Introduction: What is the Planner and why should I care
Contents
1. Media room use wireless sound system Kitchen Kitchen punch list docx w More countertop space e Bigger stovetop Heat tolerant countertops Upcoming Deferred 12 Drag amp Link You link to existing information items by dragging the item or some of its text into your plan Drop the item or its text where you like in the plan A link to the item is automatically created If you drop at the beginning of a note then a new note with selected text or a description of the item is created above this note Otherwise a link is created on or below this note Use Drag amp Link to link to email messages documents and web pages 13 Set reminders or make tasks optional There are two other New commands you may find useful New Calendar Reminder and New Outlook Task These commands are accessed from any heading by clicking the right mouse button Both commands treat the current heading as a kind of task Notes under the heading and associated items are the information needed to complete the task New Calendar Reminder can be used to create Start by and Due by appointments in the MS Outlook Calendar Appointments include hyperlinks that you can click to get back to task relevant information New Outlook Task can be used to create an Outlook task and to specify its start and due dates Again hyperlinks within tasks can be clicked to get back to task relevant info2. Ongoing projects are projects that you are working on or thinking about at least once a week The structure of an Ongoing project will develop over time per phases described in Lesson 1 A placeholder project with little content and no internal structure may develop over time to have several subheadings and even sub sub or sub sub sub headings This structure in turn may organize a diversity of project related content ranging from informal notes expressing thoughts to documents email messages and web references Archived projects are mostly completed Now there is no such thing as a project that is completely inactive You may find yourself referring to project related information or doing follow up months or years after a project has been archived But use the weekly rule If you are working on a project less than once a week you should consider moving the project from Ongoing to Archived to reduce clutter in Ongoing Deferred projects are projects that may have once been in Upcoming or even in Ongoing These are projects you just never seem to find time to complete You re not ready to delete them altogether So move them out of the way to Deferred You may decide to revive these projects later Use the Move To command to move a project and all its contents from one category to another To do this click on the heading icon for the project to select the heading and all of its contents Then click the right mouse button and select
3. Move To then select the folder corresponding to the status you want to assign to your project One typical sequence is 1 Create a heading for a new project inside Upcoming 2 Move heading and all its contents to Ongoing when you begin actively working on the project 3 Move the heading and all of its contents to Archived when the project is mostly done This section has described 4 of the 6 categories under Projects But there are two others Current and Completed The next section tells you what these are for B Connecting lower level tasks of projects to Current reality You first encountered Current back in the Quick Start lesson Current is where you plan today Current is where you put your to dos Current is your now In a typical day you face many interruptions and will likely switch between several different projects Rare is the day when you can stay focused on just one project So what is the relationship between Ongoing and Current Ongoing is for those times when you do have a block of time to focus on one project Consider the Home re model project Perhaps you have set aside an hour in your evening to work on this project Or perhaps you find yourself with some extra time during the day because your lunch meeting has been cancelled In these cases you can go to the project in Ongoing and begin again where you last left off Current is for planning your day There is a very useful relati
4. Ongoing Home re model Make kitchen work better Better use of living room Deck with easy access to yard and side area for grills Possibly non slip easy maintenance material 7 Media room Use wireless sound system Kitchen More countertop space Bigger stovetop Heat tolerant countertops Upcoming Projects that are on the horizon go here See lesson 5 Deferred Aresting place for the projects you can t seem to find time for but aren t ready to delete See lesson 5 Archived Move projects from to here when they are mostly done Phase III Gather In Phase III attention shifts from grouping organizing to gathering collecting relevant information You already know how to create new information and to link in existing information 11 Create new documents and email messages in context Wherever you are ina project plan you can send a new email message or you can create a new document or presentation or spreadsheet Access New commands via the right button click on the mouse or via the New menu on the menu bar The email message you send in this way is still managed by MS Outlook But a link to this email message is placed in your plan so you can access this message again later You might access the email message again to check for other messages that have been sent in reply to this message Notice that the first time you click on an em
5. mode gives you extra control especially when editing the structure of a plan 4 The Planner is designed to work best on Vista platforms and for people who use MS Office 2007 applications including MS Outlook 2007 5 Use Refresh to update your Planner view if you work on your files and folders outside of the Planner And please give us your feedback The best way to do this is to go to the Tales of PIM discussion forum http talesofpim org Quick Start Lesson The Basics In this lesson you will learn 1 The basic layout of the Planner and some useful terms 2 The use of two key operations drag amp link and in context creation as a way to bring things together in the Planner You will follow these basic steps Open the Planner Get oriented Jump to the Current heading Start typing your thoughts about today What do you need to do Make a new heading Send an email from your Plan Drag information into the Plan from Web pages CN Op wh e And that s enough for this lesson For this lesson imagine you are at the beginning of a typical work day Your mind is full of thoughts about the things you need to do How do you keep track of everything In later lessons you will learn how to use the Planner with a task and time management facilities of Outlook But doing so is often overkill Most important is to jot down something for each of your to dos so that you ll remember late
6. re not sure what text to select you can also select the whole item Select a document by selecting it as a file from the file system select an email message from its listing in Outlook select a whole web page by grabbing its address as it appears in the web browser The item doesn t move but a link to the item is created at the point where you drop the item inside a plan Summary Now you have the basics of Planner use In this quick start lesson you learned how to use the Current space in the Planner as a scratch pad in which to type in your thoughts about your day what do you need to do What do you need to think about You learned how to create a new heading under which you can group together various forms of task relevant information using the operations of in context create New and drag amp link This was Lesson 0 just the basics so that you can start to use the Planner on your own When you re ready for more information go to Lesson 1 to learn how to use the Planner for completion of a project from start to finish How to Lessons 5 Ways to Use the Planner There are 5 distinct ways to use the Planner y Lesson 1 A project from start to finish In this lesson you will learn a complete story for planning and completing a project y Lesson 2 Working with the files and folders you have already vy Lesson 3 Getting a head start on a new project by using an old one Some projects are ve
