Limit Text Label Characters

What a planner means

Limit Text Label Characters (Oracle: Limit Text Label Characters To on the General tab of Bar Chart Options) is a Gantt Chart decoration that caps how many characters of a bar's text label draw on the Gantt. Oracle: "Mark to select a number to specify the maximum amount of characters, including spaces, to display for text labels on individual bars." It is not Bar Labels (which field / Position on a bar — Gantt Bars Are Layout Bar Definitions, Not an XER Table), not Attach Notebook (a notebook item as a Bar Labels pick — Attach Notebook), not a text attachment (View > Attachments → Text — Text Attachment), not Columns / Edit Column title (Columns), not Show Legend (Show Legend), not Show Relationships (Show Relationships), not Allow Overlapping of Bar Labels (Collapsed Bars tab — Collapsed Bars), and not Default Size for Notebook Items (Width / Height on this same General tab). Changing the cap does not add or delete activities and does not change stored Activity Name / notebook text.

Professional — Oracle View menu Barchart Options: "Opens the Bar Chart Options dialog box. Use the Bar Chart Options dialog box to customize your current Gantt Chart display." Enabled when the active window is Activities. Corresponding toolbar: Layout Toolbar. The Layout toolbar page fetched does not name a Barchart Options icon. Do not invent one.

Sibling how-tos open the same dialog (they document other General-tab checkboxes, not this field):

• Show or hide relationship lines: View, Barchart Options → Options → General tab. Click OK. "To view your changes without closing this dialog box, click Apply."
• Show or hide the Gantt Chart legend: View, Barchart Options → General tab. Same OK / Apply.
• Show or hide a Gantt Chart's legend: "Display the Gantt Chart, then choose View, Barchart Options." "Click Options." "Click the General tab."

Bars dialog Options: "Click to specify Gantt Chart background line and legend options." That button opens Bar Chart Options, not the Bar Labels tab.

Oracle printed no dedicated how-to for Limit Text Label Characters To. Do not invent mark-then-type steps, a default number, or a numeric range.

Bar Chart Options "customize[s] your current Gantt Chart display." Tabs Oracle names: General, Collapsed Bars, Data Date (Activities and Tracking only), Sight Lines, Progress Line (Activities window only).

General tab fields Oracle names (quote Oracle):

• Show Relationships — "(Activity Layouts only) Mark to display relationship lines in the Gantt Chart." Different decoration. See Show Relationships.
• Show Legend — "Mark to display a bar legend in the Gantt Chart." Different decoration. See Show Legend.
• Limit Text Label Characters To — "Mark to select a number to specify the maximum amount of characters, including spaces, to display for text labels on individual bars."
• Horizontal Lines — Show Major Lines / Show Minor Lines Every / Rows. See Sight Lines Are Gantt Background Gridlines, Not an XER Table.
• Default Size for Notebook Items — Width / Height "for the notebook items you want to display in the Gantt Chart." That is notebook-on-bar size, not this character cap. See Attach Notebook.

Oracle did not mark Limit Text Label Characters To "(Activity Layouts only)" (that qualifier is on Show Relationships). View menu enables Barchart Options for Activities.

Bar Labels is a different control. Oracle Bar Labels tab: Position ("the position of the selected bar's label"); Label ("a database field for the selected bar's label"); Add / Delete. Change a Gantt Chart bar's label: View, Top Layout Options, Bars → Bar Labels; Add / Delete; Position; Label. That picks what draws and where. This General-tab field caps how many characters of those text labels display. Oracle did not print that the cap applies to a notebook item. Do not invent that. See Attach Notebook.

Allow Overlapping of Bar Labels is a different control. Collapsed Bars tab: "Mark Allow Overlapping of Bar Labels to allow P6 Professional to move the individual bars to minimize space, without overlapping other bars, under the correct timescale date,within the grouping band." That is collapsed-bar spacing, not a character cap. See Collapsed Bars.

The General tab / Bar Chart Options / View menu / Bars Options pages fetched do not print a default number, a min/max, an ellipsis, a font or color picker for truncated labels, a per-bar override, or that this checkbox caps the on-screen legend, a text attachment, or an Edit Column title. Do not invent them.

EPPM web — Configuring Activity View Gantt Chart Bars: Customize View → Bars tab → Configure; add Bar or Label; label fields Oracle names are Label Field and Color. "For summary bars, the rolled up value of the field or the value at the group level will be shown as the bar label." That page does not print View, Barchart Options, the General tab, Limit Text Label Characters To, "including spaces," or a character-count control.

Configuring Activity View Gantt Chart (Customize View → Gantt tab) names Data date line, Relationship lines, Non-driving relationships, Sight Lines, Non-work time shading, and Timescale. It does not print Limit Text Label Characters To.

Do not copy Professional View, Barchart Options / General tab / Limit Text Label Characters To onto EPPM. Do not copy EPPM Label Field / Color onto Professional as if Oracle printed a character cap there.

XER

Limit Text Label Characters To is a Gantt / layout setting. Oracle's project XER data map TOC lists no LIMITTEXT, TEXTLABEL, BARLABEL, GANTT, 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.

Oracle did not name an XER column for the checkbox, the character count, or which labels are truncated.

What a bar label can display is ordinary TASK (or other table) values — Activity Name, dates, a notebook topic — not this cap. MEMOTYPE / TASKMEMO / WBSMEMO are notebook data, not this decoration.

A Viewer parse of one XER cannot reconstruct whether the planner had Limit Text Label Characters To on, or the number.

Microsoft Project

Desktop Project has Bar Styles Text (and Format Bar → Bar Text). They are not the same object.

Microsoft Format the bar chart: Bar Styles window → Text tab. "In the Left, Right, Top, Bottom, and Inside boxes, type or select the field that contains the data you want to display on the Gantt bar." Custom Text1–Text3 for unique text. Single bar: double-click the bar → Format Bar → Bar Text. Show task names: Format > Bar Styles → Text tab → Right → Name.

Microsoft Wrap Text is a table-column command (right-click the column heading). "Project wraps text in all cells of the column if it is longer than the column width and has at least one space." That is not Gantt bar text.

The pages fetched do not print a character-limit, truncate, or "including spaces" control for Gantt bar text. Do not map P6 Limit Text Label Characters To (General-tab checkbox + number) to MSP Bar Styles Text / Format Bar Bar Text / Wrap Text and call them the same command. Do not claim MPXJ can write a real MPP.

Don't

• Treat Limit Text Label Characters To as Bar Labels (field / Position), as Attach Notebook, as View > Attachments → Text, as Columns / Edit Column title, as Show Legend, as Show Relationships, as Allow Overlapping of Bar Labels, or as Default Size for Notebook Items.
• Invent a LIMITTEXT / TEXTLABEL / BARLABEL / GANTT / LAYOUT / VIEW XER table, or treat any TASK / TASKMEMO column as this cap.
• Invent a default number, a min/max, an ellipsis, or that the cap applies to a notebook item, a text attachment, the on-screen legend, or an Edit Column title. Oracle printed "text labels on individual bars," not those.
• Copy Professional View, Barchart Options / General tab / Limit Text Label Characters To onto EPPM as if Oracle printed those menus there.
• Treat EPPM Label Field / Color as this Professional character cap.
• Map this object to MSP Bar Styles Text, Format Bar Bar Text, or Wrap Text and call them the same.
• Claim MPXJ writes a real MPP.
• Claim a Viewer reconstructed the planner's Limit Text Label Characters To on/off or number from an XER.