Reporting on Custom Properties -- Duration of time in minutes (em'

[Vicky]

I created a custom property to track Duration for processes. I assigned
Minutes as the format and for the duration I applied from 1 minute to 5
minutes for the various proceses. When I run a report it comes out as 1440
em's (for 1 minute) to 7200 em's (for 5 minutes). What is an em? How can I
get it to show in simple minutes?

Thanks!

 

[Vicky]

JUst to add... I figured out that em stands for elapsed minutes. Any idea
why 1 minute woudl display as 1440 and 5 minutes as 7200? Thanks!

 

[Paul Herber]

1440 = the number of minutes in a day.
Which report are you using ?

 

[Vicky]

Paul, You are brilliant! Yes, the 1440 is minutes per day but why am I
getting that when in the custom properties box I am putting 1 as the number
of minutes.

I am running a report that I create using Tools>Reports> New > shapes on
current page and the columns I want to see are Duration and shape name (
think that is what I selected but it doesnt matter)

I then indicate that I want the report run in Excel but I tested other
formats as well.

I should mention that I modified the Custom Property "Duration" properties
and made it Type = duration and format = minutes. I tried it with format as
00:00 for minutes and seconds but I am still getting the same, 1440 minutes.
Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[Paul Herber]

One problem might be that many shapes already have a Duration
property, this is of type Number rather than of type Duration. The
report you are using may be assuming this data type. I don't see the
same result as you, I get the value of 0. maybe someone else with more
knowledge of the reports can help ......

 

[Vicky]

Thank you. I am hoping someone else can help me with this. I did change the
format for the custom property (duration) to minutes. It was originally set
to number I believe.

Maybe what is happening is when I enter 1 in the duration property, Visio
takes that to mean 1 day and since I formatted it as minutes, I am getting
1440 minutes (1 day)

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[David Parker]

I believe that the Report tool always assumes that Shape Data type of 6
(Duration) needs to be output in Elapsed Days, regardless of the Format that
you set in the ShapeSheet. You can, of course, create a new User-defined
cell, named, say, Duration, which has the formula =Prop.Duration. This will
correctly interpret the value, and can included in your report instead of
Prop.Duration.

I have also found that chaging the type and displayed format of
Prop.Duration attempts to interpret any existing Master instances, so you
may need to reset the values in shapes that you changed the Master of after
you entered the instance values.

Thank you. I am hoping someone else can help me with this. I did change
the
format for the custom property (duration) to minutes. It was originally
set
to number I believe.

Maybe what is happening is when I enter 1 in the duration property, Visio
takes that to mean 1 day and since I formatted it as minutes, I am getting
1440 minutes (1 day)

Anyone else have any suggestions?

 

[Al Edlund]

remembering that time duration is a double format with the left side being
days (i.e. 1 = 1440 minutes) and the right side being a multiplace value
being the portion of the day (i.e. .5000 = 12 hours)
al