WBS Schedule Pro - Update History
Following are updates to WBS Schedule Pro 5.x since the original release in June, 2014.
To see which version you have, start WBS Schedule Pro and go to File-About. If you have 5.x but not latest, see the download page for information on getting a free update to the latest version.
Version 5.1.0025 - Latest Version!
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0024
This version greatly improves the appearance of WBS, Network and Gantt Charts in WBS Schedule Pro.
Here is what we have improved or added to improve the appearance of charts:
1. Better rounded corners - We've incorporated "anti-aliasing" which is a Windows feature that smooths out rounded corners so they not only display nicer on the screen but print even smoother.
2. Gradient Fills - You can now select that a Box or Cell color have a Gradient Fill which means the color will fade from dark to light or from light to dark for added affect.
3. Improved Callouts (Text Boxes) - The Text Boxes used to annotate your charts are now called Callouts and have an improved look. In addition, Callouts can now be added to Gantt Charts.
4. Images! - You can now add graphic images to the Headers and Footers for printing. You can also add images to any chart by pasting an image from the Clipboard. This is great for adding Corporate Logos or any type of picture that you might need to illustrate an idea.
5. Indicators in WBS and Network Charts - WBS and Network Charts can now display a little icon next to a box to indicate when a Task has a Note, a Constraint or when the Task is 100% Complete. Hover over the indicator in the chart to display information about that topic. Toggle these On/Off in the Indicators group under the Format tab.
6. New Views - Where appropriate we have added the improved look to each WBS, Network or Gantt View. Many of the WBS and Network Views now use rounded corner boxes, gradient fills and other features to make them appear sharper and more visually appealing. These new Views are automatically installed on new installations of WBS Schedule Pro. If you are updating an older version with this version you can manually install these new Views by following the instructions here: Updating Views
Other improvements include:
Instant WBS Codes - We have added an option to quickly display the WBS or Outline Code next to the Task Name in all charts. Choose the Format Tab in any View and select WBS Codes to place this code before the Name of the task. For example, "Task Name" becomes "1.2.2 Task Name" when selected.
Organizer - There is now an Organizer to make it easier to manage default and custom Views, Page Layouts and Calendars. The Organizer is accessed from the File menu, from the Project tab or from the Views Pane by selecting the Organizer icon.
Copy Picture/Save As Picture in Gantt Charts - The Copy Picture command and File-Save As Picture command are now enabled in Gantt Charts.
Row and Date Selection when using Copy Picture and Save As Picture in Gantt Charts - When using the Copy Picture or Save As Picture command in a Gantt Chart you now have the option to copy the selected Rows and/or select a Date Range to copy.
Fixed Overlapping Lines and Boxes in WBS Charts - There were instances where lines, boxes and/or shadows would overlap in a WBS Chart. This was especially prevalent when using the Adjust for Page Breaks feature. Now fixed.
Simplified Line Widths - Instead of the many, and sometimes confusing, number of line width options, we now offer thin, medium and thick line widths only. These are available for Box Borders, Callout Borders, Connector Lines in WBS Charts and Dependency Lines in Network Charts. Dotted, Dashed and Dot-Dash lines are still available.
In a WBS Chart, holding the Shift key down and dragging with your mouse will now create a New Task. This is similar to a feature we had in our old WBS Chart Pro software.
Fixed several instances where if you created a Task by entering Duration/Rem Dur/Act Dur/% Comp, etc it wouldn’t trigger the various other fields to be calculated correctly. Now it does.
In a WBS Chart if you had selected a Summary Task and selected the "List All" command to display its subordinates vertically, adding new tasks or making various other changes would not add these new tasks with the same arrangement. Now fixed so it consistently lists Tasks under their respective Summary Task correctly.
On certain machines running Windows 10, with WBS Schedule Pro closed, doubleclicking a .wbs file would open the program but not open the file. This has been fixed.
Version 5.1.0024
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0023
When displaying a color or shape picker from a dialog box and then switching away from the program using Alt-Tab, returning would not clear this form.
Now fixed so that it closes the form when you Alt-Tab away.
