User Interface General Principles

DTS is a Windows desktop application featuring a collection of views, screens, ribbons and other elements to present you with easy-to-use tools, to make it as easy as possible to generate a practical and reliable schedule.

Views

Views typically have their own right-click menu system and proprietary functionality to present a particular type of information, such as the Dashboard or Flowchart views, for example.

Each view appears as a tab along the top of the display area (below the ribbons), for example:

See Views.

Areas

In DTS, an "area" is part of a view (see above) that performs a particular function. The task area, timeline and Crosstab are all examples of areas.

Ribbons

Your application uses ribbons to segregate commonly-used commands into different areas. Selecting something on a ribbon causes one of the following behaviours:

  • A screen displays. Screens contain information related to a particular task, such as resource assignment, default Gantt chart colouring options, project settings and so on. See "Screens", below.

  • A new view displays. A view is like a screen, but takes over the full display area. See "Viewports", above.

  • A command is launched. In this scenario, something happens but you don't see a screen or view change. For example, clearing filters is a command, in that previous task filters are removed, but you don't need to do anything other than click the ribbon button to make it happen. Another example of a command is moving a Gantt chart bar up or down in the view.

  • A state is set. This means something is toggled on or off, or can be a selection of an exclusive option within a group, such as a text alignment choice, for example.

  • A list of values is displayed. Selection lists allow you to define a particular value for a property, such as the start of a date range, or to pick a task sorting option, for example. Lists can appear on ribbons, within data areas and on screens.

    Note: Selecting a value from a list can immediately trigger a change in the way data is presented, but selection can also be part of a larger definition of settings to be committed as one (such as when setting up properties on a screen, for example, where all changes are applied using OK or Apply).

See Ribbons.

Screens

Screens are collections of related fields used to either launch commands or define settings for schedule processing. Fields include buttons, text fields, lists, tables and other mechanisms for accessing the power of your software.

Typically, a screen contains a set of fields that, once you've specified what you need to, update your project either by clicking OK (to apply settings and dismiss the screen) or Apply (to apply settings and keep the screen on display).

There are hundreds of screens in DTS, so screens are supported by context-sensitive help; press F1 to see it.