File Menu

The File menu gives you access to the Backstage view with the following options:

Info – Display a page with information on the currently active schedule. The information on this page cannot be edited.
New – Create a new DTS schedule.
Open – Open a DTS schedule. Select from one of the following options:

Recent Schedules – Display a list of the 10 most recently opened schedules.
Recent Folders – Display a list of the most recently accessed folders.
Browse – Navigate to a location and select an DTS schedule. The Open form allows you to choose from a number of different file types. See File types in DTS below.

Save – Save the current schedule.

The first time that you save a new schedule (when its title is "Untitled"), the Save As screen is displayed allowing you to change the location of the file and give it a name. Thereafter selecting Save will immediately save the schedule. See the note on File types in DTS below.
Save As - select from one of the following options:

Recent Folders – Display the Save As screen which allows you to change the schedule location and name. See the note on File types in DTS below.
Browse – Display the Save As screen which allows you to change the schedule location and name.

Tools – Select from one of the following options:

Merge EXF File – Merge the data in a file of your choice (typically a *.exf file) into the currently selected schedule. For more information, see Merge.
Copy Data – Merge portions of a schedule into multiple other schedules concurrently, or exports portions of a schedule to an EXF file.
Export – Export selected data from the current schedule to a Microsoft Project XML file. For more information, see XML Import/Export.

Print – Display the Print form with a preview of the relevant report.
Application Settings – See Application Settings.
Close – Close the current schedule.

File types in DTS

*.ews - this is the default and preferred file type for storing schedules. It is a binary format (meaning you cannot read the file using a normal text editor). DTS can read all *.ews files created by the same or any earlier version.

*.exf - this is an DTS Exchange Format file, which is a human readable text file. It is used mainly for exchange purposes with other programs using a published file format. Since it is a text file, anybody can tamper with the file, which implies that data integrity cannot be guaranteed. For this reason DTS will do a lot of cross-checking when loading such a file type to ensure/validate data integrity. ??? Version 2.24

*.ewst - this is a binary file format identical to the *.ews format, with the only difference being that such a file does not contain any tasks or task baselines. It is typically used to store schedule templates containing fields, filters, calendars resources etc. into which some data can be merged (which typically comes from a *.exf file).

*.xml - this is an xml file used to exchange data with Microsoft Project.