We accidently added an icon to the MS Project ribbon that was for a feature in progress but not ready for release. Clicking the icon did nothing. This version removes the icon if you repeat the MS Project Setup (click the Microsoft Project drop down arrow in WBS Schedule Pro and select Setup Microsoft Project).
Version 5.1.0023
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0022
When Unlinking from a MS Project the Notes field remained in Read-Only mode. Now, when Unlinking a WBS Schedule Pro plan from MS Project the Notes field is switched to Read-Write.
Several issues with Drop Down lists have been fixed including having nothing selected and pressing Enter, or having nothing selected and switching away from the program using Alt-Tab.
Several issues with opening XML files produced in other programs have been fixed. This allows WBS Schedule Pro to open more XML files produced by other project management software applications than it could before.
In a Network Chart, displaying the Timescale by Day or Hours on a multi-year project would hit the width limits of the chart and would not display. These limits have now been increased to accommodate any size chart.
If you had Text boxes anywhere in a WBS Chart and did a click and drag motion on the Project Summary Task it would display “Encountered an improper argument”. Now fixed.
Version 5.1.0022
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0021
In a project with greater than 450 tasks if you selected a task in a Gantt Chart or Task Sheet with an ID greater than 450 and then switched to the Gantt Chart with Baseline View it would freeze the program. Now fixed.
Creating a chart in WBS Schedule Pro from a MS Project plan with a large number of Calendar Exceptions would affect the performance of WBS Schedule Pro. Now fixed.
Version 5.1.0021
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0020
Having a large amount of text in a Task Name could somtimes cause the program to close unexpectedly when hovering over a task and displaying the Hover Tooltips. Now fixed!
New Extended Headers feature - Added an option to Gantt Charts and Task Sheets that extend the left edges of Summary Task/Group Headers down the page. To turn this on, select the Format tab in a Gantt Chart or Task Sheet and select the Extended Headers option. This is best used with a Fill color for each Level. To select Fill Colors, go to Format-Text, select Fill then Level and choose a Fill color for each Summary Level.
New Timescale Gridlines - Added Gridlines to the Gantt Chart Timescale to display vertical lines for the Upper Timescale and/or Bottom Timescale. To configure these, right-click on the Gantt Chart area and select Gridlines… or click the Format Tab and select Gridlines.
Sometimes the wrong Default Calendar was being used for displaying Non-Working time. Now fixed.
The short date format dd/mm was incorrectly displaying dates. Now fixed.
Added the Insert Blank Rows command to the menu that appears when right-clicking the grid in Gantt Charts and Task Sheets.
When using WBS Schedule Pro with the French version of MS Project, the Start and Finish dates are now displayed correctly.
Version 5.1.0020
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0019
Multiple Calendars - WBS Schedule Pro now supports multiple calendars. Create calendars with different workweek and workday configurations and assign them to the various tasks in your project. There are now 3 built-in calendars to help you get started. Select the Project tab and select the Calendars drop down arrow to select a calendar, create a new one or modify an existing one. There is also a Calendar Organizer for transferring calendars between projects and for setting a default calendar for all new projects.
Project-wide Default Calendar - Along with the ability to define multiple calendars is the ability to set one of these as the project-wide default. Set the Default Project Calendar in File-Options-Settings.
Calendar Day Repeating Patterns - You can now define a repeating pattern for any day in your calendar. This is great for defining Holidays in your project once and having it repeat throughout the project.
Gantt Chart changes - There are now additional fields that can be displayed around Task Bars. Text within a Task bar now resizes the bar. Text within a Task bar can now extend beyond the bar and includes an option to “clip text” if you don’t want text to extend beyond the bar. Adding Milestone Text now has a different dialog more relevant to Milestones. Alignment of text around a Task bar or Milestone Symbol is now relative to the bar/symbol.
In a Gantt Chart Timescale there was not a setting to display the Day number (1,2,3,etc), only the day count from the project start. There is now an option to display the day number.
Exporting Outline Level to MS Word & Excel recalculated the values and started with 0 at the top which did not match the Outline Levels as displayed in WBS Schedule Pro. Now fixed to match the Outline Levels as displayed.
Unlinking from MS Project would sometimes display the message “Encountered Improper Argument” and then fail. Now fixed.
Certain quote characters in the Notes field would cause the Word Export to fail. Now fixed.
