Conditional Task Length Microsoft Project |
- Conditional Task Length
- n/a error
- PERT Chart Problems
- #error to be removed
- How can...
- Scheduling - %Completes and Actuals
- Deleted projects in shared resource pool
- Unhide Column
- how to undo the manipulation several time
- Adjust_Date micro
- Linking two schedules in Project
- Baseline date
- Percent Work Complete
Posted: 11 Jun 2004 11:41 AM PDT It is possible, but it is a bit kludgy. Do this. Insert one of the number fields (number1, number2 ...) Insert one of the duration fields Let's imagine you are using Number1 and Duration1 for this example right click on the header of the duration1 column select customize. click on the formula button enter [Duration]*[Number1] click ok. Now set the value in Number1 to be .2 Now copy the value in the duration1 cell Go to the duration cell for the other task From the edit menu select "Paste Special" Make sure that the "Paste Link" radio button is selected. Click OK. Now when the first task changes in duration, the second task will change as well. -Jack "Erik L" <microsoft.com> wrote in message news:1b39201c44fe3$b944c980$gbl... |
Posted: 11 Jun 2004 10:02 AM PDT I have an example of how to work around this on my website: http://masamiki.com/project/customfieldFAQ.htm -Jack "Gérard Ducouret" <fr> wrote in message news:phx.gbl... |
Posted: 11 Jun 2004 08:01 AM PDT Have you tried Format/Layout Now? It would seem that you can best avoid corruption and bloat by using File/Save As... rather than a simple Save, as that process is supposed to tidy up the bits left over from editing etc. And keep saving backups :) Mike Glen Project MVP Ron T wrote: |
Posted: 11 Jun 2004 07:28 AM PDT Mike is correct. There is no way to have a number field be blank. It is always 0 or some other value. If you want a blank field then you must use a text field. -Jack "Mike Glen" <glenATmvps.org> wrote in message news:OsZsWY%phx.gbl... it |
Posted: 11 Jun 2004 04:40 AM PDT Thank you very much Gérard Ducouret. It really helped me. Have a nice day |
Scheduling - %Completes and Actuals Posted: 10 Jun 2004 03:30 PM PDT Ivivanti, Click View>Task Usage (or Resource Usage) and you'll get a timescaled view on the right side with the tasks and resources on the left. It looks and functions just like a timesheet. You can enter the Actual Work in the appropriate spaces (on a daily or weekly basis) in the timescaled part on the right. (You may have to right-click in this section and select Actual Work if it's not visible.) This will automatically enter the correct Actual Start date. After you enter the timescaled Actual Work, adjust the Remaining Work as needed in the left side. Sarah sarah_kiko@(removethis)cinfin.com |
Deleted projects in shared resource pool Posted: 10 Jun 2004 09:02 AM PDT Thanks for the advise. I ended up creating a new resource pool and am changing the sharer files individually. Works OK. --Ken projects from it future, make sure you Failure to do so group. project.server and Project VBA message |
Posted: 10 Jun 2004 01:33 AM PDT Hi ea, Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :-) You might like to see FAQ Item: 11. Hidden Column. FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at this web address: http://www.mvps.org/project/ Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :-) Mike Glen Project MVP ea wrote: |
how to undo the manipulation several time Posted: 09 Jun 2004 11:00 PM PDT No, it can't. Unfortunately, you only get one shot. Sarah |
Posted: 09 Jun 2004 11:34 AM PDT Sorry, you must have a start date in the template, or any project for that matter!. Mike Glen Project MVP Majid wrote: |
Linking two schedules in Project Posted: 09 Jun 2004 07:53 AM PDT "Peggy" <microsoft.com> wrote in message news:com... change I make to one schedule is also made to the other schedule? Master Projects and Cross-Project Linking Using master projects to provide rolled-up reports across multiple projects and create external dependencies between tasks in different projects is valuable when using Microsoft Project Professional as stand-alone applications, but does not work as well when all projects are integrated into a common repository like the Project Server database. Note . Master projects are not recommended to be used in Project Server, especially if you want to use them to provide cross-project reporting or if you plan on publishing assignments from the master project. Not allowing master projects to be published to Project Server is recommended. Because of the way projects are stored in the Project Server database and the way that this affects project-to-project interaction, project managers should avoid saving projects to the Project Server database that would normally be considered to be master projects in Microsoft Project Professional. Saving master projects and their sub-projects may cause double-counting of resource assignments and ultimately produce inaccurate Project Web Access views. Project Server provides several useful alternatives to the traditional master project: · Administrative projects - allows users to simulate traditional master projects in Microsoft Project Professional using projects saved and published to the Project Server database. An Administrative project is a project without any tasks or resources that have been saved or published to the Project Server database from Microsoft Project Professional. To create external dependencies or retain familiar reports, you should create local master projects on your client computer in Microsoft Project Professional by inserting projects checked out from the Project Server database. Users can then save the sub-projects (inserted projects) back to the Project Server database while saving the master project to their local computers. Using this method will allow users to work