command + Shift + , ]

‣ Library: toggles the display of the library window. [F3]

‣ Elements: toggles the display of the ﬁeld “elements”. [F2]

‣ Inspector: toggles the display of the inspector. [F1]


THE SUPPLEMENTARY FIELD
The supplementary field is divided into two areas, which can be modified by clicking on the title bar:

‣ Resources: all resources involved in the project are listed. Simply click the plus button to add new.
Activity resource assignments can then be established using a simple drag and drop from this area
onto the Gantt display or Activity outline.

‣ Scheduling Conflicts: alerts of potential conflicts in the timetable are displayed. By clicking on a
scheduling conflict entry, you automatically see the activity and the conflict associated with it.


THE ELEMENTS
The “Elements“ area is where you allocate your information during or after a project. Although not
displayed by default, the area can be viewed by clicking on the staple icon in the right part of the
toolbar, by pushing F2, or by selecting the “Window > Show Elements“ menu option. Elements can be
attached to activities, milestones, entire projects or resources.

Highlight an activity/resource/project to associate a new element with it. You may choose from the
following six element types:


MERLIN‘S WORKFLOW
In the following section, we will brieﬂy demonstrate how simple it is to create a project using
Merlin. Speciﬁcally, we are going to

• create a project structure
‣ design phases
‣ create milestones
‣ include activities
• create dependencies
• assign resources
• optimize resource utilization
• enter real data
• generate a milestone report
• send e-mails


A NEW PROJECT
A new project can be created on the
basis of a template.

For additional information for the selected
project template, click here.


FROM ZERO TO SIXTY IN ONE STEP...
Select from the
“File > New Empty Project“
menu or simply use the
shortcut [Command + Alt +
N].

The Library can be
extremely helpful to drag
and drop preset activities
to get you on your way…


USING THE LIBRARY
If you click on the icon the library opens.
Addressbook
Documents
General The library contains preset activities and groups of activities
Activities
that simplify and speed up the creation of a project.

The contents of the library can simply be dragged and dropped
to the project window. It’s that simple!

Search “ Project-Start” and place it into the outline of an activity
view.

For further information on the library, click here.


PRELIMINARY RESULT
Once the activities have
been transferred from
the library, the blue
background in the
outline indicates the last
modiﬁcation made in the
project.

For our next step, the
basic structure will be
reﬁned with new
activities and milestones.

Next we will create new
activities…


CREATING NEW ACTIVITIES
Select an activity type from the “Insert“ menu… …or right click on the activity and select the “Insert“ entry
from the context menu*.

This way, you can (for example) create a new milestone named “Start“.
To do this, you can also use the [Alt + command + M] keyboard shortcut.

* The new activity is always placed below the selected activity.


LINKING ACTIVITIES
Four diﬀerent types of dependences can be
predecessor
established when linking activities. The one most "end to start"
successor
commonly used is “end to start”.
predecessor
"start to start"
In order to create a new link in Merlin, you need to successor
select two (or more) activities and click on the “Chain predecessor
Activities” icon. The activities will then be linked using "end to end" successor
“end to start”. This can also be done by selecting predecessor
“Edit> Link activities“ from the menu or with the [Ctrl "start to end" successor
+ Command + L] keyboard shortcut.

More information on
this topic…


STATUS OF THE FLAGS
The color status of the flags indicates the status of activities. The status generally occurs
automatically but can also be manually set by the user.

There are three kinds of status flags to reflect the status of activities. They are:

‣ Green = the activity has been completed

‣ Yellow = the activity is currently in progress

‣ Red = the activity is overdue

The flags may also be used simply as markers to denote various kinds of information based on
the context the user wishes to establish.


SYMBOLS IN THE INFO COLUMN
Merlin displays in the column “ Info“ various symbols for various information:

⬅ The given end date of an activity is set to “as soon as possible”
⬅
The given end date of an activity is set to “as late as possible”

A calendar is defined for the project

Time/date constraints are defined

!!! At least one scheduling conflict existing

! At least one scheduling warning existing

An element has been attached

Notes defined


ASSIGNING RESOURCES
So far, we have created
activities, groups,
milestones, links and
elements.

The general design of your
project should be well in
hand at this point.

The next step logical step
involves the assigning of
resources.

You can simply drag and
drop any resources directly
onto one or more activities
to establish resource
assignments for the
activities selected.

WORK TIME PERIOD
Using the Inspector for working time you can schedule how much time you regularly spend on your projects
and deﬁne periods of exempt, non-working times. Highlight the project and select the “working time“ tab.
Using the mouse, working time can be delineated in the “Regular“ ﬁeld and under the “Weekdays“ and
“Work intervals“ section:

• click on a day out listed under “Week days“ to select it
• simply drag the mouse to insert as many working periods in 30-minutes intervals as you desire

Hint: press the Alt key as
well in order to create ¼
hours intervals.