If you applied a filter in MS Project, created a chart in WBS Schedule Pro and then selected the MS Word Export it would export the entire project and not the filtered tasks. This is now fixed so that it exports only the filtered items to MS Word.
If the Word Export failed or needed to display a message we weren’t handling this well. This message might not appear or it would lock the temporary text file and you couldn’t run the Word Export again. We now handle Word Export errors better.
Added an option to the Word export to omit Summary Tasks when exporting.
In a Network Chart if you had a Text Box or Linked Text Box selected and Inserted a Task or Pasted a Task the program would react in unpredictable ways. In a WBS Chart, only Pasting a Task would cause problems. Both of these have been fixed.
In various places, if you were editing a cell and clicked outside of that cell without accepting the edits it could cause problems. This is now fixed so the edits are handled properly when clicking elsewhere.
Upgrading to Project 2016 and not re-configuring Project 2016 would display the message “...can’t communicate with MS Project, there may be a Report or Graph selected..." This is only partially true. It could be that Project needs to be re-configured by running the MS Project Setup from within WBS Schedule Pro. The message has been changed to say "... can't communicate with MS Project because it may need to be configured OR there may a Report or Graph selected..."
In a WBS or Network Chart if you zoomed by holding the CTRL key and scrolling with the Mouse Scroll Wheel the zoom factor was not being saved which meant that the next edit to the chart would reset to the last used Zoom. The Zoom factor is now remembered when using the CTRL+ Mouse Scroll Wheel combination.
When creating charts from MS Project plans, Text fields were Read-Only. Now they are Read-Write if there is no Lookup Table and Read-Only if there is a Lookup Table since we can’t manage MS Project’s Lookup Tables.
When creating plans from the German version of MS Project the Start and Finish dates were incorrectly displayed in WBS Schedule Pro. This is because requesting the Start and Finish fields in English would incorrectly return the Schedule Start and Scheduled Finish dates. We now request the Start and Finish fields in German which fixes the problem. If you are using a non-English version of MS Project and the Start and Finish dates are not displayed correctly in WBS Schedule Pro, contact us and we will fix it. We have many, but not all, non-English versions of Project so would need to find out how your Start and Finish fields are displayed in your version of MS Project.
The drop down lists in File-Options-Settings would allow edits which wouldn’t work. Now they are Display-Only drop down options.
There is now a Custom… option when you Right-Click the WBS and Network Charts and select Zoom.
Several Quick Access Toolbar commands were missing icons. Icons are now present for the most popular commands.
In the Format tab of the Gantt Charts, Tooltips were added when hovering over the icons on the Ribbon.
You can now Right-Click in WBS and Network Charts and select the Modify Styles commands. This can be quicker than selecting the Format tab.
Transferring a Standalone WBS Schedule Pro chart to MS Project where a Text field contains greater than 255 characters would cause MS Project to import nothing into that field. Now, when sending large Text fields to MS Project it truncates to 252 characters and adds … to the end to indicate a truncated field since Project can’t handle more than 255 characters in a Text field.
The old PERT Chart EXPERT software was not saving the Ungrouped command so opening a file saved in PERT Chart EXPERT would always open Grouped. Now WBS Schedule Pro opens an Ungrouped PERT Chart EXPERT file as Ungrouped.
When Unlinking from a MS Project plan the Status field would disappear. Now fixed.
Version 5.1.0019
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0018
Fixed an issue with the UnRegistration feature.
Version 5.1.0018
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0017
Fixed the issue in Gantt Charts where it would display the "Encountered Improper Argument" messsage when creating a Gantt Chart from MS Project or switching from another view to the Gantt when the Gantt contained many blank lines.
When displaying a Gantt Chart from a Master MS Project plan it no longer displays blank lines for the gaps in the ID's created by MS Project's Master/Subproject feature.
Fixed the issue where clicking the X to close a Gantt Chart and then saving without overwriting an existing file would save and then close the program unexpectedly. It now closes the file properly and leaves the program running.
