Annotating your schedules with symbol text

Annotate your schedules with symbol text

With symbol text, you can enter up to 3 lines of text with any symbol on your schedule. The example below, shows a symbol with symbol text:

Adding symbol text
1.	Click the Arrow tool in the ToolBox.
2.	On the schedule, double-click a symbol.
3.	Enter text on Symbol Text Line 1, 2, and/or 3.
4.	Click OK. That's all there is to it!

Adding symbol text that centers on the connector bar
1.	Click the Arrow tool in the ToolBox.
2.	On the schedule, double-click a symbol.
3.	Enter text on a Symbol Text Line.
4.	Under Text Placement, choose Middle, Right, and Centered on Bar.
5.	Click OK.

Adding symbol text without symbols
Use the "null symbol" to add symbol text that does not appear to be attached to anything.

1.	Double-click a symbol in the ToolBox.



2.	Under Standard Shapes, click the drop-down arrow and scroll to symbol 28.
3.	Click the Text and Date Properties tab and choose Hide under Date Placement.
	(If you want to be able to "see" the symbol when you first place it on the schedule, then don't hide the date at this point.)
4.	Click OK.
5.	In the ToolBox, click once on the Plus tool and once on the newly created null symbol.
6.	In the schedule area, click and drag to place the null symbol.
7.	In the ToolBox, click the Arrow tool.
8.	In the schedule area, double-click the null symbol and enter the symbol text.

Symbol date prefix and suffix

Enter any text to appear before and/or after an individual symbol's date display. The limit is 10 characters for the prefix entry and 10 characters for the suffix entry. Enter a backslash (\) after the entry to hide the date display, e.g. TBD\

Symbol Text SmartColumn

The Symbol Text SmartColumn enables you to display, within the column cell, either the symbol text or symbol notes from a variety of different symbol types.

In this example, the symbol text of the first symbol in every task line is automatically displayed in the "Phase Name" column, which is a Symbol Text SmartColumn.

Symbol text style overrides

Symbol text can be individually formatted on a line-by-line basis, as an override to the default symbol text settings.

Double-click a symbol on the schedule. Click the Text Overrides button to set color and text attributes for each of the three symbol Text Line entries, including color, bold, italic, and underline.

Symbols display text from column

Add a symbol to the schedule and have a column's text automatically appear as the symbol text.

Double-click a symbol in the Toolbox and select the Default Text tab. Choose a column whose text should appear as symbol text each time that symbol is added to the schedule. Click the Insert button. See notes below.

Easily Move symbol text

With symbol text, you can enter up to 3 lines of text with any symbol on your schedule. The example below shows a symbol with symbol text:

Text Overcrowding Aid : Vertically Move Symbol Text

Symbols placed close together my end up with overlapping symbol text. This problem is easily solved using a new technique which creates a comment symbol and vertical link with a couple mouse operations. One possible result is shown below.

1.	Click the Arrow tool in the ToolBox.
2.	On the schedule, click once on the symbol with the text.
3.	Hold down Ctrl + T
4.	Click and drag to move the symbol and its text to another task row.
	Note: Choose Customize \| Move Symbol Text Options on the Tools menu to select the symbol and the vertical line type to be used in this case.

Text Overcrowding Aid #2: Adjust symbol text position with the keyboard:
1.	Click the Arrow tool in the ToolBox.
2.	On the schedule, click once on the symbol with the text.
3.	Hold down the ALT key.
4.	Click the arrow keys to move the text around. The text will move as you click the arrow keys.

Adjust symbol date position with the keyboard:
1.	Click the Arrow tool in the ToolBox.
2.	On the schedule, click once on the symbol with the text.
3.	Hold down ALT + CTRL
4.	Click the arrow keys to move the text around. The text will move as you click the arrow keys.

Easily Move Symbol Text

Use Symbol Notes to store lengthy narratives associated with a milestone

Draw Symbol Text at an Angle

Milestones Professional Symbol Text Sampler

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