Provide the progress percentage icons in increments of 5%

Waten, thank you for your comment and I was aware of the additional % 10,35,65, and 90 categories but having these categories don't include the %'s I require. I find I need the added flexibility of more categories.

My preference would be that the drop-down list includes all percentages from 1-100 in 5% increments. And that the 100% option is a full circle rather than a tick. I appreciate this is for task progress and some times even 25,50..100 would suffice, but my project has multiple tasks that require greater specificity.

The current option, if anything, is even more confusing as you have pointed out on the two menus. I know that you can see all the options using the right mouse click menu.

Why not just include the extra missing percentages?

If you add the additional values to the default map template, then they will be available in all new maps without needing to reconfigure each time.

Automatically calculated progress values can be odd numbers. The actual value is displayed in the tooltip, even if it "rounds" to the nearest icon.

Are you using the progress icons together with other task management features, e.g. Gantt chart, task rollup or task synchronisation with Outlook? If not, then you could always add a custom set of icons in 5% increments for indexing progress.

Hi Nick,

Thank you for your suggestions and comments. Even when I task rollup - I am still in the same situation that I need the numbers to add up.

In the example above I need all the sub-branches to add up to 100%, but in the last branch, I can only use 25%. If I use custom icons - then I presume that the rollup process will not work.

I have also asked for consideration that the 100% progress icon is in the same format as the other progress icon percentages and not a Done with a white tick. The tick looks so unprofessional.

How would you suggest I add custom icons that are in 5% increments?

Hello Greg

You are correct that task and map rollup would not recognise a set of custom progress icons and would not calculate accordingly.

There is no built-in feature (that I am aware of) that can assert a rule requiring the progress values of subtopics to add up to 100%. This is different to the task rollup, which will calculate a rolled up percent complete based on the progress of each task weighted by its effort. A scheme requiring values to add up to 100% across subtopics could be implemented with macro or add-in coding, and could use a granularity of 1% for values. If you used the progress icon to show this, the displayed icon would round to the nearest one available; but it sounds like this is not a progress value, but some other parameter.

To implement custom icons you would need a source of .ico files. There are dozens of icon libraries available, some paid and some free. Alternatively you can create your own with a tool such as SyncFusion's Metro Studio, which is great for creating simple icons, and is free.

Have you looked at using Topic Properties instead of progress icons for this? A topic property would display its value on the topic, but without using an icon. A formula could add up the values to show whether you have 100% at the parent, and a SmartRule could even highlight topics where the subtopics don't add up to 100%.

I agree with Nick, that the icons you use are designed for task management.

It appears you wish to use them for a different purpose as where they were designed for.

Nick's suggestion to use topic properties with some smartrules would give you more options that suit your purpose.

Hello Nick and Ary,

Thank you for your constructive feedback on the various solutions. I will certainly investigate the properties % opportunity. However, I was hoping that I would get enough support for the minor changes.

I might have OCD or some other desire for uniformity :). But I can actually live with the current icon system if the icons were in 5% intervals (as opposed to a situation where the intervals are a mixture of 5% and 10% intervals). I just don't get why the progress list is uneven. Having this simple fix would save me a lot of time and automation issues and would not be a big ask.

My other request would be to simply have the OPTION for the 100% task icon NOT TO HAVE A BIG WHITE TICK. I can't fix this even with smart rules. This simple fix gives me the option to use 25, 50, 75, 100 for other tasks such as quarterly reports.

Hello Greg

While we can't change the product, it is always educational / sobering to understand what other users want to do and why. Sometimes there are other approaches that can work. MindManager is a classic long-tail market - there are as many different ways to use it as there are users. This is a mixed blessing.

The progress values were originally loosely based on 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3 and 3/4 done. 10% and 90% were thrown in as bonuses, because software is always 90% complete and needed to be represented.

Unfortunately there is no option in the View> Show/Hide menu to hide the progress icon, unless you hide all icons. So implementing custom icons while continuing to use the percent complete for task calculations is not a practical option.

The progress icons are sometimes used as simple checklists, where something is either not done or done. This is probably the origin of the tick instead of something that is more consistent with the sliding scale. While the solid blob in your screen shot is consistent with the percentage values, it needs a bit more explanation than a tick, which is fairly universal.

Personally I don't often try to measure progress accurately. Status is usually more important. I rename the progress icons to Not Started, Started, Waiting, Blocked and Finished. This means I can't use task rollup, but most of the time I don't need it. This is not a suggested solution for your requirements but an example of the variations in use.