7. In Phase one thought may lead to another or to several But at some point thoughts will begin to overlap At this point you can begin to group and organize notes under headings You may decide to group your headings under higher level headings Then you may decide to group these headings under still higher level headings and so on In the end you ll have an outline much like the outline you may have learned to use in school as a way of organizing the material of a term paper Headings in the top level of this outline may represent big areas of the re model kitchen or media room that are projects in their own right i e sub projects Lowest level headings often represent basic tasks and decisions Get bids decide on material for kitchen countertops Phase Ill Gather The outline you create in Phase Il gives structure to the thoughts you express in notes An outline in the Planner can also organize related information ranging from email messages to Web pages you find to documents you create You ll link this information into the Planner using the basic operations of drag amp link and New to create a document or email message in context Phase IV Summarize As you make decisions and complete tasks you ll want to summarize the outcome For example a heading like Kitchen countertops may group together a variety of thoughts concerning what you want tough heat resistant economical attracti
8. Press the Enter key to start a new thought Think of the thoughts you type as a story for what you want to accomplish today You can mention not only things to do but also things to think about If you re so inclined this is also a good place to mention affirmations be on time or stay calm amp cool in meetings Step 5 Make a New Heading Some thoughts and the to dos they represent are simple For example back up hard drive may be such a simple thought unless of course you re not sure how to do this or need to email for permissions to do this But sometimes a thought is more complex The thought may expand into several actions It may involve information gathering Suppose for example that you are planning a trip to attend a conference in Boston One thought that may occur to you might be expressed through a note like Hotel reservation in Boston But as you type you realize that this represents a bigger task Which hotel You want a hotel that is within walking distance of the convention center where the conference is being held You may want ready access to exercise facilities What s your price range Do you want to stay at a full service big name hotel Or would you rather stay at smaller hotel where rates may be cheaper and service more personal Where will you go to get information concerning your options Obviously your initial thought has grown into many related thoughts questions
9. to write their thoughts relating to a project they are working on Doing so helps these participants think things through Written notes can serve later as a reminder of actions to complete The Planner works a lot like a word processor in basic draft mode Use the Planner to get your thoughts down Organize your thoughts into stories about what you want to accomplish and how Use your stories even as you are still writing them as a basis for organizing the information you ll need to make your stories come true Give the Planner a try but remember Above all remember that the Planner is a prototype not a product The Planner is sometimes slow and it has many rough edges Some suggestions 1 Back up your files and folders as a precaution There have been no occurrences of data loss associated with the Planner s use but backing up your information is always a good idea 2 Ignore those planner xml files The Planner architecture supports its document like views by distributing XML fragments one per folder that you work with In some future release these will be hidden but there are reasons to leave them visible for now 3 It helps to have basic outlining skills Many of you learned how to create an outline as an initial step in writing a term paper Some of you may also have used the outlining tool of an application such as MS Word Complete plans can be created in the Draft mode of the Planner But the Outline
10. A record of completed tasks will go here For more about how this works see lesson 5 Ongoing Projects you are actively thinking about or working on at least once a week go here See lesson 2 Upcoming Projects that are on the horizon go here See lesson 5 Deferred A resting place for the projects you can t seem to find time for but aren t ready to delete See lesson 5 Archived Move projects from to here when they are mostly done You can click the email icon to get back to your email message whenever you like There is no need to go trolling through your Sent items folder or to search your inbox for messages you have bcc ed to yourself Instead you get back to the message by going back to the place the Plan that prompted you to send the email message in the first place And with the message opened you can easily check for responses to the message using the Related command of MS Outlook This ability to create an email message without leaving the Planner is called in context creation You can also create MS Word Excel and PowerPoint documents in the same way The documents are themselves located as files under a heading s corresponding file system folder Hotel reservation in Boston in this example Step 7 Drag information into the Plan from Web pages Sending an email message or creating a new document from within the Planner is an inside out operation Links within the Plan
11. HTML You can also summarize a project as a whole using the Save As command from the File menu of the menu bar Choose type HTML to create a file that can be viewed in your web browser or imported into your word processor for further editing To create an HTML document for your project you ll first want to create a Planner window that is focused or anchored just on this project and does not include headings or notes that are not related to the project You can do this by clicking on the main heading for the project e g Home re model clicking the right button on the mouse and then selecting New Window You should then see a window that is anchored at Home re model Create the view you want to save in this window by expanding and collapsing headings and subheadings and moving elements up and down Then select Save As Summary of Lesson 1 In this lesson you have learned how to use the Planner to plan and organize a project from the beginning This lesson makes clear the Planner s special approach to personal projects There are no Gantt charts no PERT charts no formal structures no notion of dependencies or critical path There is no direct support in the Planner for time and task management though you learned in the Gather section how to create Outlook tasks and calendar appointments which then linked back to headings and folders managed by the Planner Instead the Planner helps you to give expres
12. this File Edit View Outline New Help gt t amp gt a R3 Current Completed yii Ongoing if Upcoming Ongoing Home re model Better use of living room Media room downstairs Deck with easy access to yard and side area for grills Possibly non slip easy maintenance material Railing to support views but still safe Make kitchen work better amp y Kitchen More countertop space Bigger stovetop Heat tolerant countertops Upcoming Projects that are on the horizon go here See lesson 5 Deferred A resting place for the projects you can t seem to find time for but aren t ready to delete See lesson 5 Archived Move projects from to here when they are mostly done Phase II Group As brainstorming thoughts diminish from a torrent to a trickle you are ready to begin grouping the notes and subheadings that you have created Draft mode is good for brainstorming but Outline mode is much better for grouping In Phase II of this lesson you will switch to Outline mode and then you will learn how to manipulate subheadings and notes much as you might do in the outline mode of a word processor 7 Switch to Outline mode For any serious editing you need to be in Outline vs Draft mode Outline mode gives you operations of Promote Demote Move Up Move Down Expand Collapse Click the View menu on the menu bar and select Outline 8 Use Promote to make more subheadings You might have made a numb