with master projects in a familiar way and will help maintain accurate enterprise project and resource data in the Project Server database · Enterprise Outline Codes - allows organization to add custom elements into cross-project reporting that traditional master projects cannot do as well. Using the Enterprise Global Template to define custom Enterprise Outline Codes can help provide better reporting results for project data. · Portfolio Analyzer - provides users with better reporting and data results across projects than the traditional use of master projects can. Microsoft Office Project 2003 has two administrative options that affect what project managers can take relative to master projects. · To allow master projects to be saved to Project Server. · To allow master projects to be published to Project Server 1.1.1 Cross-Project Links Cross-project linking enables project managers to link tasks in one project to tasks in another project. Microsoft Project Professional supports true cross-project linking. The user can include a path and filename in the Predecessor and Successor fields, followed by a slash and the usual relationship syntax. For example, if <>\1 Exabyte Desktop Drive.Published\24FS+3d is entered in the Predecessor field, then the predecessor has ID 24 in the project server stored project plan 1 Exabyte Desktop Drive.Published and the relationship is Finish-to-Start with 3 days of lag. 1.1.2 Cross-Project Linking Terminology The term internal is used to describe those tasks that exist in a project. External relates to those tasks outside of a project. Use of either of these terms depends on the specific project in question. To avoid confusion, this discussion assumes the active project is the internal project unless stated otherwise. When an external link is created in the active project, replicated tasks are created in both the external and active projects. The term ghost task is used to refer to an external (replicated) task, however, an external task is not displayed with the ghost task formatting in the active project if the parent of the external task has been inserted into the active project. One project gets an external successor task and the other gets an external predecessor task. When either project is displayed alone (for example, does not contain the other as an inserted project), the external task is displayed with special light gray ghost formatting so it can be easily distinguished from other tasks. If an external task is displayed as a ghost task in the active project, it gets its own ID in the active project (not necessarily the same ID it has in its parent project). A predecessor ghost task is inserted just before the corresponding internal successor task, and a successor ghost task is inserted just after the corresponding internal predecessor task. However, if a ghost task representing the external task already exists, then that ghost task is used to represent the external task in all the relationships it may have with tasks in the active project. In other words, if two tasks in the active project both have the same external predecessor, there is only one ghost task representing that external task in the active project. Figure 183 illustrates the relative use of the terms internal and external, in relation to cross-project linking. Figure 183. Internal- External task links From the perspective of 1 Exabyte Desktop Drive.Published task 55 is the external link. The task in each individual project that represents an external task is also called a ghost task. 1.1.3 Linking Between Projects There are two ways to link information between Microsoft Project Professional files: by using dependency links between project files, or by using object linking and embedding via Copy/Paste Special. When a project relies on a task that is in another project, cross-project links can be used to create a dependency between them. When a dependency between tasks in different projects is created in this way, any changes to the start or finish dates of the external task are automatically reflected in the successor task of the other project. When links between only certain fields of information need to be created, links between fields in two project files can be pasted by using the Paste Special command instead. For example, where the same job descriptions and pay rates exist in two projects, but the tasks occur in both projects, the Paste Special command enables the user to connect the selected fields in the two plans so that the information stays synchronized. 1.1.3.1 To Create a Dependency Between Tasks in Different Projects 1. Open both projects - the file containing the task you want to link to and the file containing the task you want to link from. (If necessary, you can search for your file.) 2. In the Window menu, click Arrange All. 3. Use the mouse to drag a link between two tasks. or 4. In the Task Name field, click the task for which you want to create a task dependency to an external predecessor. 5. Click Task Information and then click the Predecessors tab. Figure 184. Creating cross project task dependency 1. In the ID field, type the full path of the project location, the project name, and ID number of the external predecessor, separated by a backslash, for example: <>\Project1.published\1 for Task ID 1 in a project plan stored as Project 1 (Figure 184). 2. To change the dependency to a type other than finish-to-start, select a different dependency type in the Type field. 3. To enter lag time for the dependency, enter a value in the Lag field. 