Arrange Children / Align Children

What a planner means

Arrange Children and Align Children are layout commands that place child boxes in a chart view. Oracle View menu: Arrange Children "Enables you to arrange children horizontally or vertically in chart views. This command is disabled when you display a table or Gantt Chart in the active window." Align Children "Aligns children to the left, right, or center in chart views. This command is disabled when you display a table or Gantt Chart in the active window." Enabled for Projects, Resources, Work Breakdown Structure. Corresponding toolbar: Top Layout Toolbar. They are not Chart Box Template (Chart Box Template — which fields appear in the boxes), not Chart Font and Colors (Chart Font and Colors — Font / Back Color / Box Color), not Activity Network Organize Along the Top / Organize Centered or .ANP positions (Activity Network), not Visualizer (Visualizer), not Zoom to Best Fit, and not the PROJWBS / PROJECT / RSRC values a box can display. Changing Arrange Children or Align Children does not add or delete WBS nodes, projects, or resources.

Professional — Oracle names these menus:

• View, Arrange Children / View, Align Children
• Top Layout toolbar: Arrange Children — "Arranges children horizontally or vertically in chart views. Click the icon to select an option." Align Children — "Aligns children in chart views. Click the icon to select an option." Displays by default? No. Enabled for Projects, Resources, WBS. Corresponding menus: View > Arrange Children / View > Align Children.
• View menu hot keys: Alt-V, R Arrange Children; Alt-V, L Align Children. Toolbar page: "The icons on this toolbar do not have corresponding shortcut keys."
• View the WBS tip: "You can also select the same View commands by clicking the Display Options bar."

Oracle names these placement choices on the View menu (not a named dialog on the pages fetched):

• Arrange Children: horizontally or vertically
• Align Children: left, right, or center

The pages fetched do not print a dialog-box title, a longer option list, a spacing or gap field, a Default button, a per-parent vs all-children scope, a toolbar icon picture, or that enabling Arrange / Align is a named .plf field. Do not invent them.

WBS chart — Oracle View the WBS: Project, WBS, then View, Show on Top, Chart View. Table again: Table. Table plus bars: Gantt Chart. Arrange Children / Align Children are the chart commands (disabled for table or Gantt). Change the work breakdown structure chart display is Font / Back Color / Box Color plus a Chart Box Template tip. That how-to does not print Arrange Children or Align Children. Move around the WBS chart is Display toolbar Zoom In / Zoom Out / Zoom to Best Fit. That is zoom, not placement.

Projects chart — Oracle Projects window: "In the top layout, you can display the Project Table, a project chart view, or a project Gantt Chart." View menu enables Arrange Children / Align Children when the active window is Projects (and the display is a chart view, not table or Gantt). The pages fetched do not print a "Change the project chart arrangement" field list. Do not invent Projects-only options.

Resources chart — Oracle Resources window: "In the Resources window, you can view the resource hierarchy as a table or as a chart." "Use the Display Options bar, the View menu on the Menu bar, or the Top Layout toolbar to show or hide a table view or chart view in the window." View menu enables Arrange Children / Align Children when the active window is Resources (chart view, not table). The pages fetched do not print a "Change the resource chart arrangement" field list. Do not invent Resources-only options.

OBS chart — Oracle Change the OBS chart display is Display Options bar → Chart Font and Colors (and a Chart Box Template, Customize tip). The View menu enable list for Arrange Children / Align Children is Projects, Resources, Work Breakdown Structure — it does not print OBS. OBS how-tos fetched do not print Arrange Children or Align Children. Do not copy View > Arrange Children / Align Children onto OBS as if Oracle printed those menu paths there.

Oracle Using the Status Bar and Layout Options bar: "When you view data in chart view format, you can display up to 2,000 boxes." That is a chart-view limit, not an Arrange Children or Align Children field.

Not these other commands

• Chart Box Template — View menu: "Enables you to apply an existing chart box template to the current layout, or customize your own." That is which fields appear, not placement. See Chart Box Template.
• Chart Font and Colors — View menu: "Enables you to customize fonts and colors in chart views." Font / Back Color / Box Color. Corresponding toolbar: None. That is appearance, not placement. See Chart Font and Colors.
• Activity Network Organize Along the Top / Organize Centered — Oracle Activity Network Options Activity Network Layout tab: Organize Along the Top "align activity boxes towards the top of the Activity Network window in relation to their predecessors/successors"; Organize Centered "center activity boxes in relation to their predecessors/successors." That is the Activities Activity Network. Arrange Children / Align Children are not enabled when the active window is Activities. Box positions save as .ANP. See Activity Network.
• Zoom to Best Fit — Display toolbar: "Re-sizes chart views to fit the entire chart into the visible area. This icon is enabled when you display a chart view in the active window." Corresponding menu: View > Zoom > Zoom to Best Fit. That is zoom, not Arrange / Align.
• Columns — table Available/Selected list; "enabled when you display a table view." See Columns.
• Table Font and Row — table text, color, and row height. See Table Font and Row.
• Visualizer — Tools > Visualizer; layouts export as .vlf. See Visualizer.

