In Oracle Primavera Cloud, the Preferences menu allows you to adjust how data displays for you as a user. These preferences are individual – they will not adjust the display for any other user. The User Preferences lets you adjust how global data displays – such as the formats and units for time, dates, and currencies. You also change personal user details, such as your name and avatar.

For former Primavera P6 users, the OPC Preferences menu is like the P6 User Preferences. You’ll find many of the same fields from that menu here. Like in P6, you can adjust both your personal information and how data displays in this menu.

In this article, we will take a look at how to adjust user preferences in Oracle Primavera Cloud. As we change these settings, we will also look at how they affect the displaying project data

To adjust your user preferences, select the User menu and choose Preferences from the dropdown menu. This window features several different sections where you can make adjustments to the display of data. If you make any changes here, make sure to select Save in the upper right hand corner.

User Details

First, you can adjust your User Details – such as your Name and Title. These items will display within the Project Team app and Discussion threads that you are a part of.

Here, you can adjust your Name, Title, Language, and Phone Number. You can also give yourself a User Avatar by selecting the pencil icon next to the field. You can upload any GIF, PNG, or JPG image under 2MB in size. Other users will see this avatar, so you will want to choose a business-appropriate image.

Beyond personal details, you can also adjust the Display Density. This field determines how condensed the rows and cells are within tables and spreadsheets. You can choose between the following three options:

Compact

This option provides the least amount of space within the table and spreadsheet rows. Compact allows more rows to display on the screen at once.

Cozy

This option provides more space within the individual cells and rows. Less rows are on the screen at once, but they may be easier to read.

Comfortable

This option provides the most space within the cells and rows. Again, this doesn’t allow you to see quite as much on the screen at once – but it may look a bit cleaner.

I generally recommend keeping Display Density on Compact to allow more data to display.

Name & ID Display Format

Under Name & ID Display Format, you can adjust how objects display information. Most data in OPC, such as Projects and Workspaces, require both a Name and an ID. The Name is generally a descriptor of the item, while the ID is a unique identifier – usually a coded value. When viewing these items, you can choose whether to display the ID or display the ID and the Name together.

Many pages, such as the Activities page, allow you to create Views to customize this display further. These settings act as the default for any page where you can’t otherwise adjust the view. If you use easily identifiable IDs, I recommend keeping this option set to ID.

Number Format

Here, you can adjust how numbers display within the program. These settings will affect number fields, such as Activity Count or Task Count. However, these options will not affect currency, unit, or duration values. Those fields all have their own separate settings.

You can adjust how and if decimal places display and how to deal with grouping digits. To be honest, the Number format won’t display within too many fields – unless you use Configured Fields. Because of this, I generally leave these options on the default.

Currency

Similarly, the next section allows you to adjust how currency fields display. Here, you can choose whether the currency symbol displays – without it, only the monetary value will show. You can also choose how to display positive and negative currency values. The defaults here will be the same as the defaults for most other programs, such as Microsoft Excel. To keep things simple, I’ll leave this as it is.

One thing to note is that you can’t differentiate the currency settings for different currencies. For example, if you’re working with both American Dollars and Japanese Yen, you won’t be able to display these currencies in different formats. Therefore, it’s best to set these default settings for the currency type you will be working with most.

Date

The Date section lets you adjust how dates display within the program. This is important for viewing Starts and Finishes for projects and individual activities.

You can adjust the order in which date values display and how these values appear. You also have the option to display a Time Format. By default, this option will be off – you will see the dates that activities start and finish, but not the exact times. 

If you’re working on a shorter schedule, you may need to view more granular time values for your activities. This is especially useful if you are tracking activities using hours, rather than days. If you want to display time, you can switch between 12 and 24 hour formats. You can also choose whether minutes display – if not, time values will round up to the nearest hour.

Activity Date Indicators

Indicators are icons that appear at the end of an activity’s date to designate specifics. Here, we can choose to add activity date indicators for Actuals and Constraints.

Show Actuals will display an A icon next to any actual date. These are the dates that activities have actually started and finished. This is a good option to turn on to differentiate actual work from planned work.

Show Constraints will place a C icon next to any activity date that has a Constraint assigned. Constraints are values you can apply to activities to attempt to start or finish them on a specific date. This is also a useful option to have on, as Constraints often affect the logic of the project. This indicator can provide clarity on why activities have negative float or perform in an illogical manner.

I recommend turning on both of these options.

Time Units

The options under Time Units are some of the most important – especially when working with resource loaded schedules. Here, you can configure how Units, Durations, and Units/Time display. This specifically affects how you view activity durations and resource assignments.