4. To enter lead time, enter a negative value in the Lag field, such as -2 for two days of lead time. 1.1.3.2 Task Dependency Dialog Box The Task Dependency dialog box is displayed by double-clicking a link line in a consolidated or stand-alone project. There are two versions of the Task Dependency dialog box, one version if the link does not involve a ghost task (but may involve inserted external tasks), and a different version for a link between an internal task and a ghost task. To display a Task Dependency dialog box, double-click a link line between two tasks that are not ghosted (Figure 185). Figure 185. Link between two internal tasks For a link between an internal task and a ghost task, the full path and filename of the ghost task are appended in parentheses after the ghost task name (Figure 186). Figure 186. Link from a ghost task to an internal task 1.1.4 Editing Ghost Tasks If a cell of a ghost task is double-clicked, Microsoft Project Professional opens the external project, if it is not already open, and places the cursor at the top of the file. If the file is already open, double clicking the ghost task will activate that file and place the cursor at the proper task. The cross project link can be edited in either project. The ghost task can be deleted from the internal task's project. This removes the link and removes the ghost task from the internal project. This action has no affect on the external task in the external project except to remove the cross-project link (and the appropriate ghost task) when that project is updated. For example, deleting a ghost task breaks the link, but does not delete the task record from the parent project. 1.1.4.1 Synchronized and Editable Ghost Fields Some information in a ghost task is synchronized with the information in the external project, and some information is editable in the internal project. In general most fields are synchronized except for custom fields, notes, and baseline fields (so that the user can set a baseline in the internal project) and some fields are only used to show assignment fields. Cost and work fields are synchronized, but they are not included in rollup calculations because they are not counted against the internal project. Also, fields that are synchronized are not editable because the synchronization would wipe out any edits. The following split table shows what information is synchronized with the information in the external project. It also shows what information can be edited in the internal project. The X at the end of some of the field names in the table is a placeholder for numbered fields. For example, TextX means Text1, Text2, and so on. Name Sync Editable Name Sync Editable Actual Cost Yes No Marked No Yes Actual Duration Yes No Milestone Yes No Actual Finish Yes No Name Yes No Actual Overtime Cost Yes No Notes No Yes Actual Overtime Work Yes No NumberX No Yes Actual Start Yes No Objects No No Actual Work Yes No Outline Level No No Baseline Cost No Yes Overallocated No No Baseline Duration No Yes Overtime Cost Yes No Baseline Finish No Yes Overtime Work Yes No Baseline Start No Yes % Complete Yes No Baseline Work No Yes % Work Complete Yes No BCWP No No Predecessors No No BCWS No No Preleveled Finish Yes No Confirmed No No Preleveled Start Yes No Constraint Date Yes No Priority Yes No Constraint Type Yes No Project Yes No Contact No Yes Recurring No No Cost Yes No Regular Work Yes No Cost Rate Table No No Remaining Cost Yes No Cost Variance No No Remaining Duration Yes No CostX No Yes Remaining Overtime Cost Yes No Created No No Remaining Overtime Work Yes No Critical Yes No Remaining Work Yes No CV No No Resource Group No No DateX No Yes Resource Initials No No Assignment Delay No No Resource Names No No Duration Yes No Resource Phonetics No No DurationX No Yes Resume Yes No Early Finish Yes No Rollup No Yes Early Start Yes No Start Yes No Effort Driven Yes No Start Variance No No External Project Name No No StartX No Yes Finish Yes No Stop Yes No Finish Variance No No Subproject File No No FinishX No Yes Subproject Read-Only No No Fixed Cost Yes No Successors No No Fixed Cost Accrual Yes No Summary No No FlagX No Yes SV Yes No Free Slack Yes No TeamStatus Pending No No Hide Bar No Yes TextX No Yes Hyperlink No Yes Total Slack Yes No Hyperlink Address No Yes Type Yes No Hyperlink Href No Yes Unique ID No No Hyperlink SubAddress No Yes Predecessors Unique ID No No ID No No Unique ID Successors No No Indicators No No Assignment Units No No Late Finish Yes No Update Needed No No Late Start Yes No WBS Yes No Level Assignments No No Work Yes No Leveling Can Split No No Work Contour No No Leveling Delay Yes No Work Variance No No Linked Fields No No 1.1.4.2 Formatting Ghost Tasks To allow formatting of the ghost tasks, the following items are included in the following dialog boxes: View Dialog box Item Default formatting Calendar Text Styles external task Color: Gray Calendar Bar Styles external task Color: GrayBar Type: BarPattern: Hollow Gantt Text Styles external task Color: Gray Gantt Bar Styles External (Show For) Color: GrayBar: Light Dither Network Diagram Text Styles external task Color: Gray Network Diagram Box Styles external task Color: GrayBox: Dotted Box Task Sheet Text Styles external task Color: Gray Task Usage Text Styles external task Color: Gray Task Report Text external task Color: Gray Crosstab Report Text external task Color: Gray 1.1.4.3 Gantt Chart Wizard The Gantt Chart Wizard - see The Gantt Chart Wizard page 431 - preserves ghost task formatting, but provides no options to change it. Formatting for ghost task bars must be carried out using the Format Bar or Format Bar Styles menu commands. 1.1.5 Baseline Information for Ghost Tasks Unlike all other information about the ghost task, the baseline information comes from the internal project rather than the external project. An external task has two independent sets of baseline field values. One set is in its parent project, and the other set is in the internal project. This allows the user to see how much the ghost task has moved or changed from the last time the internal project baseline was set. 1.1.6 Cross Project Linking Options The View tab of the Options dialog box available in the Tools menu contains options to control how links are updated when files are opened, as well as whether or not ghost tasks are displayed .