Create Presentation Reports For Microsoft Project

KIDASA Software’s Milestones Professional offers a direct interface to Microsoft Project, making it easy to generate presentation report formats beyond the standard formats offered by Microsoft Project. Build a schedule using one of Milestones many built-in templates or build one “free-hand” and link it back to Project. Either way, the schedule can be “refreshed” or updated when the Project dates change.

With Milestones Professional’s interface to Microsoft Project, you can:

  • Use a simple wizard to choose how to present your Microsoft Project schedules.
  • Create custom Project import templates and add them to the wizard.
  • Keep presentation schedules up-to-date using “refresh.”  Update a single Milestones presentation schedule from one Microsoft Project schedule or from several.
  • Easily add new Project tasks to the Milestones schedule.  Add them in one at a time or as a group.

Create reports using a simple wizard

On the Connections tab, choose Create Report from Project or Create Report from Project Server to begin the Project to Milestones Wizard.

The Project to Milestones Wizard offers a visual representation of the schedule as it is created, allowing you to see the effects of the formatting choices you make in a dynamically updated screen.

Start with one of the built-in formats or use your own custom chart to begin. Follow the prompts and watch as your Microsoft Project information is brought into a professional-looking Milestones schedule.

Choose a built-in template

Create a custom project import template

Can’t find a chart format in the Project to Milestones wizard that is exactly what you need? Import one of your Microsoft Project Schedules, customize the presentation Milestones chart and save it as a Milestones custom project template.

Make colorful swim-lane schedules

Do you want to display just the key tasks or milestones for a schedule on a single page?  Try using one of our “coded” templates, specifically  designed for making swim lane schedules.  Or, create your own template.

Then, in Project, add codes to just the tasks you want to see on the presentation Milestones schedule.  Codes can be from 3-20 characters (letters and numbers) and are used to identify how to group the tasks.

For more control, try the “Coded Symbols and Bars” option, which lets you set not only the row in Milestones but also the symbol type and what to show (finish date, start date, task bar, …. Many options)

Build a Free Form Presentation Schedule

Do you have a unique presentation format? Do you have one or more Microsoft Project schedules which you need to present at once?

It’s possible to design a presentation chart “free-form” and link it to your Microsoft Project schedule(s) for future updates.

Just design your schedule in Milestones Professional, and then bring over the tasks from MS Project. You just have to select which tasks you’d like, and then choose how you want those tasks represented:

You can also do the same thing with Milestones, and you can even add many tasks to the same row, to create a Swimlane easily:

Stay Up To Date as Project Dates Change with Refresh

“Refresh” refers to updating symbols’ dates, column text, and column values in Milestones Professional with the latest information in the Microsoft Project files that were used to create the Milestones schedule.

You just go to the Connections Tab, and choose “Refresh Previously Imported Project”, and then choose what file to grab the new dates from. Then, you let Milestones Professional do the rest:

Update from multiple Microsoft Project schedules

If you have a list of Microsoft Project schedules which refresh a single Milestones Professional schedule, here’s a great way to keep them up to date:

  • In Milestones Professional, add Microsoft Project schedules to a “refresh list”. Assign each Project schedule a “nickname.”
  • Build the Milestones Professional schedule using the nicknames for symbols on the schedule.
  • When the Milestones Professional schedule is refreshed, the refresh list is used to update the schedule.

Videos: Working With MS Project

Flagging and Filtering your Project before ImportingDecide what to import from MS Project before you start the import process.

Import from MS Project: Let the Wizard Guide YouCheck out our step-by-step importing option from MS Project. Also see how to set up Custom Symbology during the import.

Import from MS Project: Coded Presentation Timeline / Birds on a WireCoded Presentation Timeline uses a single Text field in your Project file to assign finish dates to different colored swimlanes in Milestones Professional.

Import from MS Project: Coded Finish DatesCoded Finish Dates uses a single Text field in your Project file to assign finish dates to their own rows in Milestones Professional.

Import from MS Project: Coded Symbols and BarsThis coded import option allows you to mark each task in MS Project to tell Milestones how to import the task, and which row to place it on.

Refresh from Multiple MS Project FilesWith this video, you learn how to connect a single Milestones Schedule to Multiple MS Project files, using our Nickname feature.

Link to MS Project: Manual Tagging (Rows)Link existing Milestones tasks back to MS Project, or add tasks from MS Project into an existing Milestones schedule.

Link to MS Project: Manual Tagging (Symbols) – Link existing Milestones symbols back to an MS Project task.

Change / Replace your UniqueIDsFind out how to change / replace the UniqueIDs that your schedule uses.

Check your Symbol TagsWatch how to find all of the tags on your schedule, and even to search for specific UniqueIDs.

File CompareLearn how to compare tagged files in Milestones Professional with our File Compare feature.