The way Views and Templates are loaded at startup has changed. If WBS Schedule Pro is started and there are no Views in the current user's Views and Templates folder (C:\Users\USER\Documents\WBS Schedule Pro\Views and Templates) then WBS Schedule Pro copies the Views that exist in the program folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\WBS Schedule Pro\Views and Templates or wherever you installed WBS Schedule Pro). This allows the current user to have Read-Write access to their Views. The old approach used the Views in the program folder when the current user's Views and Templates folder was empty but since this is usually a Read-Only folder, a user could not update the Views.
Version 5.1.0017
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0016
The WBS Schedule Pro setup files are now signed with a new Digital Signature to allow for successful downloads from Internet Explorer 11 and Edge in Windows 10.
When creating charts in WBS Schedule Pro with certain Microsoft Project plans it would stop in WBS Schedule Pro and display the message "Microsoft Project is exporting additional data" in the lower left corner of the screen. Now fixed. WBS Schedule Pro now defaults to NOT exporting this additional data which allows these MS Project plans to be displayed. See Help in File-Options-Advanced for a detailed explanation.
Added compatibility for the Simplified Chinese version of Microsoft Project. Before this, only the Traditional Chinese version of MS Project was supported.
Added compatibility for the Portuguese (Portugal) version of Microsoft Project. Before this, only the Portuguese (Brazil) version of MS Project was supported.
Added an Advanced tab in File-Options for various program settings. See Help within the Advanced tab for an explanation of these settings.
Now includes an AutoRecovery feature. This automatically saves current open projects to temporary files in the event WBS Schedule Pro shuts down unexpectedly. When this happens, WBS Schedule Pro will restart and display the last autosaved versions. This is not an AutoSave feature where the files are automatically saved to their given filenames but an AutoRecovery system to restore files that were present when the program shut down. Set the time between AutoRecovery saves in File-Options-Advanced.
You can now turn off the Tooltips that are displayed when you hover over a Task or Link. This option is in File-Options-Advanced.
When importing a file from Excel to WBS Schedule Pro or from a Text file into WBS Schedule Pro, a blank line would be turned into a Task. Now blank lines are ignored.
Fixed all instances where pressing F1 would display a "Failed to Launch Help" message and then still display Help. This message no longer appears.
In Page Headers and Footers, if you highlighted all text in the Left or Right Header or Footer and pressed the Delete key it would put the text into the Center. Now fixed.
Fixed several instances where lines were not appearing when printing a Gantt Chart.
Added the ability to display Column Headers on each page of the Gantt Chart when selecting the "Header/Footer/Legend on Every Page" option in File-Page Setup-Chart.
From within WBS Schedule Pro, clicking Excel Setup adds the WBS Schedule Pro installation folder to the list of Trusted Locations to allow the Excel Wizard to work with Windows 10 without additional user intervention.
When printing a single digit page number in a Header or Footer it would print every other page number. Now fixed.
Version 5.1.0016
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0015
When going from Microsoft Project to WBS Schedule Pro we fixed several instances where the message "Encountered Improper Argument" was displayed and no chart appeared. This was a major inconvenience that is now fixed! This issue was difficult to pinpoint but we are happy to report it is finally fixed. Sorry to those affected.
If a project is Grouped by something other than Outline, you can now rearrange Group Headers in the Network Chart by right-clicking on a Group Header and selecting Move Group Up or Move Group Down. This works great when Grouped by the Text fields or Resource Names in a Network Chart and you need to rearrange the order of these Groups.
The Goto Task feature (the Goto button or Ctrl-G) would not select the correct task if you were Grouped by something other than Outline or if you were displaying a chart from MS Project that included hidden tasks. Goto now selects the proper task under all circumstances.
The Print Layout option is now enabled in Network Charts. This had been disabled while we worked on a fix.
Trace is no longer saved On in the Network Chart View. This avoids the situation where Trace is applied when opening a New project. Trace is also removed and all Tasks are shown if the Traced Tasks are deleted or become hidden. Traced Tasks are also updated better when links have been modified in MS Project and you return to a Traced Network Chart.
With no Printer installed on the computer where WBS Schedule Pro is running, any attempt to Print, use Print Preview, open the Page Layout dialog or switch to Print Layout mode would cause problems. Although rare to have no printer installed, this issue is now fixed.