(Figure 187). Figure 187. Cross-Project Linking Options in Tools Options View tab The first two settings, Show external successors and Show external predecessors, determine if the ghost predecessors or successors are displayed as tasks or hidden in the current project. This setting does not impact the predecessor or successor fields of the linked internal task that show the external links as text. If the parent project of an external task is inserted into the active project, then the external task is not displayed as a ghost task, but is instead displayed as any other task in an inserted project. If the Show Links Between Projects dialog box on open option is ON (selected) then the Automatically accept new external data option is disabled and unchecked. If Show Links Between Projects dialog box on open is OFF (not selected), then the Automatically accept new external data option is enabled and this option can be turned ON or OFF. If the Show Links Between Projects dialog box on open setting is ON, then Microsoft Project Professional displays the Links between Projects dialog box whenever the file is opened, but only if there has been a change to an external task or link. If this setting is OFF, then Microsoft Project Professional does not display the dialog box on file open even if there have been changes to the external tasks or links. In that case, choose the Links between Projects command from the Tools menu to display the dialog box. If Automatically accept new external data is ON, then Microsoft Project Professional automatically accepts any new external link information without prompting the user. Because it automatically synchronizes the data, if Microsoft Project Professional cannot find the external link (because the link was removed or the project file was moved), then the external task is deleted. By default, the first three checkboxes are ON. These options are saved per project and cannot be saved globally. 1.1.6.1 Behavior on Open Suppose there is a link between a task in project Test1 and a task in project Test2, and project Test2 is opened. Various scenarios are discussed as follows. · If project Test1 is already open in memory, then the linked task in project Test2 reflects the current information from project Test1, and Test2's ghost in project Test1 reflects the current task data of that task in project Test2. Provided calculation is ON, any open project reflects the current data of the external tasks and links. · If project Test1 is not currently open, then Microsoft Project Professional looks for the external data in the external project (which would cause the project to be loaded in the background). If this external data is different than the current data stored in the first project being opened (project Test2) then Microsoft Project Professional displays the Cross-Project Links dialog box that shows all external links. Those links that have changed can be easily found by looking in the Differences column. When opening the project, it looks for the external data in the external project. Any changed data automatically is updated in the current project without prompting from the user. When opening the project, it does not look for the external data. If the Links Between Projects dialog box is displayed, at that point it looks for the external data. The Tools menu, Links Between Projects command is used to see the cross-project links. Figure 188. Links Between Projects dialog box The Links Between Projects dialog box (Figure 188) displays all the cross-project predecessors and successors for the current project with information about what changed in the current project. This dialog box also shows links whose source project cannot be found, or whose source task cannot be found. From this dialog box it is possible to repair broken links, choose to accept or refuse new data concerning a cross project link, and edit or delete a cross-project link (and thus the ghost task as well). When the dialog box is displayed, if it hasn't already retrieved the external information, it opens up all the external projects in order to obtain this external information. The dialog box has one tab that shows the External Predecessor tasks and another that shows the External Successor tasks. If an internal task has a predecessor and successor external link, then that task appears on both tabs. · Task. Shows the internal and ghost task pair that constitutes a cross-project link. The internal tasks are aligned to the left and have an ID number. The ghost task is indented under it. On the same line as the ghost task is Type, Date, % Complete and Difference information. The name, type, date and % Complete fields reflect the old information for example, the information stored in the current project. The differences field is used to inform the user what data has changed in the external project and its new value. The current project's internal data on the external task and cross-project link changes to this new value when the user accepts the change. · Type. Shows the link type and any lag or lead information about the external link. · Date. Either the start date or the finish date of the external task. If the link is connected to the start date of the external task, then the date is start date. If the link is connected to the finish date of the external task then the date is the finish date of the external task. It uses the date format selected in the Internal project. · %Comp. Shows the % Complete value for the external task. · Differences. Provides