Firstly, a proposal must be loaded into the OT. Often, this will be done by starting completely from scratch using ``New Proposal'' from the File menu or toolbar icon (number ``1'' on a green background). There is also the possibility to open a Director's Discretionary Time (DDT) proposal using the corresponding menu or toolbar item i.e. the letter ``D'' on a reddish-pink background. The rest of this chapter is essentially identical for each, the only obvious difference being the bars in the GUI that have the same colour as the icon backgrounds. It is also possible to read in an existing project from disk or from the archive. In each case, dialogue boxes will warn about possible overwriting of the current project if it has unsaved changes.
The first task is to provide some generic information about the project. Selecting the Project node in the Project Structure tree will enable both the PI to be chosen, by querying the ALMA User Database, and a title for the project to be entered, although both can in fact be entered in the subsequent Proposal node. Once the project title has been entered, this will be reflected in various places in the OT: the main GUI titlebar, the Project node and the Forms tab of the Editors pane. A non-editable project code will initially be blank and only be completed once a proposal has been submitted for the first time.
Note that privileged users will also see panels entitled Project Notes and Advanced Options. Amongst other things, these enable observatory staff to gain access to restricted information about a project (including the outcome of its scientific and technical review) and to note useful information.
To continue with proposal creation, the Proposal node in the Project tree should now be selected. A number of information fields should be visible in the Editors pane and double-clicking on the node will reveal an empty node named Planned Observing; the Phase-1 Science Goals are kept here. Also note that on top of the Project tree, in the blue banner, the status of the proposal is visible. For newly created proposals it will say "Unsubmitted Proposal" whilst proposals that have already been submitted will show "Submitted Proposal". If this message is visible, submission of the proposal will overwrite the previous submission!