Under certain conditions, WBS Schedule Pro wrongly displayed the message "Microsoft Project has not been configured to enable WBS Schedule Pro to seamlessly exchange information. Would you like to Configure MS Project?". We now display the correct error message depending on the situation.
Notes can no longer be entered into Text Boxes. The Text Boxes used to annotate WBS and Network Charts are not Tasks and cannot store Notes data. Before this fix, Notes were being stored in the Project Summary Task (Task 0) which will now stop happening.
Fixed compatibility issues with Project 98, 2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007. WBS Schedule Pro now works better with these versions of Microsoft Project.
Version 5.1.0015
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0014
Added a new Task Popup form to WBS, Network and Gantt Charts to display Task information when hovering over a Task, Milestone or Summary Task.
Added a new Link Popup form to Network and Gantt Charts to display Link Information when hovering over a Dependency Link.
The background color for a selected cell in a Task Sheet is now white to appear more consistent with other Windows applications.
In a Network Chart, the Dependency Links dialog would not show renamed fields in the "Show Fields" drop down list and would affect saving a file. This is fixed to show renamed fields and now saves properly.
Using Project 2013 or greater and transferring a WBS Schedule Pro plan to Microsoft Project that has not been configured for WBS Schedule Pro would display the incorrect message "Unable to Communicate with Microsoft Project. This might be because Microsoft Project has a Report or Graph selected." This has now been fixed to show the correct message that Microsoft Project needs to be configured.
Selecting multiple cells in a Sheet or Grid now keeps the selected cell focused when scrolling. This is now consistent with Excel and other sheet views.
In a Task Sheet or Gantt Chart, setting a Fill color based on something other than Critical Path would reset to "Fill Based On Critical Path" if you changed something in the Text tab and clicked OK. Setting Fill colors is now remembered as changes are made to this form.
Version 5.1.0014
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0011
When using the Demo version and creating a chart from MS Project the WBS Schedule Pro software no longer displays a message that you are in the Demo version.
When using the Focus feature, performing certain operations would remove the Focus. Now fixed so Focus remains.
Printing a Gantt Chart would sometimes print phantom lines. Now fixed.
Additional issues with pasting Non-ASCII Characters into WBS Schedule Pro have been fixed.
Version 5.1.0011
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0010
WBS Schedule Pro could sometimes incorrectly detect that an English version of MS Project was the Spanish version and not work properly. This is now fixed.
Pasting Non-ASCII Characters into WBS Schedule Pro could cause problems when opening the file. Now fixed.
Version 5.1.0010
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.1.0000
Microsoft Project 2016 Support - WBS Schedule Pro now supports and fully integrates with Project 2016.
Performing a Trace in the Network Chart is significantly faster under certain circumstances.
If you were in Project 2013 or Project 2016 and had a "Report" or "Graph" selected it would fail to create a chart in WBS Schedule Pro and give you an erroneous message. Now WBS Schedule Pro gives a proper message that it cannot communicate with MS Project if you have a Report or Graph selected and you need to select a View in Project (like a Gantt) and try again.
When using the Spanish version of Project 2010 it would sometimes display Start and Finish using the Schedule Start and Schedule Finish dates. Now fixed to correctly display Start and Finish.
When using Microsoft Project 2013 or 2016, if you were Grouped you couldn't display charts in WBS Schedule Pro. Now fixed.
Fixed several issues relating to using Microsoft Project, SharePoint and WBS Schedule Pro. Note: if you are using Microsoft Project, SharePoint and WBS Schedule Pro make sure you have the latest Microsoft Project updates! Microsoft fixed an issue they had when you opened projects stored on SharePoint in MS Project and then created charts using WBS Schedule Pro.
Grouping by Outline Codes and WBS Codes has been improved and can produce much nicer charts from the data provided in these fields.
Numerous speed improvements and optimizations were made, especially when linked to MS Project plans.
Fixed several issues when working with Microsoft Project plans that had Lookup Tables.
We now digitally sign the .exe files used for the "Check for Update" feature to avoid being detected by some anti-virus programs as potentially dangerous.
Improved error message when typing into the Resource Names field in the Task Sheet or Gantt Chart.
When creating a Value List in WBS Schedule Pro, leaving a space after the text would display an error when selecting it from drop down list. Now fixed.