First, you can adjust how Units display. Units are the amount of time that assigned resources will be working on activities. Generally, most users need to see this information in Hours. This will show how many hours per day each resource is working, which will affect the resource’s costs.

You can also adjust whether Subunits, Labels, or Decimals display for more granularity. However, it may be a little confusing if you start breaking Units down into Subunits. My recommendation is to adjust the Display to Hours, and only check off the option for Units label.

Next, you can do the same thing for Durations. Durations show how long each activity will take to complete. Usually, users prefer to see these values in Days – but you can adjust this for shorter schedules. Again, you can choose how the Units and Subunits display as well. I recommend setting the Durations to Day and, again, turn on the Units label option.

Lastly, you can choose a Units/Time Format. This comes into play when assigning resources to activities. You can either display resource assignments as Units/Duration (such as 8h/d) or as a Percentage (such as 100%). If you are a former Primavera P6 user, you may want to set this to Units/Duration. This was the default in P6 and allows you to track units over time. On the other hand, if you were a Microsoft Project user, you may want to use a Percentage, which was the default in that program.

I’ll set this to Units/Duration, which allows me to track overall units and average costs per unit more easily.

Resources

Under Resources, you can choose how to assign Units/Time when staffing Roles. Roles are like resources, but act as a placeholder. You can use a role if you know the type of resource you need, but you’re not sure who will be available. Roles generally represent job titles, such as General Contractor or Electrician. With a Role assigned, you can later staff it with a Resource. Staffing a role allows you to see all resources who can perform the assigned role.

These settings come into play when you attempt to staff a Role with a Resource. Here, you can choose whether you want to use the new resource’s Units/Time, or the current assignment’s (the Role’s) Units/Time. You can also choose to have the program Ask each time, so you can make a decision in the moment.

Your selection here will depend on how you use Roles. In my projects, I use Roles as a placeholder to fill in with Resources later on. When I assign a Resource, I need to abide by what the resource charges – rather than the Role placeholder. For this reason, I’ll set both of these options to always use the new resource’s values, rather than the current assignment’s

Save Views

Under Save Views, you can adjust how your created and named page views will save. Views are interface configurations that you can create and save for reuse. They allow you to view different project information for different workflows.

If you open a saved View and make a change to it, like adding a column, you can choose how these adjustments will save. You can choose to have all changes saved automatically, or manually.

There are pros and cons to both options. If you choose to Save Views Automatically, the program will save any changes you make without warning. This will allow you to switch between processes and pages faster. However, it is very easy to make changes to your View without meaning to – such as if you turn on a filter or add a column. With this option, all changes save automatically, which can mess up your previously saved Views.

On the other hand, Save Views Manually will not automatically save changes. This can help ensure that your customized views remain as they are. However, this option will cause pop ups to appear when trying to switch pages. If you make a change within your View and don’t save it, a popup will prevent you from leaving the page until you Save the View or Reset it. Although this can be a bit annoying, I generally prefer this option. This allows me to create standardized Views without having to worry about saving over them.

Dialogs

Some Oracle Primavera Cloud processes will produce a warning dialogue box. These boxes often have an option to “Do Not Show Again”. If you check off this box, the window will disappear, and will not appear again even if you perform the same process.

In Preferences, you can reset all Do Not Show dialogs. This will allow all dialogs to display again. However, you can always turn them off once again by selecting Do Not Show Again.

Preview Features

This last section features just one option: Enhanced Printing. At any time, you can print pages within OPC using your standard browser printer. Of course, this will print the entire browser page. This will often include unneeded information and print in an undesirable manner.

For more professional printouts, you can turn on Enhanced Printing. This option will feature a Print icon on a variety of pages, such as the Activities page. With this option, you can Print out specific pages in OPC using customized settings. You can adjust what displays in the printout, the columns that appear, and even the timescale.

If you plan on printing out your project schedule, you’ll want to turn this option on. Without it, you will only be able to print using your browser’s print function.

Lastly, if you make any changes to these preferences, make sure to press Save in the upper right hand corner.

Summary

Oracle Primavera Cloud’s Preferences menu lets you adjust how data displays within the program. These are individual settings that adjust how you see information within your schedules. With user preferences, you can adjust how global data displays – such as dates, currencies, and units. You can also adjust your personal details – like changing your name or adding a profile picture. If you’re looking to adjust the display of data in OPC, you should look to the user preferences menu first.

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Lauren Hecker is a Oracle Primavera Cloud, Primavera P6, and Microsoft Project Instructor who teaches onsite and virtual scheduling courses. To see her next open enrollment course, please visit our calendar. To schedule an onsite or custom course, please contact us!