Getting started

What this is

Clarity Resource replaces the yearly Resource Plan spreadsheet. It shows the same thing in the same shape - every project stacked down the page, the people on it underneath, and one column for every day - but it is live, several people can work in it at once, and it never needs rebuilding in January.

The calendar rolls on without a break. December runs straight into January; there is no year-end copy to make.

There is no Save button anywhere on the plan. A change is written the moment you let go of the mouse, and Clarity Resource records who made it.

Across the top is the dark Clarity bar - the same on every Clarity product: the app's name on the left, its pages as tabs (Plan, Resources, Users & sharing, Settings), and on the right your company logo, Help, who is signed in and Sign out. Under it is the plan's ribbon, laid out the way MS Project lays out its buttons: three tabs - Plan (+ Add project, Export PDF and setting up), Dates and Show (the filters) - with the dates on screen at the right-hand end.

The ribbon's buttons are open to start with, under the tabs; a tab just changes which ones show. If you would rather give the plan the room, press the pin at the right-hand end (or double-click a tab) to fold them away: then only the tabs show, a tab drops its buttons down over the plan, and pressing one, clicking anywhere else or pressing Esc puts them away again. Press the pin again to keep them open. Each computer remembers which you chose. A small dot on Show means a filter is on.

What it looks like

Start to finish

1. Sign in with your email address and password.
2. The plan opens on today's month, scrolled so today's column sits just past the names.
3. Choose the dates and filters you want from the ribbon's Dates and Show tabs.
4. Fill in days, or use Who's free to find cover.

How to

• Sign in at the address you were sent. Five wrong passwords in a row locks that account for fifteen minutes - wait, then try again.
• Move through the dates: Dates, then Earlier or Later. This month jumps back to the current month.
• Show more or less: Dates, then 1, 3, 6 or 12 months.
• Fold the buttons away for more room: press the pin at the right-hand end of the ribbon, or double-click a tab. Press it again to keep them open.
• Scroll sideways with the bar along the bottom of the grid, or hold Shift and use the mouse wheel. The names column stays where it is.
• Find your place again: Clarity Resource remembers how far you had scrolled, so it does not throw you back to the start every time the page reloads.
• Sign out at the right-hand end of the dark bar. On a shared computer, always sign out.