How to Navigate the Primary Interface: Toolbars, Panels, and Schedule Views

XER Reader provides a ribbon-based interface for schedule inspection, featuring six core analytical views, contextual toolbars, and collapsible detail docks.

Interface Overview

The workspace consists of three primary regions:

1. Top Ribbon Toolbar: Houses persistent application menus (File, Tools, Share, Help) and the primary Views selector.
2. Main Schedule Canvas: Displays the active schedule view (by default, the dual-pane Activity Table and Gantt Chart).
3. Collapsible Panels & Docks: Side and bottom docks, including the left WBS Filter and bottom Activity Details inspector.

The 6 Core Schedule Views

Click the Views dropdown button on the ribbon to switch between views:

View	Description	Key Use Case
1. Activity View (Default)	Dual-pane display combining the hierarchical Activity spreadsheet on the left with the interactive Gantt chart on the right.	Standard schedule inspection, critical path analysis, and timeline tracking.
2. Resource Assignment	Time-phased spreadsheet mapping labor, equipment, and material resources across time intervals (days, weeks, months).	Analyzing resource demand, planned units, actual consumption, and peak loading.
3. Resource Calendar	Calendar grid showing resource working days, non-working days, shift schedules, and holiday exceptions.	Verifying resource availability and investigating shift-based scheduling constraints.
4. Activity Calendar	Monthly and weekly calendar view plotting project activities directly into day cells, color-coded by WBS branch.	Field execution look-aheads and communicating scheduled work to site teams.
5. S-Curve	Cumulative progress curves plotting planned vs. actual schedule progress and earned value over time.	Executive performance reporting and identifying project slippage trends.
6. Network Diagram	Interactive PERT / PDM activity box network graph visualizing dependencies, driving logic lines, and network loops.	Inspecting sequence relationships and pinpointing schedule logic breaks.

Contextual Tools Reference by View

When you switch views, the ribbon dynamically updates with tools tailored to that view:

Activity View Tools

Tool	Function
WBS Filter	Toggles the left-side WBS hierarchy tree panel to isolate specific branches.
Filter	Applies preset filters (Critical, Completed, Active, Milestones) or opens custom filter manager.
Layout	Opens the Layout dialog to save, load, and manage custom column and filter arrangements.
Column	Selects visible activity attributes, customizes column order, and adjusts column widths.
Grouping	Groups activities hierarchically by WBS, Phase, Responsibility, or activity codes.
Tree	Expands or collapses all outline levels, or collapses directly to Levels 1 through 10.
Details	Toggles the bottom Activity Details inspector dock.
Copy / Find	Copies selected rows or cells to clipboard; searches activities by ID or name.
Gantt Setting	Adjusts Gantt timescale zoom, bar formatting, relationship logic lines, and gridlines.
Export to Pdf	Opens the multi-page vector PDF print preview and export generator.

Other View Toolbars

• Resource Assignment Tools: Column, Grouping, Tree, Copy, Find, and Timeline Settings (configures time-bucket intervals).
• Resource & Activity Calendar Tools: Day, Week, and Month view toggles, plus Find to jump to a specific calendar date.
• S-Curve Tools: Month and Quarter period aggregation toggles.
• Network Diagram Tools: WBS Filter, Zoom In, Zoom 100%, and Zoom Out.

Activity Details Dock Tabs

When enabled via the Details button on the ribbon toolbar, the bottom dock displays granular activity data:

Tab	Information Displayed
General	Activity ID, Name, Activity Type, Start/Finish dates, Duration, Percent Complete, and Primary Constraint.
Relationship	Predecessors and Successors tables with relationship types (FS, SS, FF, SF), lag values, and driving logic flags.
Resources	Assigned labor, non-labor, and material resources, including budgeted units, actual units, and costs.
Codes	Assigned project and global activity codes, category values, and descriptions.

Global Ribbon Tabs

Tab	Functions Available
File	Open schedule files via File → Open, access recent files list, close active project, and exit.
Tools	Querying for direct SQL database queries, Settings, Column Setting, Manage Baseline, and Schedule Analyzer (DCMA 14-point audit).
Share	Export to Excel/CSV, cloud schedule Share, and BI Connect for Power BI and Tableau integration.
Help	About, external link to official Website, Training video library, and interactive Walkthrough.