Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 December 24

= December 24 =

Speeding up Windows XP
24/12/2011 Is there a reputable software to speed up Windows XP? Hamish84 (talk) 03:38, 24 December 2011 (UTC) Question may have been answered earlier hence the date above for my guidance.

Hamish 84(still learning).


 * XPLite. -- Hoary (talk) 06:08, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Do you mean the answers you received to your earlier question Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2011 December 15? Astronaut (talk) 23:32, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

Gantt charts, etc, simply
The Project management software article tells us that PMS is a term covering many types of software [...] which are used to deal with the complexity of large projects (my emphasis). The missus wants to make and update Gantt charts for herself, and occasionally to print these out and email the resulting PDFs/PNGs/whatevers -- the latter would be the extent of the collaborative aspect of working on what are, by "enterprise" standards, minuscule projects. As I numbly click on one damn link after another among the "open source" options among Comparison of project management software, I tentatively (and very likely quite wrongly) bring the [Mac OS X, hopefully Japanese-language] options down to Redmine and GanttProject. But what little I can understand of either program (without actually trying it out) brings to mind operating a small drawing pin with a sledgehammer. Oh, and the would-be user is somebody who's highly averse to reading menu options, let alone instruction manuals. Is there perhaps a simple Mac OS X option for the incurious/timid/impatient? It could even cost a bit of money: paying money for something vaguely understandable and in Japanese would be less impalatable than screenfuls of instructions by and for the SourceForge-literate. -- Hoary (talk) 06:24, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I have been using GanttProject quite sucessfully for exactly this purpose - it's in Java so it's not pretty, but it is actually about as simple as you can make a project manager without it not being a project manager anymore and becoming a todo list. For your use case you can totally ignore the "resources" menu (resources are people - this reminds me why I hate management-speak). Simply fire up the program, go to project -> new project, give it a name and click through to set the calendar options (public holidays and weekend days if you want them - I think it just puts them in a different colour). Ignore all the other options. Then click the "new task" button (a thick blue arrow in the top toolbar), give the task a name and fill in start/end dates. You can create dependencies (a task that can start as soon as another is finished) by dragging from the task to the dependent task. If you want to make the task a milestone (a task with no duration) double click on it in the gantt chart to bring up task properties, here you can do that, as well as changing colours etc. you can also manage/delete dependencies from the "predecessors" tab. To group or reorder tasks you can use the arrows in the toolbar above the task list (indenting will group a task under the next task up - which will change to a bracket in the gantt chart). You can export under "project -> export" as PDF, PNG or JPEG. There also appears to be a Japanese translation according to the website. Hope this helps. Equisetum (talk &#124; contributions) 11:18, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Oh, and I've just counted and my workflow only contains two menu options and one two dialog boxes ;) Equisetum (talk &#124; contributions) 11:22, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I just found a lifehacker top 5 of the best personal project managers - and it looks as if tom's panner might be just what you need if you don't mind using a webapp and paying for it. It costs $9 a month for the mid-range package that allows export to an image and up to 20 projects at a time. It emphasises intuitive mouse-based editing of the Gantt chart directly (I guess by dragging tasks around). The main disadvantage (apart from being a webapp) is that it doesn't appear to have a Japanese version.Equisetum (talk &#124; contributions) 11:37, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

Thank you Equisetum! I'll start by installing GanttProject tomorrow and giving it a whirl, and if this doesn't work then shall look at your other suggestions. -- Hoary (talk) 14:06, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * I rarely use them, but have found GanttProject quite approachable and easy enough to use for basic tasks at times. Failing that, many years back I occasionally used to use Excel to hobble together basic Gantt Charts; so if you're desperate ... --jjron (talk) 14:47, 24 December 2011 (UTC)

Is there a free product for PCs similar to Garage Band on a Mac?
Someone told me to look at Jam Trax, but all I could download for free was Jam Trax XPress 2.0, which turned out to be nothing but a demo. HiLo48 (talk) 07:18, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * This Yahoo Answers page lists several programs, including some free ones such as LMMS. RudolfRed (talk) 19:57, 24 December 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you. That looks like an excellent link. Lots of possibilities. HiLo48 (talk) 05:25, 26 December 2011 (UTC)