The Compare Projects feature enables you to view and analyze differences between two versions of the same project side-by-side.
Whether you’re comparing the current project state against its baseline, evaluating changes between saved snapshots, or reviewing updates made over time, this functionality provides clear visual insights into what has changed.
User can examine differences through an interactive Gantt Chart view that highlights schedule modifications, task shifts, and dependency changes, or switch to the Activity Table view for a detailed, line-by-line breakdown of specific changes to tasks, duration and other project attributes. This comparison capability helps you track project evolution, understand the impact of changes, identify scope creep, and maintain better control over project planning and execution.
Note: Only projects with same “Project ID” can be compared.
Import Project
To import project that will be used for comparison, perform the following steps:
- Open the XER file;
- In the File menu, click on the Compare sub-menu;
- The project is inserted in ScheduleReader using the Import button;
- Navigate to the location where the XER file that represents the baseline is placed.
- Click on the Open button in the dialog.
The “Compare Activities” layout displays both project versions simultaneously, allowing the user to visualize schedule changes and activity movements at a glance. In this layout, each activity from the current project is represented with top-oriented bar, while the activity from the imported project is presented with bottom-oriented bar.
This visual layering makes it immediately apparent where tasks have shifted in time, extended or shortened in duration, or remained unchanged.
The colors that are used in the “Compare Activity” layout are:
- Dark blue bar for presenting the current Actual Work
- Light blue bar for presenting the revisited Remaining Work
- Dark green bar for presenting the current Actual Work
- Light green bar for presenting the revisited Remaining Work
- Dark red bar for presenting the current Critical Remaining Work
- Light red bar for presenting the revisited Critical Remaining Work
Modification of the layout’s bars can be done using the “Bars” dialog, located in the “Format” ribbon.
To view the new values of the project and make tabular comparison in Activity table, you should add the corresponding REV columns from Activity Table:
The prefix “REV” stands for Revisited and these fields are implemented through the available categories.