Change external links

[Thea]

Hi,
in my company we have masterplans that contain different amounts of
subplans. Tasks in the masterplan as well as in the subplans have successors
and predecessors to tasks of other subplans or the masterplan.
Since we have to transfer the plans regualary to different people we have a
real mess with this external links. That's why I want to write a Macro that
changes all external links to tasks of the files that are in the same
directory.
I tried to write the list with the new predecessors and successors to the
task propertys "Predecessors" and "Successors". This works if I only write a
String with numbers, like this: "3;4;5". But if I want to add an external
Link, like:
"C:\ProjectFiles\Testplan.mpp\3;4;5" I always get th error "File not found".
But the file defenitiv exists.
Does anyone have an idea how to solve this? Are there any other posibilities
to change the predecessors/successors in a macro?
Thanks!
Thea

 

[John]

Hi,
in my company we have masterplans that contain different amounts of
subplans. Tasks in the masterplan as well as in the subplans have successors
and predecessors to tasks of other subplans or the masterplan.
Since we have to transfer the plans regualary to different people we have a
real mess with this external links. That's why I want to write a Macro that
changes all external links to tasks of the files that are in the same
directory.
I tried to write the list with the new predecessors and successors to the
task propertys "Predecessors" and "Successors". This works if I only write a
String with numbers, like this: "3;4;5". But if I want to add an external
Link, like:
"C:\ProjectFiles\Testplan.mpp\3;4;5" I always get th error "File not found".
But the file defenitiv exists.
Does anyone have an idea how to solve this? Are there any other posibilities
to change the predecessors/successors in a macro?
Thanks!
Thea

Thea,
It isn't real clear what or why you want to change the links. I would be
a little concerned if you are constantly messing with the link structure
- that tends to invite corruption.

Nonetheless, inserting the full path into the Predecessor/Successor
fields should establish that link. It might be helpful to see your macro
code and get a little more complete explanation of your file structure
(i.e. paths).

John
Project MVP

 

[Thea]

Thanks John,
I found out that I always had littel path errors in the String that I wrote
to the Predecessor and Successor field. I agree that it is not a good thing
to change the external links, but this is the problem I have:
We have a big project in my company, in that different departments and
subproject managers are involved. The subprojectmanagers have a subproject
plan that they handle on their local computer. Every fortnight, the plans are
put on a public drive, where also the Masterplan is saved, and the head of
the project takes a look if still all plans are consistent or if there are
any conflicts and he prints a pdf for the costumer. After that the plans are
taken back by the subproject managers.
So far, there are no problems.
But also every fortnight, at the same time, the head of my department wants
a copy of the subplans of his department. He has to do a reproting and wants
to check things and don't want to have the orignial files, since he don't
want to change them. But when he gets a copy the files still have the links
to the files on the public drive and I always spend a lot of time to open
each file and set the links to the new path.

Maybe you have a better idea to solve this? Giving write-protected access
wouldn't help't since the head of the department wants to save the project
files with another view, so he gets all informations immedialtly he opens the
file a second time.

Thea