OfficeTipsAndMethods

Posts Tagged ‘Project Planning’

Microsoft Project comes with a rich set of tables and report as comprehensive as these features are, individual users often have specialized viewing and reporting needs. Customization will go a long way towards meeting these needs:

Problem		Solution
Project standard fields don’t provide for data specific to your company or project		Custom user-defined fields
You want to see what data is stored in your custom fields or standard tables display too much information		Custom tables
Standard views do not display all the information you want to see at one time		Custom views
You want to focus on specific types of data in your project file		Custom filters
Standard reports do not include all the information you need		Custom reports
Standard imports and exports do not include all the information you need		Custom maps

There is a certain amount of interdependency between the different types of custom objects. So, for example, if you wan to add custom data to a table, you will need to first create an appropriate custom field. Similarly, if you want to restrict the kind of data you export to another application, you may need to develop a custom filter, perhaps using one of the custom fields you have defined.

Getting the customized results you want does require paying attention to a few details, the results will go a long way towards letting you have Project information your way!

I have written a small OneNote notebook on various aspects of customization. If you have OneNote 2007 you can open the notebook in OneNote. The file also includes a pdf of the notes and a small demonstration Project 2003 project plan. If you have Winzip or another file de-compression utility, download notes.zip. Otherwise download the self-extracting file notes.exe

If you are a Project user or are interested in the latest developments in Microsoft Project, check out this Office Team Blog overview. The new version looks exciting.