If you've worked with external vendors for any length of time, I'm sure you've noticed the variety of formats vendors use for a project schedule.  In some cases, it is a formal MS Project schedule.  In other cases, it is a set of dates described in an email or it is developed in every non-MS Project user's favorite tool - Excel or a spreadsheet variant.

The following is a brief tutorial on how to import an Excel spreadsheet project schedule into Microsoft Project.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/tech-manager/?p=3373&tag=results;CR1

I recently wrote an article for Techrepublic on how to build a custom filter to identify tasks that are behind schedule in Microsoft Project.

Attached to this article is the sample .mpp file that contains the Behind Schedule filter.

To add the filter to your own project schedule:

1. Download the Behind Schedule.mpp file and open it in MS Project
2. Select Tools - Organizer
3. Click on the Filters tab
4. Select the Behind Schedule filter and click the Copy button.

The Behind Schedule view will now be available for all your projects in the Formatting tool bar.

Attachments:

File	Description	File size
Behind Schedule Filter		430 Kb

The number of views into Microsoft Project’s scheduling data can be overwhelming. The delivered views on the Microsoft Project view bar include the Gantt chart, resource usage, task usage, and resource graph views. When you combine these views with the entry, cost, tracking, and variance tables, it can get confusing.

Novice project managers remedy this problem by adding every column of data that they’ll ever need into the Gantt chart view. The end result is there are too many columns in one view, and it creates information overload. It quickly becomes difficult to navigate, print, and manage the project data . (I’ve inherited project schedules that had more than 20 columns in a single Gantt chart view.)

One solution is to create a custom view that provides the core schedule data needed to define, track, and update your project schedule. For the past few years, I’ve been using a custom view called myGantt that provides all the data I need to update project progress and track the project schedule (Figure B).

Figure B

You can create your own myGantt view by following these steps.

Create a set of custom tables and views based on the delivered entry and tracking tables
By creating custom tables and views, you’ll import the same data and still be able to switch back to the delivered Gantt chart and standard tables. If you don’t create a separate set of tables and views, any changes you make to the underlying tables will affect the standard views in Microsoft Project.

1. Go to View | Tables | More Tables and select the Entry table.
2. Click Copy and rename the table to myEntry (Figure C).
3. Click the OK button.

Figure C

Create a custom myTracking table

1. Repeat steps 1-3 from the previous section and use the Tracking table.
2. Edit the table to include these fields: Name, Actual Start, Actual Finish, Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, % Complete, Actual Duration, Remaining Duration, Baseline Duration. If you’re tracking effort-driven tasks, you should include Actual Work and Baseline Work fields.
3. Click the OK button.

Create a custom myEntry view

1. Go to View | More Views.
2. In the View Definition dialog box, enter myEntry for the Name, select the myEntry Table, set the Group to No Group, and set the Filter to All Tasks. Click the OK button. (Figure D)

Figure D

Create a custom myTracking view

1. Repeat the steps above and use the myTracking view.

Create a myGantt combination view
The combination view splits the Microsoft Project workspace into two panels; this allows you to see the entry and the tracking data all in one view.

1. Go to View | More Views | New.
2. Enter myGantt for the Name and select myEntry for the Top view and myTracking for the Bottom Views Displayed (Figure E).

Figure E

1. Click the Show In Menu checkbox.
2. Click the OK button.

Test your view
By clicking the Show In Menu checkbox, you should see the myGantt view in your View Bar and in your View menu.

1. Go to Click On View | myGantt. The myGantt view from Figure B will be displayed.

With this view, you can click on one task in the upper window pane and view all the relevant tracking data in the lower pane. By highlighting multiple tasks, you’ll receive all the key information you need to track your schedule.

Primary benefit

The key benefit of this myGantt view is the amount of time you’ll save switching between different views and inserting or hiding different columns. With one combination view, the project manager is able to view the baseline dates, the actual dates, and the impact of those dates to the forecasted schedule. Using this single combination view, you can record the actual duration and the remaining duration to generate an objective percent complete. The supporting Gantt chart can still be formatted to view the critical path or other Gantt chart wizard graph charts. You can also change the upper and lower window panes based on the tracking or the resource utilization needs. Since you created custom objects, you can easily revert to the original views by clicking the Gantt chart icon and removing the split view.

You can change the upper and lower window panes based on the tracking or the resource utilization needs. Since you created custom objects, you can easily revert to the original views by clicking the Gantt chart icon and removing the split view.

Innovate

Now that you understand how to customize Microsoft Project, I encourage you to discover new ways to view project data. If you have developed innovative views that you’d like to share with the community, please detail them in the blog comments below.

If you found this tutorial useful and would like more information, then please check out my MS Project Tutorial #1: How to Effectively Build a Project Schedule.  It provides an easy to learn 10 step method to effectively build a project schedule that you can rely on!

Author's Note: I wrote this article for Techrepublic.com in 2009 and it is reprinted here with permission.