Mastering the Primavera P6 EPPM Interface: A Comprehensive User Guide
Mastering the Primavera P6 EPPM Interface: A Comprehensive User Guide
Unlock the full potential of P6 EPPM by customizing your user experience and navigating its powerful features with ease.
P6 Overview: Customizing Your User Experience
Primavera P6 Enterprise Project Portfolio Management (EPPM) is a powerful tool designed to control access and structure the collaborative experience for your entire team. Beyond its robust capabilities, P6 EPPM also allows individual users to customize views and format their data, optimizing their personal experience.
To ensure you get the most out of P6 EPPM, it’s essential to understand how to tailor its interface to your specific needs. This guide will walk you through the key customization features and interface elements.
Tailoring P6 to Your Workflow: Key Customization Areas
When customizing your P6 user experience, consider the following critical questions. These checks can be performed in any sequence and are not mandatory in any specific order; they simply provide a fundamental checklist for optimizing your interaction with the application.
Module Access Settings
Determines which main modules of the solution you can access (e.g., Portfolios, Reports, P6 Professional, P6 EPPM Web Services).
User Interface View
Determines which main pages in the application you can access. Your administrator may assign a role-specific view, but you can often edit personal view settings on the My Preferences page.
Security Profiles
Dictates what functions you can perform within the application. Administrators typically assign role-specific global and project security profiles.
OBS (Project) Access Settings
Controls which projects are available to you based on your assigned responsible manager.
Global Preferences
Defines general formatting and preferred settings for data across the application (e.g., currency, date format). Team alignment is recommended for consistency.
Application Settings
Determines how P6 information is handled and appears for all users (e.g., default hours per time period, ID string lengths, integration links).
LCurrent Page Customization
You can customize pages through customizable page-specific views (e.g., Activity, EPS, Resource Assignment views) or via on-screen controls (Customize links, toolbars, drag-and-drop elements).
Navigating P6: Understanding the User Interface
The Primavera P6 EPPM user interface is built with familiar screen controls, accessible through a standard web browser. Your access to data and ability to interact with these elements are controlled by various security features.
Common User Interface Elements:
Navigating P6: Understanding the Main Menus
The main menus of P6 are located in the title bar and navigation bar, providing access to various sections and functionalities of the application.
P6 Title Bar & User Menu
Located in the P6 title bar, the User menu provides links to My Preferences, My Sessions, and Logout. Application administrators also see User Sessions and View Service Status. The Help menu is fixed and cannot be changed.
P6 Navigation Bar
Each menu (Dashboards, Portfolios, Projects, Resources, Approvals, Reports, Administration) opens additional pages within its section. Dashboards, Portfolios, and Projects menus also display recently used items.
Dashboards Menu
Provides links to manage dashboards, which are customizable to display portlets important to your work goals.
Portfolios Menu
Offers links to open and manage portfolios, views, and scenarios. Also lists your most recently used portfolios.
Projects Menu
Provides links to open projects and lists your most recently used projects. Note that projects are not added to this list when created, initiated as requests, or opened as a random set.
Help Menu
A fixed menu offering links to Online Help, the P6 Library of online documents, and Oracle Primavera Customer Support. Can also include multimedia tutorials.
You can click each main menu directly on its icon or text to use its default command. For additional menu items to appear (e.g., for Dashboards, Portfolios, or Projects), you must click the small triangle portion of the menu. If no triangle appears, your user interface view settings do not include access to its menu items.
Interacting with Data: Working with Tables in P6
Tables are ubiquitous throughout P6 EPPM, serving not only to display information but also to allow you to modify it, subject to your permissions. The following general features are common to most tables:
Sort Order Indicators
Indicates the column used to sort rows. Clicking a column header toggles the sort order (ascending, descending, or unsorted for some tables).
Column Resizing
You can directly drag to resize column widths to fit your viewing preferences.
Column Order
Customize your tables by directly dragging and dropping column headings to reorder them.
Grouping Levels
Many tables group related rows hierarchically, which you can expand or collapse. Colored bands often assist in viewing these levels.
Selection Highlighting
The currently selected row is highlighted. You can click and drag to select multiple entries, or use Ctrl+click for individual selections and Shift+click for contiguous rows.
Data Entry Features
Tables allow direct data editing with convenient controls, such as a calendar for date fields, to assist in entering the correct data type.
Managing Your Data View: Columns and Fields
Fields hold data, either allowing you to enter values or simply displaying current read-only values. Pages with tables often permit you to configure the fields that make up the columns of the table.
Showing or Hiding Columns in a Table:
- Click Customize View.
- Click the Columns tab.
- From the resulting list of fields or columns:
- Select an available column to display it in the table.
- Select a currently visible column to hide it in the table.
- Click Save and Apply.
Note: You might have to scroll to the right end of a table to see all the columns.
Renaming Columns:
- Right-click a column heading and click Rename Column.
- In the Rename Column dialog box:
- Either type a new name for the column in the New Name field, or click Default to return a previously renamed column to the default.
- Click Rename.
- Click Save View.
Tips: If a renamed column is removed from a view, the column name is returned to the default for that view. When you rename a code or UDF column and save the view, your customized name remains with that column even if the code or UDF name is changed in the Enterprise Data page.
Efficient Selection: Working with Lists of Items
When working with long lists of available projects, fields, columns, or values, follow these common steps to configure your desired selections. These steps apply across various areas of the application, such as in the Open Projects dialog box or when assigning users to a user interview view.
Steps to Select Items:
- In the Available Items list, click an entry to select it. If arranged hierarchically, click Expand to view groupings. Use Ctrl+click for individual items or Shift+click to select a block.
- Click Move Item Right or double-click each item to add them to the Selected Items list.
- To remove items, select them in the Selected Items list and click Move Item Left or double-click them.
- In the Selected Items list, if applicable, adjust the order of appearance:
- Click Move Item Up to advance the item up or to the left.
- Click Move Item Down to advance the item down or to the right.
- If applicable, click Save, Save and Close, or OK.
Tips: You can add new columns by first selecting a column in the Selected Columns list; new columns will be added directly below your selection. You can also directly drag and drop columns in tables to configure their order.
Streamlined Input: “Select a Value” Dialog Boxes
Throughout P6 EPPM, certain fields require specific types of values. To assist you in selecting from a constrained list of available choices, the interface will display “Select a Value” dialog boxes. These are particularly useful when the number of available choices is large (e.g., hundreds of projects), as opposed to simple field lists used for fewer than 10 values.
Components of “Select a Value” Dialog Boxes:
Select a Value Icon
Click this icon (e.g., or ) to open the selection dialog box.
Search Area
The top part of the dialog box contains search controls to help you constrain the values based on your criteria.
Results Area
The middle part of the dialog box displays the available values based on your search criteria. Make your selection here.
Command Buttons
The bottom part contains standard buttons like OK, Apply, Select, and Assign to accept your selection, or Close/Cancel to exit the dialog box.
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