A Better Sense of History

Plans, as we call them in the app now – a nice, friendly short hand for projects – have always had a history. The basic version of Milestone Planner keeps a limited history, while the Professional Edition gives a full history. The activity stream makes this history easier to see, by displaying it across all milestones in the project. It is now quick and easy to see what has been happening since you last accessed the project.

Zoom in on an Aspect of the Plan

If you click on one of the gravatars (hovering over the image will show the person’s name) in the activity stream, it will zoom into just the updates made by that person or to Milestones they own. You will see a “show all” button at the top of the stream. Clicking on this zooms back out to the full view.

By Milestone or by Work Stream

The same idea works for milestones and work streams as well. If you click on a work stream name in the text boxes on the right hand side, the stream will zoom in to show just updates in that work stream. Clicking on a milestone title filters out all activity except changes to that one milestone. Again, clicking on “show all” at the stop of the stream zooms back out, removing all of the filters.

Simpler Hovers

The change has also allowed us to reduce the size of the hovers on milestones. When you rest the mouse pointer over a milestone in the time line, you will still see the most recent change. By clicking on the “show history” text, the activity stream will focus on that milestone, so you can see all of its changes clearly, or zoom back out to the full plan.

And it’s Real-Time Too

The activity stream is real-time. Each entry shows how long ago (in minutes, hours or days) the update was made, and if someone else is also updating the plan, the activity stream will notify you of those changes and can load them into the timeline. The Professional Edition receives changes more frequently than the basic version, but you still get the idea.

Happy planning – and let us know how you get on, either here, via twitter, or via the usual feedback link!