13. Introduction What is the Planner and why should I care The Personal Project Planner addresses a basic problem of our modern lives The information we need to get things done is scattered around us Information is scattered in different locations both physical and digital Which computer Which handheld On the same device information is scattered by the very software tools and applications that are meant to help us This scattering of information or information fragmentation often reflects a more serious fragmentation in the ways we spend our time and energy A day is consumed by information and tools in ways that don t add value to our lives We answer email browse the Web chat Tweet At the end of the day we re out of time out of energy and no closer to our goals Tools that are meant to help can make things worse in two ways First these tools may have their own way of storing and organizing information that make information fragmentation worse Second these tools often impose a structure and a level of formality that doesn t fit with our ways of thinking about things How can we organize our information and ourselves to keep on track How can we do this without spending all of our time organizing The Planner addresses these issues with two principles 1 Plan first let the organization follow The plans you create in the Planner look like draft documents you might create in a word processor or the notes you might scrib
14. Thus it creates a folder to store all those information Why there is a file named planer xml in my project folder Planner uses planer xml file to store information in each layer of the folders of your project file so you can copy your project folders anywhere without losing the plan What s the difference between a heading and a note A heading is a subject or title of a category In Planner it is associated with a folder in the File System A sub heading is associated with a sub folder A note is a line of text content It can be your input text you dragged and dropped or text generated by Planner when you dragged and linked a file How do I create a heading and note in Outline view The easiest way to create a note will be press Enter key If you are in a note a new note will be created below To promote it to a heading press Shift Tab To demote it to a note press Tab I have many files linked to my project If delete them in the Planner do delete them in the File System No Planner will not delete the files you linked from your File System but will only delete the file shortcuts created by Planner If the file you want to delete is locally inside the project folder you will see a confirmation message of the action of delete Planner operations in detail Command Introduction Hot Key Accessibility A About Personal View the information of M
15. ach other Use the Planner to edit and view a document like overlay to your files and folders But use the Explorer for more standard operations and views such as Details List Tile etc To access the Explorer from the Planner select Explore You will see an instance of the Explorer that s either focused on the folder for the current heading or the containing folder for the file associated with the current note Summary of Lesson 2 The Planner isn t just for new information that you manage under Projects The Planner provides several ways to connect to and work with information you have already e Use Link to File and Link to Folder to link existing files folders into a project plan Or use Drag amp Link to link in not only files and folders but also email messages and web pages e Control file and folder location using Move Here Move There and Move To e Access the Planner for any folder you are able to reach via the Windows Explorer Use the Planner to provide a document like overlay to the files and subfolders within e Inthe other direction access the Windows Explorer for any file or folder heading that you see in a Planner view by selecting Explore These integrations reflect a larger principle of the Planner The Planner is a lightweight unapplication designed to work with your existing tools and information But what about previous project plans The business trip you plan to Boston may be similar in many respec
16. ail message icon later the note text may change from New email to be the subject line of the email message you have sent If you create a document this document will be placed as a file under the folder corresponding to the current heading For example if you create a document Kitchen punch list under the heading Kitchen then a file containing this document will be created in a corresponding folder named Kitchen Sel xs gt Projects Ongoing Homere model Kitchen 2 i By Organize v ews Date modified Type G Kitchen punch list doce 12 16 2008 8 43AM Microsoft Office 12 16 2008 8 47 AM XML Document Favorite Links Name IE Documents IE Pictures BB Music Projects students home bisheng Projects Personal Project Planner More File gt planner xml Edit View Outline New Help 8 Es bal Current Completed Ongoing Upcoming Folders eo etm sore Current E Documents Oo Downloads Favorites I Links Projects Ji Archived Completed m Current Deferred J Ongoing dE Home re model J Kitchen J Media room 2 items Offline status Online Offline availability Not available Completed Ongoing Home re model Make kitchen work better Better use of living room Deck with easy access to yard and side area for grills Possibly non slip easy maintenance material Railing to support views but still safe
17. and a need for information to answer each A thought that expands like this is a little like the event in a story that expands into an entire episode or sub story And then we stopped at a little hole in the wall for lunch That turned out to be an unexpected surprise You ll want to associate such a thought with a new heading which you can then use to group together task related thoughts and information To do this simply click the right button of your mouse and then select New Heading to see the following dialog Heading name Hotel reservation in Boston E Link to folder You can select any name you like for a new heading but by default its name is the same as the text of the current note but truncated if necessary to be less than 30 characters in length Longer names are fine But shorter names are best providing you can still understand what the heading stands for later on Ignore the Link to folder option for now This option is explained in a later lesson Once you click OK a new heading will be created and you ll see a special link icon next to both the current note and the new heading students home bisheng Projects Personal Project Planne File Edit View Outline New Help gt t a re 4 Current Completed Ongoing Upcoming gt Welcome to the Personal Project Planner As you work through the user manual you will learn to use each of the headings you see bel
18. ble to yourself ona notepad You tell a story of what you d like to do and how You organize your notes under headings and subheadings over time and only according to your needs 2 No new organization The plans you create in the Planner are just an alternate way to work with your existing files and folders The headings and subheadings of a plan are folders and subfolders in your file system Use these to organize not only documents and other files but also email messages and web references How can a plan be used to organize documents email messages and web pages In two ways 1 Send email messages and create new documents from the inside out as you are writing your plan These items are created as they would be normally in separate windows managed by supporting applications such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook However the Planner places a link to the document created or the email message sent at the insertion point in the plan You stay focused on your plan and free from external distractions such as the inbox 2 Link to existing documents email messages and web pages from the outside in Simply select the item drag and drop to a location of your choice in a plan The item stays where it is as a file email message or web page but a link pointing to this item is created in the plan Or select text as a summary or hook to the item Drop the text in a plan to place a copy of the text in a new note with a link bac
