Can I make Project highlight a cell when a value has exceeded?

[monstadunk]

Excel has a nice feature that will notify you with a colored cell if you have
exceeded you value limit, or not met it. I would like to do the same thing
with MS Project but I haven't found a way to do so.

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

I'm not sure if this is possible with coloring the cell but you can do this
with a custom field that has a formula with thresholds that you define and
control in the enterprise field formula. The user would have to have the
field in the current view in order to see it though.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

monstadunk --

If you are using Microsoft Project 2007, you can do something similar to
this by creating a custom Filter to test for tasks that exceed the value
limit. Then apply the Filter as a Highlight Filter (click Project -
Filtered For - More Filters, select the Filter, and then click the Highlight
button). Finally, change how the software displays highlighted tasks by
completing these steps:

1. Click Format - Text Styles.
2. Click the Item to Change pick list and select the Highlighted Tasks
item.
3. Change the Background Color value to the color you want, such as Yellow,
for example.
4. Click the OK button.

If you are using any earlier version of Microsoft Project (2000, 2002, or
2003), you cannot do the above because the cell background formatting
feature is new in the 2007 version of the software. Hope this helps.

 

[monstadunk]

monstadunk --

If you are using Microsoft Project 2007, you can do something similar to
this by creating a custom Filter to test for tasks that exceed the value
limit. Then apply the Filter as a Highlight Filter (click Project -
Filtered For - More Filters, select the Filter, and then click the Highlight
button). Finally, change how the software displays highlighted tasks by
completing these steps:

1. Click Format - Text Styles.
2. Click the Item to Change pick list and select the Highlighted Tasks
item.
3. Change the Background Color value to the color you want, such as Yellow,
for example.
4. Click the OK button.

If you are using any earlier version of Microsoft Project (2000, 2002, or
2003), you cannot do the above because the cell background formatting
feature is new in the 2007 version of the software. Hope this helps.

Thanks Dale. That was what I needed to know. Can I do anything to make only
one cell highlight? As I have it, when Work/Cost/Durration exceed the their
respective baselines, the filters trigger. I'd rather have Project only
highlight the exceeded cell, but for some reason it highlights the whole row.
Is there anything I can do to change that?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

monstadunk --

When you use cell background formatting with the Highlighted text style, it
automatically highlights the entire row. There is no way to force it to
highlight only one cell. So, I think you'll just have to live with it.
Hope this helps.