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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / July 2008Merlin vs. OmniPlan
I may be needing to do some project planning at home under OS X and was looking at OmniPlan and Merlin as the two most likely candidate apps. The main requirement is that the application export to MS Project format as this is a work project and needs to be sent back to Windows-only environment. I just wondered if anyone has used the two application in depth (and in the real world) and can comment on the strength and weaknesses of the two relative to one another. To me OmniPlan looks great and easy to use where Merlin looks more like an 'industrial strength' application. I don't really need to use heavy duty features as these will all be added after the file has been converted to project format. -- Thanks, Steve > I may be needing to do some project planning at home under OS X and > was looking at OmniPlan and Merlin as the two most likely candidate [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Steve Do you mean Merlin Mann? He's good on MacBreak weekly but....... they recommended one called 'You look nice today' which I don't understand. Must be yank humour? I don't really get it. On Jul 22, 4:47 pm, London.Embankm...@googlemail.com wrote: > > I may be needing to do some project planning at home under OS X and > > was looking at OmniPlan and Merlin as the two most likely candidate [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > - Show quoted text - He would be more tolerable if he'd shut his gob every now & then instead of jumping all over the other speakers on MBW. I think he's one of those people who's at a certain stage of life where he's desperately trying to work out what to do with himself & how to cash in on the web 2.0 thing with very limited technical or other ability. Hence all his productivity/'how to read your email' sudo-guru crap. > Hence all his productivity/'how to read your email' > sudo-guru crap. 'Sudo-guru'. Lovely; works on so many levels.  SignaturePeter >> Hence all his productivity/'how to read your email' >> sudo-guru crap. > > 'Sudo-guru'. Lovely; works on so many levels. Probably more effective if spelled correctly, don't you think? Like "pseudo-guru". > > 'Sudo-guru'. Lovely; works on so many levels. > > Probably more effective if spelled correctly, don't you think? > Like "pseudo-guru". But that would be boring. SignaturePeter > The main requirement is that the application export to MS > Project format as this is a work project and needs to be sent back to > Windows-only environment. three months ago (when I bought it) Merlin was the only one capable to open the (old) MSproject .mpp format, which many large companies are still using at least here in Europe. This was decisive for me. Other than that, it seemed at the time both of them did read and write to the current MSP format. I tested Merlin more: it can export to both the xml and mpx formats. Since then, I discovered the open source Ganttproject (on sourceforge) that seems to open .mpp too: you may want to try --I don't know whether it exports still. Merlin is somehow nicer and very fluently handles complex, multiyear projects with hundreds of tasks (it also can export them as html for instance, or deal with related resource needs); its development is definitely very active (almost one update per month) and the enclosed documentation is quite clear. H. SignatureFrédérique & Hervé Sainct, h.sainct@laposte.net [fr,es,en,it] Frédérique's initial is missing in front of the above address l'initiale de Frédérique manque devant l'adresse email ci-dessus > I may be needing to do some project planning at home under OS X and > was looking at OmniPlan and Merlin as the two most likely candidate > apps. The main requirement is that the application export to MS > Project format as this is a work project and needs to be sent back to > Windows-only environment. Have you a religious objection to OpenProj? http://openproj.org/openproj >> I may be needing to do some project planning at home under OS X and >> was looking at OmniPlan and Merlin as the two most likely candidate [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > Have you a religious objection to OpenProj? Not at all but I do need to have the file convert to either MS Project or Artemis <http://www.aisc.com/> SignatureCheers, Steve The reply-to email address is a spam trap. Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk > > Have you a religious objection to OpenProj? > > Not at all but I do need to have the file convert to either MS Project > or Artemis <http://www.aisc.com/> Open Project saves in MS Project format. >>> Have you a religious objection to OpenProj? >> >> Not at all but I do need to have the file convert to either MS Project >> or Artemis <http://www.aisc.com/> > > Open Project saves in MS Project format. The review I read said the following: "There’s an option to import an mpp file. But why the heck there’s no option to save the project as one? Wanted to make MS Project users’ life harder or what? Hey, they rather stop using OpenProj than move to use an xml files instead of an mpp format. Yes, I know xml is more open etc, but mpp is a standard, you want it or not. If I send xml file to my customer he’ll ask me to send a “normal” mpp file." SignatureCheers, Steve The reply-to email address is a spam trap. Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk > >>> Have you a religious objection to OpenProj? > >> [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > etc, but mpp is a standard, you want it or not. If I send xml file to > my customer he'll ask me to send a "normal" mpp file." It saves documents in Microsoft Project 2003 format which is xml. Even Microsoft Project saves documents as xml, anyone using .mpp files is using something from the ark. Saving files as xml format doesn't make MS Project users life harder, not that is if they are using a current version of MS Project. On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:22:32 +0100, Steve Firth wrote > It saves documents in Microsoft Project 2003 format which is xml. Even > Microsoft Project saves documents as xml, anyone using .mpp files is > using something from the ark. But if that's what the customer specified - and they're paying :-) > On Tue, 22 Jul 2008 22:22:32 +0100, Steve Firth wrote > > [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > > But if that's what the customer specified - and they're paying :-) Tell em to bugger off, no one wants to work with amateurs. > Not at all but I do need to have the file convert to either MS Project > or Artemis <http://www.aisc.com/> Merlin exports to mpx and xml (but not mpp, it only reads mpp) SignatureFrédérique & Hervé Sainct, h.sainct@laposte.net [fr,es,en,it] Frédérique's initial is missing in front of the above address l'initiale de Frédérique manque devant l'adresse email ci-dessus On Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:56:42 +0200, Frédérique & Hervé Sainct wrote: >> Not at all but I do need to have the file convert to either MS Project >> or Artemis <http://www.aisc.com/> > > Merlin exports to mpx and xml (but not mpp, it only reads mpp) But MS Project can accept .mpx. On 2008-07-23 20:56:42 +0100, h.sainct@laposte.net.invalid (Frédérique & Hervé Sainct) said: >> Not at all but I do need to have the file convert to either MS Project >> or Artemis <http://www.aisc.com/> > > Merlin exports to mpx and xml (but not mpp, it only reads mpp) OmniPlan is similar in that it will export to MPX and XML but not MPP. I tried the 1 demo full demo licence for OmniPlan - the ¢ exchange rate was such that Merlin just doesn't compare with OmniPlan for VFM. SignatureCheers, Steve The reply-to email address is a spam trap. Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk >> I may be needing to do some project planning at home under OS X and >> was looking at OmniPlan and Merlin as the two most likely candidate [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > http://openproj.org/openproj It doesn't seem to be able to export to PDF or HTML. But that was only after a quickish play on a Solaris box. Cheers, Chris > I may be needing to do some project planning at home under OS X and > was looking at OmniPlan and Merlin as the two most likely candidate [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > application. I don't really need to use heavy duty features as these > will all be added after the file has been converted to project format. I have used both (tried them on the same project, exchanging with PC MS Project users) and prefer Omniplan. I prefer the user interface and general interactivity, and in my experience its round-tripping with MS Project is more faithful. I would not waste my time with OpenProj - unless you are Richard Stallman's geeky brother, that is. Apart from which, the user interface is a long way from anything I'd want on my Mac desktop. Regards, Ian. -- > Richard Stallman's geeky brother Now THAT is a scary image. SignatureCheers, Steve The reply-to email address is a spam trap. Email steve 'at' shodgson 'dot' org 'dot' uk |
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