19. bout in other sections of this manual Edit commands are standard Use the View menu to switch between Draft and Outline modes Both work much like views of the same name in MS Word Use the Draft mode to write your thoughts down free style Use the Outline mode for greater power and control over the order and structure of a Plan The Projects view you see now is in draft mode New is well a new menu that lets you create a new document or an email message without leaving the Plan Tool bars provide two kinds of support The Outline toolbar is a grouping of operations to Promote Demote Move Up Move Down Expand and Collapse that work much like similarly named operations you see in outlining applications or the Outline mode of an application like MS Word The Navigation tool bar makes it possible to jump between different parts of a Plan without doing a lot of scrolling If you are at or under a subheading use Jump Up to jump to its parent heading Or use Jump Down to jump to a sub subheading Use the tabs to jump quickly from one top level heading to another Navigation commands are more important as the number of headings subheadings and notes in a Plan increases Step 3 Jump to the Current heading Click on the Current tab of the navigation bar Or since Current is right there in front of you simply click underneath Step 4 Start typing your thoughts What do you need to do today Just start typing
20. d in a Plan You can also treat your Plan as a document For example you can add additional notes or change existing notes just by typing Likewise you can change the text of a heading just by typing And as you ll learn in Lesson 1 you can re order the notes and subheadings under a heading so that you see first things first You will also learn to use your plan to organize not only files and folders but also email messages web references and tasks The Plan you see when you launch the Planner is anchored at a special Projects folder in your file system But you can see a planner view for any folder in your file system by selecting the folder in the Windows Explorer clicking the right button on your mouse and then selecting Personal Project Planner see Lesson 2 Projects is a sister folder to the Documents folder and was created as part of the installation of the Planner Later you will learn how to use Projects as a home base for managing all your to dos tasks and projects You will also learn how to link to email messages web pages and your files and folders under Documents so that task relevant information is only one click away But first you ll want to get familiar with the basic layout of the Planner In any Planner view you ll see the following A Menu bar which includes standard menus for File Edit and View On the File menu are commands to Save As and Export which you can learn more a
21. d system You can move this note down to be a child note under media room Move Up and Move Down for a selected note are accessed in the same ways as Promote and Demote a as a right click option from the mouse b via the up and down arrows on the Outline toolbar c via the Outline menu of the menu bar and d via the combined press of Ctrl and the Up or Down arrows of the keyboard In addition you can move a selected note up or down using Drag amp Drop You can also choose to move more than one note at a time Click on the dot icon to select one note then hold the Ctrl key down while selecting the note above or below to add this note to the selection 10 Use Move Up Move Down Promote amp Demote to organize headings If you want more structure you can use these same commands Move Up Move Down Promote Demote to group headings together or to divide a larger heading into subheadings For example you n tt n tt might add subheadings under Kitchen for countertops stove amp oven cabinets and flooring Phase II may happen over a period of time and you may find yourself switching back and forth between grouping and gathering Phase III Eventually your Planner view of the re model may look something like this YNE ES ETANTE n ER STETE ee File Edit View Outline New Help az tst 4i Fx Current Completed Ongoing if Upcoming
22. der You will generally not want to change this location Do not change to Current Current has other uses to be described in Lesson 5 With new name put the name of your new project here Be clear but brief Example Boston trip Export choose between Structure only or Structure and content Structure only exports copies the folder heading structure of the old project If your old project as San Jose trip this structure I might include subfolders subheadings for plane and hotel Structure also copies web references Structure and content copies everything under the old project Lesson 2 described Planner support for working with existing files and folders Lesson 3 describes Planner support for working with and leveraging past projects The next lesson Lesson 4 will describe Planner support for working with other people Lesson 4 Working with other people A Collaborative exchange of document among people using email B What happens when two people use the Planner on the same folder Try to include the following for A changing from William to Sally and from demo script to marketing plan The Planner can be used to preserve an association between an email and its attachment as illustrated in the following figure and its depiction of the exchange of a video script to be used in the video that accompanies this abstract 1 William creates a draft demo script using ICC 2 William
23. e Current heading Current might also be called Today To do or Now This is where you ll plan the things you need to do today or over the next few hours You ll learn about the other headings in later lessons but here s a brief description of each Completed A record of completed tasks will go here For more about how this works see lesson 5 Ongoing Projects you are actively thinking about or working on at least once a week go here See lesson 2 Upcoming Projects that are on the horizon go here See lesson 5 Deferred A resting place for the projects you can t seem to find time for but aren t ready to delete See lesson 5 Archived Move projects from Ongoing to here when they are mostly done When you open the Planner you see a special Planner view into your file system Often we ll refer to this simply as a Plan A Plan complements the standard views List Details Tiles that are provided by the Windows Explorer A Plan provides a document like mode for working with your files and folders Folders appear as headings Subfolders appear as subheadings and so on Files are represented by icons to the right of notes In a Plan you can do many of the same things you might do in the Windows Explorer For example you open a file by clicking its icon Expand a heading to see into its contents Move files and folders around by moving their associated notes and headings aroun
24. ed folder In the other direction a new note is placed under the current heading This note includes a shortcut pointing to the parent folder for the selected goal role or value Goals roles and values are a highly personal matter and we members of the KFTF group can t presume to know what these might be for you or how you might structure these Here is one simple way of structuring these that has worked for some of us 1 Create a Life folder as a sibling to Projects and Documents 2 Create subfolders with names Goals amp Things Roles amp People and Values 3 Create sub subfolders under each subfolder For example under Goals amp Things you might create folders for Get a better job or Get a masters degree Under Roles amp People you might create folders for Parent Spouse Friend Employee and Citizen If you make consistent use of Label With you can quickly answer two questions 1 Why am doing this project 2 What am doing to accomplish this goal or what am doing to fulfill this role Label With can be used in connection with any heading not just project headings Label With can also be used for more mundane purposes like establishing a two way connection between a planner headings and associated folders Tips for using the Planner 1 If things don t quite look right in the display then use the refresh button Select Refresh
