Add a Microsoft Project Field to a Milestones
Professional Schedule
What if you have built a perfect Milestones
Custom Project Import Template for displaying your
Microsoft Project schedules in a presentation
format, but now realize that you forgot two critical
columns?
Or, maybe you have run through the Project to
Milestones wizard, imported a large project and
customized the schedule to fit your presentation
needs. Only after applying your unique colors
and other formatting do you realize you forgot to
include the ACWP field from Microsoft Project. What to do?
This article discusses how to handle both of
these situations.
One way to handle the
situation is to re-import your Microsoft Project schedule. That is, to go through
the wizard again, being sure to include the
fields you require.
The other way to handle the problem is to simply
insert the missing fields and:
if building a custom template, save
the new template as a custom template.
Then, the next time you import with the
updated template, all fields, including the
newly added fields will be brought in from
the Microsoft Project schedule.
if updating a presentation schedule,
"refresh" the schedule and the missing
fields will be brought in from the Microsoft
Project schedule.
Add the field to
the chart:
1
Choose New Column on the Insert tab.
2
Choose Microsoft Office
Project Column.
3
The Column Properties dialog box is displayed,
and you will be able to select a field in the MS
Project field section.
Choose one of the available
Microsoft Project fields:
If building a custom template, after
inserting the columns:
1
Choose Save Custom Project Template on the
Connections tab and save the Milestones schedule.
2
Next time you import, the template
will be shown on the list of Custom templates and the
next import will include the additional Microsoft Office
Project fields
If updating a presentation schedule, after
inserting the columns:
1
Choose Save on the
File tab and save the Milestones schedule
2
Choose
Refresh Previously Imported Project on the
Connections menu. Select the Microsoft Project which was used to build the Milestones
presentation schedule and refresh the schedule. Be
sure to select Refresh all Columns
Example:
This schedule was created using the Milestone Chart | Finish
Dates import wizard option. Then it was formatted for
presentation. But what if you decide that the "Actual Cost" and
"Finish" fields from Microsoft Office.
Simply insert two Microsoft Project Columns and choose
Actual Cost and Finish for the MS Project field selections.
Format the columns as needed. The Actual Cost column was
formatted as a Values SmartColumn with currency symbols and zero
decimal places.
Last, execute the refresh option (Choose
Refresh Previously Imported Project
on the
Connections
tab or menu.) to fill the empty columns and update the symbol
dates. Be sure to select the Refresh All Columns option.
