It's easy to update a Milestones schedule with the latest dates from
a single Microsoft Project schedule. This is accomplished "no sweat"
with Milestones Professional and Milestones Project Companion's
"refresh" feature found on the File menu under
Update..Milestones/Project Refresh.
Milestones refresh works quite simply by matching up unique IDs from
MS project to unique ID tags attached to milestone symbols on your
presentation schedules. If a match is found, the date is updated.
But, what if there is a need to update a single presentation schedule
from several Microsoft Project schedule files? Can this be
accomplished with Milestones refresh?
Yes, and quite simply. In a nutshell, you will need to follow
these simple steps:
First, in Microsoft Project:
1
Collect the individual Microsoft Project schedules you plan
to present.
2
Build a Microsoft Project master schedule and save it as a
new file.
Next, in Milestones:
3
Build the presentation schedule, either using
the wizard or by
manually tagging the milestone symbols. If manually
tagging the milestone symbols, be sure to use the Unique IDs
which are found in the Microsoft Project master schedule and not
the Unique IDs in the individual schedules.
4
When refreshing / updating the schedule,
instead of referencing the individual Microsoft Project
schedules, be sure to reference the master schedule.
STEP 1 - Collect the individual schedules
Identify which of your Microsoft Project schedules you would like to
include on your presentation report.
Tasks on a Microsoft Project schedule are each assigned an
identifier called the "Unique ID". This identifier is associated with a
specific task. If that task is deleted, it is not reassigned to another
task. If tasks are rearranged within the schedule, the unique ID will
stay with the task. When new tasks are added, new Unique IDs are
assigned to the new tasks.
STEP 2 - Build the Master Schedule
Once the schedules which will be reported on have been identified, a
Microsoft Project master schedule should be built. This is easily
accomplished by using the Project menu choice on the Insert
menu. Repeat selecting Insert+Project until all projects have been
added to the master schedule. Note that the Unique IDs on the master
schedule are different than the Unique IDs on the individual schedules.
This renumbering is done by Microsoft Project to prevent duplication
when several projects are combined. Also, note that the Unique ID
numbers are much larger than the Unique ID numbers in the individual
schedules.
STEP 3 - Create and save the presentation chart
The presentation chart can built either 1) using the Milestones
Project Wizard in Milestones Professional or Milestones Project
Companion or 2) by building the chart with Milestones Professional or
Milestones Project Companion and
"tagging" the symbols manually.
Either way, to be a "refreshable" chart, one which can be updated with
the Milestones refresh feature, the individual milestone symbols must be
tagged with the unique ID numbers and the proper names of the Microsoft
Project date field. For example, if a milestone is to be updated from
the finish date of a task whose unique id is 33, the tag would be:
33,finish.
Note that for Project 1.1C, the Unique ID is 8388614. Therefore,
the tag for the finish date milestone should be 8388614,finish.
STEP 4 - Refresh the presentation chart from the master as
projects change
Once your presentation schedule is built and your milestones are all
tagged with links to the right Microsoft Project tasks, all you need to
do is periodically "refresh" your schedule to get the latest Microsoft
Project dates. Just choose Update->Milestones/Project Refresh on the
Milestones Professional or Milestones Project Companion File menu.