25. ent heading from er N tion b Level Heading the current heading note ANEAN RAS Go to Lower Go to the children headings Level Heading from the current heading H L Label With pane me cabal Hescine Wita Heading text Context menu folder in the File System Link to File unane purent OLE toa ate Att Node text Context menu the File System Link to Folder Link the current note to a folder in the File System Node text Context menu M Move down the selected node Ctrl Menu Outline Tool bar Node Move Down i in outline view Down icon Context menu Move the file pointed by the file Move Here p y File shortcut icon Context menu shortcut to the current heading Move the file in the current Move There heading to another place in the Local file icon Context menu File System Move the current heading to Move To g Heading text Context menu another place in the File System Move up the selected node in Menu Outline Tool bar Node Move Up oe Ctrl Up i outline view icon Context menu Save current project into a Save As Web proj Pag HTML web page It outputs Menu File node in the current view only Save As Plain Text Save current project into a plain TXT file It outputs node in the current view only N Navigation Tab Go to the heading shown in the tab Navigation bar New Cale
26. enu Help Project Planner Planner B 0 Hide the content of the selected Ment cabling Teelbar Pong Collapse icon Context menu Heading text heading in draft mode Context menu Copy Copy the selected text Ctrl C Menu Edit Cut Cut the selected text Ctrl X Menu Edit D Demote node level or type in Menu Outline Tool bar Node Demote Tab outline view icon Context menu Delete Delete the selected text Backspace Menu Edit Delete the selected heading and g Del Heading node icon Context menu all of its content Delete the selected note and its or Del Note node icon Context menu association Delete the association Del Association icon Context menu Draft Switch to draft view Menu View E Exit Close the current project Menu File Menu Outline Tool bar Node Display the content of the f Expand icon Context menu Heading text selected heading in draft mode Context menu Open the Windows Explorer to Explore P P Heading Node text Context menu view the selected file or folder Export Structure only Copy the current project structure to another place in the File System Menu File Export Structure and content Copy the current project structure and its content to another place in the File System F G Go To na ie ME In Planner link icon Context menu node with the current node Go to Higher Go to the par
27. er of notes to express your thoughts about things in the media room You can make your plan less cluttered by moving these notes to media room as a new subheading You already know how to use New Heading to do make a subheading Another way is to type in media room first as a note click on the dot to select the entire note and then Promote to be a heading under Home re model Promote is available in several ways for a note that is selected a as a right click option on the mouse b via left arrow on the Outline toolbar c via the Outline menu of the menu bar d or use Ctrl Left to combine selection of the note and its promotion to be a heading Similarly Demote is available in the same places if you decide to change a newly promoted heading back into a note Or use Ctrl Right A heading can often be promoted repeatedly until it is a top level heading in the current Planner view A heading can also be demoted repeatedly When it reaches the lowest possible level as a sub sub heading it will be converted to a note In turn a note can be demoted to become an indented portion of another note As in many outlining tools the subheadings and notes of a heading cannot be intermingled The notes of a heading come first then the subheadings of the heading follow 9 Move other notes to be under a new heading Select a note that relates to the media room such as use wireless soun
28. ere using the Planner IF you click to open the Planner directly e g via your desktop or the Start menu the Planner presents a view that is anchored at a special Projects folder a sibling folder to Documents But you can bring up additional Planner views that are anchored at a folder of your choice Do this within the Planner by clicking on a heading for the folder you wish to view and then select New Window Or navigate to the folder you wish to view in Windows Explorer select this folder click the right mouse button and select Personal Project Planner You can use the Planner in this way to annotate files and folders and to re order them so that more important files and folders appear first The Planner can be used in this manner with files and folders that are on a network share Users with access to the Planner will see annotations and orderings Appearance of files and folders in the Windows Explorer is not impacted Note The Planner is not yet able to manage the simultaneous attempts by different users to annotate re order or otherwise modify files and folders See more about current multi user restrictions in Lesson 4 F Working with any heading using the Windows Explorer Just as you will sometimes want to use the Planner to view and work with existing files and folders you will also still want to use the Windows Explorer on occasion to work with your files and folders The Explorer and the Planner complement e
29. ew heading for Home re model Press the Enter key to get a blank line Then click the right button on the mouse and select New Heading Type in Home Re model or pick another name if you like and click OK Ignore the Link to folder option for now You ll be using notes and subheadings under this new heading to manage your project and project related information 5 Begin typing your thoughts Press the Enter key to get a blank line under the project heading Begin typing your thoughts Press the Enter key to start a new thought in a new note 6 Use New Heading as needed As you type you may find that one thought leads to several related thoughts For example as you type a re modeling objective like Make the kitchen work better you realize that you have several related thoughts such as More countertop space Bigger stovetop Heat tolerant countertops and so on Think of these thoughts as an episode or sub story in the story of the home re model To group these together try using New Heading From the note Make the kitchen work better click the right button on the mouse and then select New Heading You will see text of the note offered as the title of the new heading But you can change the title to anything you like Ideally create a shorter heading title like Kitchen After you have brainstormed for a while the Home re model portion of the Planner might look something like
30. from the File menu on the menu bar or click the refresh icon on the Outline tool bar But once you select Refresh be patient as it may take several seconds 2 Try using the control key Ctrl with arrow keys for fast access to Promote ctrl left arrow Demote ctrl right arrow Move Up ctrl up arrow and Move Down ctrl down arrow 3 3 Another organizing tool is In Planner Drag amp Drop You can drag a heading or note to the place where you want it FAQ 1 Who are the potential users of Planner Planner helps people like students professionals and executives to organize and manage their information neatly 2 How can benefit from using Planner Planner helps you to organize information in a hierarchy outline It overlays your File System and perfectly coordinates with your files and folders By using it you will have quick access and reference to all your information items no matter where they are deeply in the File System the Internet or Emails 3 Ihave installed an earlier version of Planner Do need to remove it before install the latest version No When you install the latest version of Planner it will automatically overwrite the earlier one if there is any 4 When created a heading I found that a folder with the same name as heading was created in my File System Why As Planner overlays Windows File System a heading represents a category of a group of documents files Emails and notes