information about what has changed in the external task from the external project since it was last updated in the internal project, or it lets the user know that the external task or project file could not be found. If more than one piece of information changed, then the changes are listed on separate lines. Kinds of information displayed in the Differences column: o Name to <new name> is displayed when the task name changed. o Finish to <new finish> is displayed when the finish date changed and the link depends on the finish date. o Start to <new start> is displayed when the start date changed to a new date X and the link depends on the start date. o Type to <new type> is displayed when the link type changed. o Link Deleted is displayed when Microsoft Project Professional detects that the link is deleted from the other project. o Task Not Found is displayed when Microsoft Project Professional cannot find the external task within the external project. o Project Not Found is displayed when Microsoft Project Professional can find the project file or DSN but not the project name specified. The user can use the Browse dialog box to find a renamed or moved project. o File Not Found is displayed when it cannot find the project file or DSN. The user can use the Browse dialog box to find a moved or renamed external project file. o File Located is displayed when a File Not Found or Project Not Found condition has been manually corrected. Note that if there are any changes in the file that it finds, it automatically accepts them. o None is displayed to indicate that no changes have been made to the external task or link. The Accept button accepts all the changed information for the selected task. The All button accepts the changed information for all links in the dialog box. The Browse button lets the user repair the path for an external project file that may have been moved or renamed. The Delete Link button deletes the selected cross-project link and removes the external task from the current project. 1.1.6.2 Deleting External Links In Microsoft Project Professional, it is possible to delete external predecessor links to files that cannot be found. The dialog box shown in Figure 188 will appear enabling the user to delete the external link or relocate the file. 1.1.6.3 Project Calculations No project is recalculated unless it is opened. Suppose that project A has links to project B and B has links back into A, and only project B is opened. Microsoft Project Professional reads in dates from project A (provided the user says it's ok to update links). Microsoft Project Professional does not recalculate tasks in project A, even though their predecessors in project B may have changed. All the appropriate projects must be reopened before everything can be recalculated. 1.1.6.4 Circular Loop Detection The definition of a circular loop or circular task relationship in Microsoft Project Professional is when a series of task links, link back to the first task in the series. Circular links are not allowed in Microsoft Project Professional as they will cause Microsoft Project Professional to stop calculating field values and therefore must be avoided. If the user tries to create a circular link loop in a single project, Microsoft Project Professional can detect this condition and does not allow the link to be created. This is more difficult to detect and solve when the links are spread among a number of different projects. It is possible to create such loops by creating links while not having all the projects open. For example, assume that x, y and z represent single tasks in projects A, B and C. If x is linked to y and y is linked to z, and then B is closed, and link z is linked to x, a circular link is created. x -> y -> z -> x Microsoft Project Professional only detects such loops among currently opened projects. |
Posted: 09 Jun 2004 07:32 AM PDT Oren, I don't have Project 2003 server but I doubt it will give the information you want particularly if you are updating the same baseline. Since Project 2003 has multiple baselines, I suggest you save each update as a separate baseline, then you will have each date saved. If you need more than 10 baselines, I suggest you either set up a custom field to track baseline dates either manually or automated with a macro, or perhaps use an Excel spreadsheet to track the baseline date data. Hope this helps. John |
Posted: 08 Jun 2004 09:13 AM PDT Hi Julie, Notwithstanding Gerard's answer. % Complete refers to the DURATION of a task. % Work Complete refers to the WORK (hours assigned via resources). Example: A task of 5 days DURATION might contain 40 hours of WORK. For most practical purposes, those hours would be approtioned equally across all 5 days (ie, 8 hrs/day). If at the end of day 1, the resource has only done 4 hrs WORK, then your % Complete is 1/5 days = 20%, and your % Work Complete is 4/40 = 10%. If on day 2, your resource still only does 6 hrs work (lazy git!!), then your % Complete is 2/5 days = 40%, and your % Work Complete is (4+6)/40 = 25%. At the end of day 2, your analysis would read: 40% of the DURATION has elapsed, but only 25% of the WORK has been done. Someone has few long days ahead of them if they want to finish the task on time!! You do have to be a bit wary, though, owing to the fact that your % Complete does change as you extend or shorten the duraton of the task, and it is also dependent upon your Task Type. Moreover, when amending the task duration, the WORK that you have assigned to that task might also change, depending upon HOW you amend the task duration, in conjunction with the Task Type. Hope this helps. James. "Julie" wrote: |
You are subscribed to email updates from TextNData Forums - Microsoft Project To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 |