PLANNING DATA
In order to maintain project control, you can document your project’s progress. To do so, you may rely on the
following data types:
• projected data:
values you expect while planning
• real data:
the actual values that can be entered as the project progresses. The projected values appear in grey.
• expected data:
values that are derived from modiﬁcations made to projected values


GIVEN WORK AND DURATION
The difference between work and duration should be distinguished for activities. These two
factors are respectively expressed by measures of time, but have different meanings.

‣ “work“ is the time that is dedicated to your projects during the defined working hours,
working days, working months. It is therefore only net working time, so holidays, leave
days and sick days are not included. Moreover, delays and waiting periods caused by
certain activities are not reflected in the work value.

‣ “duration“ is the total time that reflects both working time and the remaining time to
complete the activity; this is the preset and projected duration and should not be confused
with expected duration.

Example: it takes a designer one day to complete a task. It may,
however, be completed sometime in the next two weeks.


THE PLANNED DURATION
In the following example, the activity runs from January 1, 2009 at 8 am until January 1, 2010 at 8 am. The
activity bar in the Gantt-chart says 1.09 years. Why the strange number? This is due to the calculation of net
time, which is defined for a working month of 20 days in Merlin (which can be modified in the project settings).

One working year consists of 240 working days (20 x 12 months). In reality, however, a year consists of 261
possible working days and therefore by definition has a length of 1,09 working years.

Hint: Change the content for the middle label in “View Options > Styles“,
from “Expected Duration“ to “Given Planned Duration“


PROJECT SETTINGS
The “File> Project Settings“ menu contains all settings that concern your project. These can be
modiﬁed and saved directly to the project ﬁle. The project settings are divided into three areas:
General, Value Lists and Misc.


PROJECT SETTINGS - GENERAL
The “General“ project settings is subdivided into three categories:

Financial: enter your country currency symbol, standard costs for
your work as well as overtime costs

Work Units: define the time units to be used for standard work.
These values are used as the basis for the calculation of the activities’
expected duration in the activity display

Date Presets: this is where dynamic postponing, status date, and
first day of the week is defined


PROJECT SETTINGS - VALUE LISTS
Here you can add and deﬁne types for the following aspects
associated with the project:

‣ Cost
‣ File
‣ Information
‣ Issue
‣ Resource
‣ Risk

Simply double click an entry to modify it; or click “New“ to create a
new entry.


PROJECT SETTINGS - MISC
The “Misc” tab is divided into three sections:

Resources: deﬁne the initials style for named resources
and whether resources can share in their work

Security: to remove access to your project for anonymous
users, add a check mark

Project Image: here, you can place the logo of your
company or the client, for instance. It will be included in
My
printouts and reports Logo

My
Logo

EXTENDED SEARCH
In addition to Merlin’s standard search feature, the “extended search“ option can assist you further when
working on your projects:

‣ to open it, simply click on the zoom glass icon in the search box
‣ you can select various search criteria from the pop-up menu and add or remove them using
the “plus“ or “minus“ buttons. Being able to include additional search conditions helps you
conduct more precise searches when clicking “OK“
‣ By clicking on the small “x“-symbol in the search ﬁeld you cancel the extended search option

Extended searches can be named and saved for later use. To save your search, click on the drawer symbol and
then on “new search”.

LIMIT THE VISIBLE DATE RANGE
The extended search helps deﬁne the vertical constraints of your project. By limiting the date range you
can also limit the horizontal view of your project.

Click on the “Limit the visible date range“ button and then on the “A range of the project“ radio button.
Next you can deﬁne a date range which limits the entire project and the related view in the Gantt display.

Hint: The button for this
option has a special feature:
It will glow blue if the visible
date range has been limited.


PRINTING
Merlin offers robust and flexible printing services. Simply select “File > Print“ from the menu or use the “Command
+ P” keyboard shortcut to start your print job.
The printing capabilities in Merlin precisely reproduce the contents of what is displayed on the Merlin screen. This
means you get true WYSIWYG – “What You See Is What You Get“ in both the preview window and in the final
print-out!
You can customize your print job, modify its size, add headers and footers, and limit output to the gantt or outline
display only.


CREATING REPORTS
Merlin offers a separate report system for the creation and sending of reports, based on the report templates
provided. These can be modified with the report options available with each pre-defined template.

‣ select the “File > New Report” menu to access reports

‣ then simply choose the report template you desire

A report can be sent via email, printed out,
published in HTML format, or formatted as
a PDF file so you can easily communicate
project status with other team members.


IMPORT AND EXPORT
Merlin supports a vast array of import- and export formats, including file formats for Microsoft Project*,
Microsoft Excel, mind maps and many other third-party applications.