31. g file using drag amp link A link is created at the target note if the note has no association already Otherwise a link is usually created to a new note below the target note The exception to this rule is if you drop a selected file at the very beginning of a note In this case anew note is created above this note Experiment Try things out If a note is created that you don t want you can delete it since you are deleting only the note and its link and file shortcut You are not deleting the actual file You can also link to an existing file by using the Link to File command Access Link to File command from any note by clicking on the right button of the mouse But you can only add a link to a note that doesn t already have a link B Connect existing folders into a plan Connect folders into a plan works in almost the same way as you connect to files You can use the Planner s drag amp link operation Or from any note you can click the right mouse button to access a Link to Folder command that works similarly to the Link to File command A note with a folder association can be promoted to be a heading You can also link to a folder as you create a new heading C View folder contents in place in a plan You cannot usually promote a note with a link to be a heading But there is an exception You can promote a note with a folder link to be a heading Click on the icon for the note to select the whole note Then select t
32. he Promote command You can access from the Outline toolbar the Outline menu or by clicking the right mouse button Your newly promoted heading still has a shortcut pointing to the folder You can expand this heading like any other As you do you ll see a Planner view of folder contents inside D Move Here Move There Move To Move Here can be accessed from any file shortcut with a click of the right mouse button With a click of OK file and file shortcut trade places The file is moved to be under the heading folder of the note And a file shortcut is left behind Move There can be accessed from any file link with a click of the right mouse button This command works in a direction opposite to Move Here Click OK to move a local file to some other folder A file shortcut is left behind Move To is accessed from headings The folder associated with a heading is moved to the specified location and a folder shortcut appears in association with the heading Move To is most commonly used to move a project from one status folder to another status folder e g from Upcoming to Ongoing or from Ongoing to Archived When the move is complete the heading will still appear in view but now with a folder shortcut icon to its right Delete this shortcut heading if you want the folder in its new location is unaffected Or demote the heading to a note and move somewhere else E Working with any folder anywh
33. k to the item The story telling approach What is planning anyway For some planning may mean making complicated diagrams with tasks deadlines dependencies and so on But that s not the everyday planning most of us do as we think about the things we want to accomplish during the day or as we think about special projects like Finish the quarterly review or Plan a family summer vacation Everyday planning personal planning is more like telling a story in the future tense Our stories are usually told in fragments and to ourselves today I m going to get a start on drafting a marketing plan or I need to make hotel reservations while there s still space and should check to see if it s possible to stop off in St Louis The stories we tell ourselves can help us to stay motivated and to keep on track If can get this report done by 6pm then can relax and have fun over the weekend We tell our stories to make sense of things And as we tell our stories we think of details we might otherwise overlook I want Susan to review hmmm better let her know the report will be coming later today Our stories are mostly unspoken and unwritten But we tell parts of our stories to others We also write parts of our stories down Participants in fieldwork of the Keeping Found Things Found group see http kftf ischool washington edu publications htm report that they sometimes use a word processor
34. n does the Planner work with all of the files and folders you have already This is the subject of Lesson 2 Lesson 2 Working with your current files and folders In Lesson 2 you will learn how to use the Planner to link to and work with your existing files and folders You will learn to A Connect existing files into a plan Link a note to a file any file B Connect existing folders into a plan Link a note to a folder any folder C View folder contents in place in a plan Promote a note with a folder link to heading Then expand the heading to view folder contents D View any folder anywhere using the Planner Select a folder Click the right button on the mouse to view in the Planner Next use the Planner to annotate write notes about files and subfolders You can order the files and subfolders that you see E Work with headings as folders using the Windows Explorer Just as you can view any folder in the Planner you can go in the other direction You can work with headings as folders in the Windows Explorer A Connect existing files into a plan You can link to files that already exist and are relevant to your project plan For example you might want to link to a document that you use repeatedly across different projects In the Boston trip example perhaps there is a travel request or trip report document template that you will use as reference for any trip business related trip that you take You can link to an existin
35. n this final lesson you will learn how you can begin to use the Planner to tell a larger story a life story in which your personal projects play an essential role in the story line Your projects help to bridge the gulf between longer term life goals and a daily reality in which you already have far to much to do and too little time Lesson 5 is in three parts for three important activities A Getting an overview of your projects and managing their lifecycle B Connecting lower level tasks of projects to Current reality C Connecting projects to life s higher level goals what do you want to get or do and roles what do you want to be A Getting an overview of your projects and managing their lifecycle Projects are grouped into 4 major categories with corresponding folders under Projects according to project lifecycle Upcoming projects are on the horizon Headings under Upcoming represent projects that are not yet active Even so you may already have thoughts about these projects You may be receiving information via email or encountering information on the Web that s relevant Newly created projects in Upcoming are often just holding bins Projects have a heading but few or no subheadings You can also use Upcoming as a kind of waiting area for projects that are temporarily inactive Projects may be inactive because you are waiting for work from someone else or you are waiting for some upcoming event
36. ndar Create a new Outlook calendar Heading text Context menu Reminder reminder New Email Menu New Heading Note text Create a new Outlook Email 8 Message Context menu New Excel Spreadsheet Create a new Excel spreadsheet New Heading Create a new heading below and make an In Planner link with the current note Node text Context menu New Outlook Task Create a new Outlook task Heading text Context menu New PowerPoint Presentation Create a new PowerPoint presentation New Window Open a new Planner view of the selected heading Heading text Context menu New Word Document Create a new Word document New Version Create a new document of the current document Local document icon Context menu o Oca Open the associated Email Email document file web page P document file or web page icon Context menu Outline Switch to outline view Menu View P Paste Paste the copied text Ctrl V Menu Edit Promote node level or type in Menu Outline Tool bar Node Promote yP Shift Tab outline view icon Context menu Q R Reload all headings and notes of Refresh g F5 Menu File the current project Rename the associated Email document file web page Rename document file or web page i icon Context menu shortcut s name Reply to All Reply the Email message Email icon Conte
