Tag Archives: Merlin 101

Merlin – Transferring your license

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When wanting to install Merlin on a new mac and need to transfer your license from the old mac, just check the following path:

HD > Users > Your Username > Library > Application Support > Merlin > Licenses

Copy the license file(s) to the new Mac and download the actual version of Merlin from our website. Finally drag the license onto the Merlin icon.

Have you customized report templates as required for the management of your projects? Saved project templates, advanced searches, column sets or workspaces on your mac and want to transfer those files as well? Just check the paths mentioned here.

Merlin: MS Project MPX vs XML as exchange formats to Merlin (Mac)

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Merlin’s compatibility to Windows and mainly MS Project is very important not only to us but also to our users.  What if you were practicing project management on windows and have lots of existing projects which you would like to use now on your Mac? Or what it you have to forward a project to a Windows user needing to edit it further in MS Project? That’s fine. With Merlin you can handle both situations just as well.

Merlin opens MS Project .mpx, .mpp, .xml file formats and exports in .xml, .mpx.

Are you wandering which file format should be preferred? The answer is easy:
We -and even Microsoft- recommend to use the XML format as it is open and reliable.

Only when trying to exchange files with MS Project users of older versions than MS Project 2000, you would need to choose a legacy format like mpx.

Simple, isn’t?

Merlin – attaching emails onto project structures

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As a project manager working with Merlin I would like to know if there are any quick and easy means of adding emails as attachments onto my project plans?  I am using Apple’s standard Mail.app on a contemporary Mac OS X version.

Sure, just drag and drop emails from Mail directly onto activities of your Merlin project. Merlin will insert them as elements and list them in the according elements area as file elements. Should you want to read the contents of this email message later on, just select it in the elements area, and use the inspector to ‘open’ it again in Mail.app. It’s as simple as that.

Merlin – MobileMe calendars break Merlin’s iCal sync

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header_calendar_20100622If you are a Merlin user and thinking of upgrading to the new MobileMe calendars, please be aware that…

  • It converts your local calendars to subscribed calendars; which means Merlin won’t be able to sync to them
  • According to Apple, it is compatible to Mac OS X 10.6.4 or newer ; if you have any machines running Mac OS X 10.5.x, they won’t fully sync.

Why is that?

Merlin uses Apple’s SyncServices API for syncing with iCal. The new MobileMe calendar data is moved to a new calendar service, which supports the CalDAV standard. CalDAV is an industry-standard calendar protocol that works with the latest Apple iOS devices.

This means. You may sync locally your Merlin projects to iCal and sync with other Macs, but your local calendars won’t get synced to your MobileMe calendars accessed over your iOS devices.

In case you do decide to use the new MobileMe calendars, we recommend exporting your project schedules in local iCal calendars and in a second step into your MobileMe calendars.

Export in iCal

A similar approach is suggested by Apple when resolving problems with duplicate calendars.

You may consider as an alternative sharing your private calendars to be viewed and edited by MobileMe members to whom you have granted permission.

Relevant links

Merlin Applescript – Am I on time?

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When scheduling a project in Merlin and want to know whether you are on time or in delay… just watch the Gantt chart.

ScreenSnapz006

Grey bars show planned values, coloured your actual progress as you go. Is the last activity of your project displayed in the timeline earlier than its according grey element? In this case you may expect to be finished before the planned end. Is your last activity displayed later than its grey pair? So you are late.

If you prefer numbers than visual information, just enable the display of the columns “expected end date” and “planned end date” in the outline. As you update your project and enter actual values on it, expected values change to show the new updated situation. Check those values on the top most row of the outline (which is a handle to your project) and subtract them manually to have an numerical answer to the question: Am I on time…

ScreenSnapz003
In case you do prefer using your time for PM tasks and not for simple maths, you may call the following AppleScript and let it do the necessary subtraction for you.

(* 	Scripting with Merlin 2

	You may incorporate this ProjectWizards sample code into your program(s) without
	restriction.  This ProjectWizards sample code has been provided "AS IS" and the
	responsibility for its operation is yours.  You are not permitted to
	redistribute this ProjectWizards sample code as "ProjectWizards sample code" after having
	made changes.  If you're going to redistribute the code, we require
	that you make it clear that the code was descended from ProjectWizards sample
	code, but that you've made changes.

	Copyright ©2010 ProjectWizards, Melle, Germany. All rights reserved.
*)

(*
	This script checks planned and expected end dates of the top most opened project and informs about it being on time, in delay, or earlier as expected.
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