The Professional Arrange Children / Align Children pages fetched do not print Manage Views, an Arrange tab, View menu → Arrange as an EPPM-style Customize View, or that enabling Arrange / Align is a named .plf field. Do not invent them. Layouts travel as .plf. See Filters and Layouts Are a View, Not the Schedule.

EPPM web — Manage Views / Customize View tabs Oracle named: Columns, Filtering, Grouping, Sorting, Bars, Gantt, Activity Network, Access. Configuring Activity Views lists those tabs. It does not print Arrange Children, Align Children, View > Show on Top > Chart View, horizontally / vertically, or left / right / center.

Oracle Working with WBS Elements is add / copy / paste / cut / delete / merge WBS. That page's sibling / child language is where you add a WBS element ("at the same level as an existing element (sibling) or at a subordinate level (child)"). It is not chart-box placement. That page does not print Chart View, Arrange Children, or Align Children.

Those EPPM pages do not print View > Arrange Children, View > Align Children, Top Layout toolbar Arrange / Align icons, horizontally / vertically, or left / right / center. Do not copy those Professional menus onto EPPM.

XER

Arrange Children (horizontally or vertically) and Align Children (left, right, or center) are layout settings. Oracle's project XER data map TOC lists no ARRANGE, ALIGN, ARRANGECHILDREN, ALIGNCHILDREN, LAYOUT, or VIEW table. Do not invent one. Layouts travel as .plf, not in a project XER. See Filters and Layouts Are a View, Not the Schedule.

Activity Network box positions travel as a separate .ANP file (Save / Open Network Positions). That is not this command. See Activity Network.

Oracle did not name an XER column for Arrange Children, Align Children, horizontally / vertically, or left / right / center.

What a box can display is not this command:

• WBS nodes: PROJWBS. See XER Tables That Matter for a Viewer or Converter.
• Projects: PROJECT.
• Resources: RSRC.
• OBS: OBS.

A Viewer parse of one XER cannot reconstruct the planner's Arrange Children or Align Children.

Microsoft Project

Desktop Project has a Network Diagram and Format > Layout. They are not the same object as P6 Arrange Children / Align Children.

Microsoft Create a Network Diagram: View > Network Diagram. "Boxes (or nodes) represent tasks, and dependencies show up as lines that connect those boxes." Format > Layout "Under Box Layout, choose the box arrangement, alignment, spacing, height, and width that work best for you." "Allow manual box positioning" then drag boxes. That is a task-dependency diagram. It is closer to P6 Activity Network than to Projects / Resources / WBS Chart View.

Microsoft Layout dialog (Network Diagram): Arrangement examples include Top Down From Left, Top Down by Day / Week / Month, Top Down - Critical First, Centered from Left, Centered from Top. Row / Column Alignment, Spacing, Height, Width. Link style Rectilinear or Straight. That page does not print Arrange Children, Align Children, or a WBS / EPS / resource-hierarchy chart.

Microsoft Create WBS codes: outline numbers on tasks (Project > WBS > Define Code). That is not a WBS org-chart view.

The pages fetched do not print a Microsoft Project WBS chart, EPS chart, or resource-hierarchy chart with Arrange Children / Align Children. Do not invent one. Do not map P6 Arrange Children (horizontally or vertically) / Align Children (left, right, or center; disabled for table or Gantt; Projects / Resources / WBS; .plf) to MSP Format > Layout Arrangement / Alignment and call them the same command. Do not claim MPXJ can write a real MPP.

Don't

• Treat Arrange Children / Align Children as Chart Box Template, as Chart Font and Colors, as Activity Network Organize Along the Top / Organize Centered or .ANP, as Zoom to Best Fit, as Visualizer, or as the PROJWBS / PROJECT / RSRC / OBS values a box can display.
• Treat these commands as enabled on a table or Gantt Chart, or as enabled when the active window is Activities.
• Treat View > Arrange Children / Align Children (Projects / Resources / WBS) as the OBS Display Options bar path, or copy one menu path onto the other.
• Invent a dialog title, a longer option list than horizontally / vertically and left / right / center, a spacing field, a Default button, or a per-parent scope Oracle did not print.
• Invent an ARRANGE / ALIGN / ARRANGECHILDREN / ALIGNCHILDREN / LAYOUT / VIEW XER table, or treat any PROJWBS / PROJECT / RSRC / OBS column as the placement.
• Treat EPPM Customize View (Columns / Filtering / Grouping / Sorting / Bars / Gantt / Activity Network / Access) or Working with WBS Elements (add / copy / paste / delete; sibling / child add) as the Professional View > Arrange Children / Align Children commands.
• Copy Professional View > Arrange Children / Align Children / horizontally / vertically / left / right / center onto EPPM as if Oracle printed those menus there.
• Map this object to MSP Format > Layout Arrangement / Alignment and call them the same.
• Claim MPXJ writes a real MPP.
• Claim a Viewer reconstructed the planner's Arrange Children or Align Children from an XER.