37. ner point to email messages and documents that are out there in your email application or in the file system The Planner also supports a link up in the other direction For any document MS Word email message MS Outlook or web page IE Firefox or Chrome you can easily make a link in the Planner that points to this information item The easiest way to do this is to select interesting text inside the item and then drag it into the Planner For example you may decide to search the Web for hotels in Boston Hotels described on many web sites are too expensive or too far away from the convention center But a few web sites seem to be worth a closer look For each web site simply select text that will help you to remember the site and what it s about and then drag into the Planner The Planner will create a new note that includes the selected text and a link pointing to the Web page Click the link to get back to the Web page Or modify the note text as you like to make it more descriptive After you ve selected text from a Web page and dropped into the Planner your Plan might look something like this students home bisheng Projects Personal Project Planne File Edit View Outline New Help a mM Current Completed Ongoing Upcoming X Welcome to the Personal Project Planner As you work through the user manual you will learn to use each of the headings you see below For starters click so that the in
38. onship between Current and Ongoing A good practice is to make subheadings under a project for tasks that need to be completed For example the Boston trip might have subheadings for Hotel make hotel reservations and Authorization get travel authorization You notice the outline of flag to the left of headings For task headings you can click this outline to flag the heading When you do so the heading is copied to Current You might do this across multiple headings as you plan your day so that Current is a mixture of to dos and thoughts you ve typed in as notes and task headings from various projects that require immediate or timely attention Click the flag for heading in Current when you have completed its task When this happens the heading is copied to Completed The headings also still appears in Current but is grayed If you refresh the Planner view or close and open again this heading will no longer appear C Connecting projects to life s higher level goals and roles The Planner also includes Label With a simple command that you can use to connect a project to folders and headings representing higher level goals roles and values in life Access a project by clicking on the heading text for this project clicking the right mouse button and then selecting Label With Then select the folder representing your goal role value etc Click OK and a shortcut pointing to the current project is placed in the select
39. ow For starters click so that the insertion point is under the Current heading below Current Hotel reservation in Boston Hotel reservation in Boston Completed A record of completed tasks will go here For more about how this works see lesson 5 Ongoing Projects you are actively thinking about or working on at least once a week go here See lesson 2 Upcoming Projects that are on the horizon go here See lesson 5 Deferred A resting place for the projects you can t seem to find time for but aren t ready to delete See lesson 5 Archived Move projects from to here when they are mostly done Click this link to jump back and forth between the note and its associated heading The link will work even if a note and its heading are later separated from one another by many intervening notes and headings Tip What if you just want to create a new heading and don t want to connect this heading to a note No problem Press the Enter key first to get a blank note and then select New Heading as you would normally Step 6 Send an email message from the Planner Begin typing thoughts again under the new heading It might occur to you for example to email a friend of yours we ll call her Helene who lives in the Boston area and ask her for recommendations You might type ask Helene for recommendations as a reminder Usually you would send an email message by going to your email application There are t
40. r on You ve probably done this before on paper or in an electronic document Now you ll use the Planner Step 1 Open the Planner D The Planner can be accessed via the Desktop Look for Z Or from the Start menu If you don t see the Planner try searching for Planner Step 2 Get oriented p tudents home bisheng Projects Personal Project Plang File Edit View Outline New Help t 4 8 ph Curent Completed Ongoing Upcoming Welcome to the Personal Project Planner As you work through the user manual you will learn to use each of the headings you see below For starters click so that the insertion point is under the Current heading below Current Type your thoughts to dos here It s okay to delete or type over this note Hit the Enter key to make a new line for each to do If one thought turns into several try clicking the right mouse button and selecting New Heading Completed A record of completed tasks will go here For more about how this works see lesson 5 Ongoing Projects you are actively thinking about or working on at least once a week go here See lesson 2 Upcoming Projects that are on the horizon go here See lesson 5 Deferred A resting place for the projects you can t seem to find time for but aren t ready to delete See lesson 5 Archived Move projects from to here when they are mostly done For this lesson you ll spend your time under th
41. rmation as organized in the Planner Phase IV Summarize A final phase in the management of a project is to summarize What has been accomplished What has been decided Where do things stand currently The Planner provides two supporting commands Summarize and Save As HTML 14 Summarize Suppose you have collected a great deal of information about kitchen countertops and placed this under a Countertops subheading You choose a particular kind of granite countertop You would like to summarize your decision and key points under the subheading How to do this The Planner provides a Summarize command Summarize is available from anywhere in a plan except the very top level To access click the right mouse button You will see the following dialog Summary text granite countertop Summary text is by default either the text that s currently selected or if no text is selected then the text of the current note or heading But you can add or over write this text When you click OK this text is used to add to or create a note that is a sibling of the current heading e g countertops This note and the current heading have links that point to each other The current heading may already have an associated note This association might have been created through New Heading or a previous use of Summarize If so then the new summary text is simply appended to the existing note 15 Save As
42. ry similar in structure to projects you ve done already A conference trip to Boston this year might much of the same structure as a trip San Jose last year y Lesson 4 Working with others v Lesson 5 Getting an overview of your projects and your life Lesson 1 A project from start to finish The quick start lesson lesson 0 gave the basics on Planner use Lesson 1 will show how to pull basic operations together to see a project through from start to finish To follow along for this lesson imagine you are remodeling your home This is your first home remodel The project is big as it will effect nearly every room in the house and it could possibly last a year or more from start to finish In your use of the Planner for this home remodel project you ll move through 4 phases Phase I Brainstorm In this phase you want to give expression to the various thoughts concerns options decisions constraints goals amp objectives you have concerning the remodel What would you like to accomplish avoid How should things look when you re done Use the Planner as you might use a notepad or a word processor in draft mode One note per thought Write as much as you like in a note but start a new note for a new thought Don t worry about structure Don t worry if the text has bad grammar or is incomprehensible to anyone but you Your main objective in Phase 1 is simply to get your thoughts out there Phase II Group
