Reports and Presentations - Construction Project Scheduling and Control - page 258

sample page: review and approve it and then print the entire report. Remember that,
in many cases, what you see on the computer screen may not be what you get.
An error may occur in any report. It may be caused by the software, the hardware
(computer or printer), or the user. Thus, the scheduler should review the report after
printing it but before submitting it, because errors may be found in a report even after it
has been successfully reviewed on the computer screen. Many printers in professional
offices are shared, and people may pick up their printout only to discover later on that
the printout contains pages that don't belong to them. Some companies with multiple
offices enable employees to send printouts to any printer, in any of their offices. This
is a great convenience; however, the software usually retains the last used printer as
the default printer until the application is turned off. So the user may decide to print
another report, hit the Print icon (or button), thinking that the report will go to the
original default printer around the corner, but, instead, the report goes to a printer in
another office!
GENERAL TIPS ON PRINTING REPORTS
In many cases, the scheduler must repeat the printing process several times because
of errors, missing data, or instructions from the supervisor or other clients. The result
is multiple printouts of the same report. Although some reports indicate the time
and date the report was printed, the scheduler may become confused by the similar
printouts and submit an incorrect copy of the report. For this reason, invalid copies of
any report should be destroyed or recycled as soon as an error or omission is detected
and the decision to reprint is made.
For some projects, certain reports must be printed with every update. Primavera
software gives the user the opportunity to combine all of these reports in a “series.”
In this case, the scheduler chooses one series rather than several individual reports.
While organizing the report, the person preparing the report may want to separate
issues, areas, phases, and so forth, and perhaps print each on a page. However, the
scheduler must be careful not to waste paper unnecessarily. Several ways to condense
a report and save paper are as follows:
• Make sure that only the needed activities and information are included in the
report. Use the software filter to help exclude unwanted information.
• Margins may be slightly reduced to allow more information per page.
• The choice between Portrait and Landscape may make a difference as to how
many pages the report comprises.
• Using a smaller or a different (narrower) font may help. However, make sure
that the report is comfortably legible.
• Use the Fit to One Page function in the Print menu (but keep in mind that it
doesn't always give good results).
• In limited cases, you may print on both sides of the paper.