content in task notes field disappeared

[Jane]

I am using Project Professional 2007, Project Server 2007 with SP1.

I have an enterprise project with 6 outline levels, 3000+ lines. Many tasks
have notes filled in. However, the texts in the notes fields keep on
disappearing when I republish the project, except the notes for the task
lines that can be seen on the first screen when the project is opened. The
notes for other tasks disappeared but there are still the notes icons in the
indicator column. If you click on the notes icon, it shows Notes:" but with
no texts in the quote marks. I managed to recover some of the notes by moving
the tasks up to the top of the project so they can show up on the screen at
opening.

I would greatly appreciate it if anyone can give a hint as to what could
have caused the problem and if there is a way I can recover all the
disappeared notes.

Thanks in advance.
Jane

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Jane:

By any chance are these notes being pasted in from other applications like
Excel or Word? If this is the case, it's a good idea to wash these through
NotePad to remove hidden characters that might cause this type of behavior.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[Jane]

Hi Gary,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. Most of the notes were manually
typed in. To verify if it is the hidden characters problem, I just tried to
paste notes through Notepad as suggested, but the notes still disappeared
after I saved, checked in, and re-opened the project. I also tried to
manually type in the notes again. It did not work either. Currently I have to
use text1 field to store copies of the notes and remember to copy the texts
back to the Notes field everytime I need to republish the project. Apparently
this is not a good work-around, as I cannot ask every project manager to do
the same thing. I am wondering why the Notes field cannot display the notes
as it is supposed to do.

Thanks,
Jian

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Jane:

It might be corruption in the project plan. You can try saving this as an
XML file and then re-import it. At least try saving as XML and then back to
an mpp file on your desktop and see if the behavior persists.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[Jane]

Thanks, Gary. I tried to save it as a xml file but failed to import it to
Project Professional (the application failed), probably because the size of
the xml file is too large (over 150M). The project itself is very large and
has many external links to a few other projects on the server.
Jian

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Jane:

Are there attachments in the Project Plan? The only thing I know that can
cause this file size are document attachments added tot he plan. If so,
remove them and try again. This should shrink the plan to under 5mb.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[Jane]

Thanks for your reply, Gary. This project has no attachments, but it does
have a lot cross project links, and task custom fields. I am now wondering if
the problem is caused by the custom fields or cross links.
Jane

 

[Mike Mahoney]

Thanks for your reply, Gary. This project has no attachments, but it does
have a lot cross project links, and task custom fields. I am now wondering if
the problem is caused by the custom fields or cross links.
Jane








- Show quoted text -

Jane

See this thread
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=Vadim+Gerya#d847f7d2ad332145

regards

Mike

 

[Jane]

Hi Mike, thanks for pointing me to the related thread. It reminds me that I
have recently created a custome field, duration type, using formula based on
task finish date, displayed with indicators. I did not find any response from
Miscrosoft posted to the thread. Do you know if Microsoft has given an
explanation or if it is a bug they are still working on?
Thanks,
Jane

 

[Mike Mahoney]

Hi Mike, thanks for pointing me to the related thread. It reminds me thatI
have recently created a custome field, duration type, using formula basedon
task finish date, displayed with indicators. I did not find any response from
Miscrosoft  posted to the thread. Do you know if Microsoft has given an
explanation or if it is a bug they are still working on?
Thanks,
Jane





- Show quoted text -

Hi Jane

My understanding of this issue was that it related only to applying
formulae to flag type fields. I use calculation fields all the time
without any problem, but have avoided using flag fields because of
this problem. Are you using ang calculated flag fields?

rgds

Mike

 

[Jane]

Hi Mike, I do not have a calculated flag type field, but I do have a
calculated duration field using indicators, e.g. red light when the
calculated duration less than 4 weeks, green light when greater than 4 weeks.
I think the indicators are sort of like flags. So the problem may be the same
as the calculated flag fields. Unfortunately I have to use these indicators.
Regards,
Jane

 

[Jane]

Hi Mike, you are right! I have done some tests and found the problem is
indeed with the calculated indicator field. In my test, I removed the value
used in the formula in each task and oddly enough, although it returned an
error in the calculated field, all the task notes showed up!!! So now I am
sure a calculated custom field with indicators will act the same way as the
flag type field, making task notes disappear. I hope Microsoft could fix this
problem.
Again, thanks a lot for your help, Mike.
Jane