43. sends the document to Dawei via email through another use of ICC A Microsoft Outlook email message is created while focus remains on the plan as partially depicted in the figure 3 Dawei using Gmail sends a revised document back to William 4 William drags this email message into the plan where it is disassembled A hyperlink points back to the email message which remains in Outlook The attachment is saved as a file as represented in a second hyperlink in the line above the line for the email message beginning demo script dh 5 William being especially compulsive creates a new version of this file to which he then makes final changes 6 William then uses ICC again to create an email message with the revised Final version as an attachment The figure also includes a note that the video demo is due by 7 11 08 Corresponding to this note is an entry in the Outlook calendar with a hyperlink pointing back to the heading video demo and its file system folder File Edit View Outline New Help E gt amp 4 iB E video de video demo 3 minutes video demo 3 minutes due by 11 7 2008 Final version q demo script wj w demo script dh w RE Please review d Please review demo script wi Planner supports a common scenario of collaborative work the exchange and iterative development of a document via email Lesson 5 Staying Current and connected I
44. sertion point is under the Current heading below Current Hotel reservation in Boston Hotel reservation in Boston amp ask Helene for recommendations wad The Colonnade Hotel is an upscale boutique hotel 5 Completed A record of completed tasks will go here For more about how this works see lesson 5 Ongoing Projects you are actively thinking about or working on at least once a week go here See lesson 2 Upcoming Projects that are on the horizon go here See lesson 5 Deferred A resting place for the projects you can t seem to find time for but aren t ready to delete See lesson 5 Archived Move projects from to here when they are mostly done This outside in operation is called drag amp link simply select drag to the Planner and a link back to the source is automatically created Think of drag amp link as an alternative to the use of web bookmarks or a tagging service like Del icio us You can use the operations of drag amp link and in context create to keep all your project and task related information in one place Drag amp link also works for Word documents and Outlook email messages For example use drag amp link to grab the important conclusion of an email message Ok we ll meet at Wild Ginger at 7 30 This can appear in the Planner along with a link back to the email message in case later you want to understand the conclusion Why did we pick Wild Ginger If you
45. sion to your project in four phases Brainstorm i e get your thoughts down Working in the Draft mode of the Planner write your thoughts down as you might do using a notepad or the Draft mode of your word processor Use New Heading to start a sub plot in the story of your project Il Group and organize thoughts Working in Outline mode use Planner operations of Move Up Move Down Promote and Demote much as you might use similar operations in the Outline of a word processor Ill Gather information Collect information from Web pages email messages and documents Drag amp Link this information into the project plan you have created in phases and Il Links are created that you can click to get back to the source Use New operations to send email messages or create your own documents Again links are created automatically in your project plan IV Summarize Use the Summarize command to extract key information from a subheading Use Save As to create an HTML version of your plan that you can then edit in your word processor The headings you create in a project plan correspond to file system folders The documents you create via the plan are files under these folders Other links you see in a plan are shortcuts in the file system You can see this by using the Windows Explorer to browse a Projects folder a sibling folder to Documents You might think of the Planner as a document like overlay to your file system But how the
46. ts to the trip you planned last year to San Jose For the San Jose trip you needed to make plane reservations make a hotel reservation register for the conference etc You ll need to do many of these same steps for the Boston trip Can you leverage your project plan for San Jose as you plan your trip to Boston We re on to Lesson 3 Lesson 3 Borrow from an old project to build a new one Lesson 3 is short You will learn how to leverage a previous project as you start anew one Do so by following these steps 1 Find the old project and bring it up in its own Planner view As already reviewed in Lesson 2 you can do this by navigating to the project s folder using the Windows Explorer clicking the right mouse button and selecting the Personal Project Planner As an alternative from within the Planner you can click on the heading for the old project and then select New Window Either way you should see a special instance of the Planner which is anchored at the old project 2 Select Export from the File menu on the menu bar You will see all Export From Home re model To location _ students home bisheng Projects Ongoing gm Project name Homeremodel ss s Export Export Structure only X Cancel 3 You can make the following choices To location determines where in which folder you wish to place your new project The default location is Ongoing which is under your main Projects fol
47. ve and concerning alternatives available But in the end you need to decide which kind of countertop you want to purchase Using the Planner you can call out this decision and this outcome from the pack of contending alternatives Phase I Brainstorm In Phase I your objective is to think freely concerning your project and then to write these good thoughts down What would you like to accomplish How do you want things to be when you are done Think of the work on your project as a journey Where do you want to be when you re done What must you be sure to do along the way Through the following steps you ll open the Planner shift to Draft mode and then navigate to Ongoing where all your ongoing projects should go You ll then create a new heading under Ongoing for the project you are working on Then you can start writing your thoughts down much as you might on a notepad or in a word processing document 1 Open the Planner If you just finished the Quick Start lesson the Planner may be open already Otherwise as described in the Quick Start lesson open from the desktop or from the Start menu 2 Switch to Draft mode Click the View menu on the menu bar and select Draft 3 Navigate to Ongoing Click on the Ongoing tab of the navigation bar or if the Ongoing heading is visible simply click on this heading Ongoing is where you ll keep all your active projects 4 Create n
48. wo good reasons not to do this First you will shift attention away from what you are doing currently Second you will surely get distracted by any other new email messages that you happen to notice in the inbox The Planner let s you send an email message while keeping your focus on your Plan To send an email message from within the Plan simply click the right button on the mouse and then select New Email Message You ll see a blank new email form just as you would see if you started an email message in MS Outlook Be patient it may take a few seconds for this form to appear especially if MS Outlook is not already running Simply complete the email message and send The subject line of the email message will be seeded to contain the note text by default but you can easily type over this if you want After you have sent the email message your focus shifts immediately back to the Plan and your view will look something like this students home bisheng Projects Personal Project Planne File Edit View Outline New Help t Pi E Current I Completed Ongoing I Upcoming Welcome to the Personal Project Planner As you work through the user manual you will learn to use each of the headings you see below For starters click so that the insertion point is under the Current heading below Current Hotel reservation in Boston Hotel reservation in Boston ask Helene for recommendations wad Completed
49. xt menu Reply to Previous Message Reply the previous Email message with the current file attached Local file icon Context menu Report Bugs Go to the online bugs report page Menu Help Request Features Go to the online feature request page Menu Help S Create a summary note under Summarize Heading Node text Context menu the parent heading T U Go to th li User Manual Se ey ee eee ne Menu Help page V View in Outlook Open Outlook to view the current Email message Email icon Context menu
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