Version 5.1.0000
Fixes and enhancements since Version 5.0.xxxx
Gantt Charts! - The most significant new feature of WBS Schedule Pro 5.1 is the addition of Gantt Charts.
Important Note: Gantt Charts are not included in WBS Schedule Pro (WBS Version) and WBS Schedule Pro (PERT Version) but do contain the remaining fixed and enhancements listed below.
There is now a "Check for Updates" feature in the program that can check for updates to the program and install them automatically without the need to download the full software, Uninstall and then Reinstall.
There is now a Save and Update Baseline feature (select the Project Tab and then Baseline). This makes it easier to record and update the Baseline data in a project.
You can now have Curved and Diagonal connector lines in WBS Charts. Until now, only right-angle lines could be displayed. In a WBS Chart, select Format-Lines and choose the new Right Angle, Diagonal or Curve option in the Corners drop down list.
Support for all Polish versions of Microsoft Project has been added.
Added a Display Language option in File-Options-Settings. This determines the display language of certain fields in WBS Schedule Pro such as Duration/Work Units and Constraint Type. If set to Automatic it uses the Windows settings to determine the language to use if standalone OR the Microsoft Project language if linked to a MS Project plan. Setting this to English will display in English in a standalone chart AND in English when linked to Project even if MS Project is in another language.
The File-Open dialog now remembers the last folder used. This is until the program is closed at which time it reverts to using the default folder. This is now consistent with other Office applications.
Outdenting Tasks in the Task Sheet no longer removes dependencies between Tasks being outdented.
Various issues with displaying multiple lines of Notes have been fixed. This includes importing & exporting multiple lines of Notes using the Excel Wizard.
The Excel Wizard now works with Excel 2013 if you have an open workbook.
When using Project 2013 with WBS Schedule Pro, doing certain operations would activate and switch to MS Project. This has been fixed so that it stays in WBS Schedule Pro when working with Project 2013 unless you tell it to switch.
Custom box colors, positions and arrangements are no longer reset when you run the Excel or Word export.
You can now change colors on a Dual Monitor system.
The Excel Wizard no longer displays an error message if you attempt to save a Map to a different folder than the default.
The Notes field was sometimes truncating when transferring a standalone WBS file to MS Project. Now fixed.
Fixed various issues with the opening of .TXT files.
Fixed various issues with manually entered WBS Codes.
Fixed various issues with opening .XML files. This feature is now much more robust and can handle XML files produced by many more applications.
In Format-Fields for WBS and Network Charts if you right-clicked on the sample box, WBS Schedule Pro would stop working. This is now fixed.
The WBS Schedule Pro Buttons within Project 2010 and Project 2013 now support Roaming Profiles.
When working with a Spanish version of MS Project it now correctly displays the Week Duration unit.
When using the Spanish version of Project 2013 it now correctly displays the Start and Finish dates.
Selecting the WBS column in a Task Sheet and selecting Clear from the Project tab or Right-Clicking and selecting Clear Column would sometimes blank out the WBS column. Now it correctly resets the WBS Codes to their proper values.
There was an issue with creating a project with greater than 20 WBS Levels. This is now fixed.
Large Lookup Tables in a Microsoft Project plan made it extremely slow to display charts using WBS Schedule Pro. This is now fixed.
Click and Drag Group Headers in a Task Sheet now correctly moves the Group instead of placing all Tasks from that Group into current Group.
Custom Colors, Box Positions and Arrangements in WBS Charts and Custom Colors in Network Charts are no longer removed when doing certain operations. This was more prevalent when linked to MS Project. Colors and positions are now remembered properly.
Zoom factors now stay set when switching between Views.
Task Sheet now updates better to resize cells when data changes.
Fixed several Date and Duration related issues when using the Excel Wizard. Specifically when exporting data from Excel and importing into WBS Schedule Pro.
Improved the integration between WBS Schedule Pro and the Portuguese version of Microsoft Project.
Fixed "Bad Outline Level" error when creating charts from MS Project.
Fixed "Encountered an Improper Argument" error when Indenting or Outdenting tasks in the Task Sheet.
Improved performance when working with large projects especially when working in the Task Sheet.