• to import different file formats, please select the “File > Open“ menu or simply drag and drop the file
over the Merlin application icon
• to export different file formats, please select the “File > Export” menu option.

*Our recommendation:
Use the XML format for best results
when importing and exporting MS
Project files.

COMBINING PROJECTS
Would you like to observe and manage multiple project ﬁles at
once in a master project? You may do so by the “Combine
Projects…“ option.

Call “ File > Combine Projects… “ to select the projects you would
like to combine with the help of the next dialogue.
Or use drag & drop. Simply locate the project ﬁles in the Finder,
select and drop them in the activities view of an empty project.

Merlin prompts whether to link or
copy the combined projects. Saved
changes on linked projects appear in
the master and vise-versa.


PUBLISHING YOUR PROJECTS
By “publishing” your projects, you make them accessible to others across the network or on the Internet.
The optional web-module allows the projects to be modified by others, independent from the operating
system platform, by using a web-browser. Furthermore, projects can be synchronized with iCal and
published as calendars.

• to publish your project, it first needs to be saved; otherwise the function is not available
• using the proxy icon the IP address of your computer can be forwarded to other users involved in your
project or on the web*
• for publishing on the Internet your router needs to be configured appropriately with UPnP or NAT/SMP

* Drag the proxy symbol to your
emailing program, iChat or any other
application to share your project

PUBLISHING YOUR PROJECT
If you select “Project” the current project becomes enabled for common use in networks and on the Internet.

If you click on “start” the project becomes accessible. Based on the assigned IP address, it can be accessed by
other Merlin users via local networks as well as on the Internet*.

The “File > Remote Open“ menu lists all available projects that can be opened over a local network.

* for publishing on the Internet your router
needs to be conﬁgured appropriately with
UPnP or NAT/SMP

WEB MODULE
The Web module is available as a separate option for publishing your project so it can be opened and
worked on using a web browser, which means Merlin can become platform independent. The following
web browsers are supported:
‣ Safari 3 or higher for Mac OS X or Windows
‣ Firefox 3 or higher for Mac OS X or Windows
‣ Internet Explorer 7 on Windows
‣ Internet Explorer 8 (only in the compatibility mode) on Windows


IPHONE
Project management has now oﬃcially gone mobile!

The iPhone module is available as a separate option for publishing your project so it can be
opened and worked on using an Apple iPhone or iPod touch. Besides this module, all you will
need is the Merlin iPhone app installed on your iPhone or iPhone touch.

Merlin Quick Guide. © 2009 ProjectWizards GmbH, Melle, Germany. All rights reserved.

ICAL PUBLISHING
With iCal publishing you can synchronize projects as well as resource calendars in the form of all day events,
events with time, and to-do’s.

Attention: We recommend you avoid using the option “Accept changes made in iCal”, as this frequently
leads to unintended and unwanted modiﬁcations to your project.
All day events

Events with time

To dos
In Leopard to-do’s will also show
up in Mail.

VIEW OPTIONS
Use view options to configure columns displayed in the outline, in the Gantt chart, as well as the style of the Gantt
chart display. Simply highlight the element you wish to change with the mouse. You can also configure options for
foreground color, typeface, and other types of content displayed.

Hint: Column settings as well as custom styles can be saved as personal settings for later use.


WORKSPACES
Due to its inherent flexibility, Merlin’s program window and interface can be modified in many ways. In
order to retain your favorite display settings (such as columns displayed), these can be saved as a
separate “workspace“.

From the „Window > Workspaces“ menu you will find pre-defined workspaces; using the command
“Window > Save Workspace“ command or using the “Ctrl + Command + S“ keyboard shortcut you can
save and name your current window settings
The “Window> Manage Workspaces“ menu or using the “Ctrl + Command + W“ keyboard shortcut will
open a separate menu for viewing and managing all saved environments.


ACCESS PRIVILEGES
In Merlin you can assign access privileges to resources if you want to
limit access to the project for security reasons.
To do so, simply select a resource and switch to the “ Permissions “
pane of the inspector. Enable the check box “is a user “. A new user has
per default “read & write “ privileges to the whole project. This user
could be the main user of this project, so you do not need to do any
modifications. Click onto “ Set password…“ to define a password for
this user and to protect thus the whole project.

Now you can define if you wish further resources to users, having
limited access privileges. These settings apply for all Merlin
applications, restrict the project access for allowed users and, if
necessary, to specific functions only.


ProjectWizards GmbH
Lichtenrader Strasse 11
49324 Melle
Germany

oﬃce@projectwizards.net
www.projectwizards.net

Version 2.7 / As of 12/17/2009

© 2009 ProjectWizards GmbH, Melle, Germany. All rights reserved.

MerlinUserGuide

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