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"Refresh" refers to the process of updating a Milestones presentation
schedule's dates and column fields with the latest information from one
or more Microsoft Office Project schedules. Typically, the same
Microsoft Project schedule which which is used to build the schedule
with the Project to Milestones Wizard is used for the "refresh" phase.
Advanced users: it is also possible to
refresh a presentation milestone
schedule from several Microsoft Project schedules |
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How the refresh process
works |
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| When the Milestones Project Wizard
creates a presentation schedule from a Microsoft Project schedule,
task start and end dates
are tagged with a Unique ID number from Microsoft Project and the word
"start", "finish", "baselinestart","baselinefinish", or other date
type. Microsoft Project fields such as task name, percent
complete, BCWP, and so on are similarly tagged on the Milestones
presentation schedule.
To
view an example of a symbol's tag, click the symbol on the schedule.
The toolbar
changes to Current Object Symbol. Then select the Symbol
Links tab in the Incoming Link and Automation Tag
section and view the Automation Tag box. |
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During the refresh process, tagged items in
Milestones are matched to their counterparts in the selected Microsoft Project
file. All tagged items are replaced with the latest data from the
Microsoft Office Project file. Thus, if a start date
changes in the Microsoft Office Project file, refresh will update that same start date
in the Milestones schedule. |
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How to refresh a
Milestones schedule's data with updated Microsoft Project
schedule dates: |
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Open the Milestones Project Companion or
Milestones Professional schedule that was created by importing an Microsoft Office Project schedule.
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Choose the Connections
tab in the Microsoft Office Project section. Then choose
Refresh Previously imported Project.
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Browse to
find the Microsoft Project schedule that generated this Milestones schedule.
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Click once
on the Microsoft Project file and choose Open. This dialog box below
appears:
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Refresh Using:
If, when the Milestones schedule was created, symbols were
tagged with a Microsoft Office Project field other than UniqueID,
it's possible to select that field and use it to refresh the
schedule.
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Refresh Symbol Text: updates
text/values attached to symbols with the source field's text/values
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Refresh
All Columns: updates column text/values with the source field's
text/values
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Refresh
Percent Complete: updates each status symbol, according to the
latest percent complete values. The status symbol controls the
fill-to-status for connectors and symbols
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Create Report: generates a
report of fields which were updated. Report is both placed 1)
on the clipboard and 2) saved to the user's My Documents folder.
The name of the report is milesrefreshfile. (milesrefreshfile.txt)
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Highlight changed dates: causes
any dates which are changed during the refresh process to be
highlighted. Once highlighted, it's possible to toggle the
display on and off by checking or un-checking the Refresh
Highlighting option on the Connections tab (Other
section).
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Reset Date Range based on changes:
Check this if the date range (start/end dates) of the Milestones
chart should be changed to reflect the changes made during the
refresh process.
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Append Tasks: Choose to add tasks to the presentation chart.
Note that if a number of tasks have been added, re-importing is
usually best.
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Highlight obsolete milestones:
Symbols in the Milestones
schedule which are no longer in the Microsoft Project file will change to a
question mark symbol
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Ignore Times When Refreshing: Do
not update the time when updating the date. Only change the
date of the symbol.
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Refresh example |
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In Milestones, Task 1's start symbol is
tagged as "24,Start" because the matching task in Microsoft Project has the
unique ID number 24. If Microsoft Project Task 1's start date changes, and the
refresh feature is applied in Milestones, then the Task 1 start date
will change to match the change in Microsoft Project. |
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Which fields are refreshable? |
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The following Microsoft Project date fields are refreshable by the
Milestones 2008 refresh process: |
| start [st] |
start 1,2,....start 10 [st1 ..... st10] |
| finish [fn] |
finish 1,2,...finish 10 [fn1.....fn10] |
| baseline start [bs] |
baseline 1 start, baseline 2 start,...baseline 10 start
[b1s ..... b10s] |
| baseline finish [bf] |
baseline 1 finish, baseline 2 finish, ... baseline 10 finish
[b1f .... b10f] |
| actual start [as] |
actual finish [af] |
| early start [es] |
early finish [ef] |
| late start [ls] |
late finish [lf] |
| deadline [dl] |
stop (no abbreviation) |
| resume [rs] |
created [cr] |
| constraint date [csd] |
date 1 ..... date 10 [dt1....dt10] |
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[abbreviations]—tag
is limited to 30 total characters |
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Why won't all schedules
refresh? |
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Some schedules are not able to be refreshed
with the latest data from the Microsoft Project source file. The initial import
wizard path determines if the schedule can or cannot be refreshed. |
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When refresh is not allowed, re-importing
the Microsoft Project file is recommended. |
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The reasons for preventing refresh of
selected schedules include: in some cases, refresh would not respect the
initial import of selected tasks; refreshing the schedule would take
significantly longer than re-importing. |
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IMPORTANT NOTES:
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Time-scaled values found in ValueSets, among other schedule areas,
will not be updated.
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Microsoft
Project files that have significantly changed after the initial import
into Milestones, should be re-imported for the latest Project data.
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Refreshing
does not change the format of the Milestones schedule.
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Symbols in
Milestones can be extensively rearranged (moved to various task
lines). Their location is not important, as the Unique ID tag
identifies each symbol in Milestones.
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Symbols can
be tagged manually by entering the Microsoft Project tasks' unique ID
numbers, along with "start", "finish", or another refreshable date
field in the Automation Tag field,
as shown above. The tag is case sensitive.
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Manipulating
the Microsoft Project file: Sorting a
resource or task list does not change the Unique ID numbers in
Microsoft Project. However, cutting and pasting task rows does change the Unique
ID numbers, as Microsoft Project sees that as creating new task rows. Those
same tasks in Milestones would, therefore, not be identified correctly
when the Refresh is applied.
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Milestones
schedules should be saved before refreshing.
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Learn more |
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Using Milestones Professional with Microsoft Office Project |
