Duplicates Macro

[davilara]

I am looking for a macro to flag all activities with duplicates in a
text field.

I would appreciate this as I am new into MS Project, I am looking for a
way to define and control my own Activities ID and need a way to prevent
duplicates.

 

[John]

I am looking for a macro to flag all activities with duplicates in a
text field.

I would appreciate this as I am new into MS Project, I am looking for a
way to define and control my own Activities ID and need a way to prevent
duplicates.

davilara,
Rather than using VBA, try sorting on the text field of interest. Be
sure to uncheck the option to keep the outline structure in the sort
window. After sorting you will easily be able to see all duplicates and
take whatever action you need. For example, if you want to delete all
duplicates, put a "yes" in a spare flag field for all duplicate tasks.
Then filter on that flag field and do a group delete.

John
Project MVP

 

[davilara]

Sure it works for small jobs, but for hundreds or thousands of tasks
common in Construction Schedules at the initial setup or whenever adding
tasks is time consuming and error prone.

I believe the macro could be easily done by someone who knows Basic or
C language, in this regard I am somewhat outdated, I am from the
mainframe and keypunching cards era, learned Fortran 35 years ago and
after school never used it. I need the help of the new generation.

This is done by Primavera P3 every time you enter a new task, in the
future you would have a unique task ID you would have control. We use
task ID in a way you can use it for sorting and make it easier to find
your tasks among hundreds or thousands, ID can have suffix and prefix
this is why a text field and not a number field.

Primavera is not upgrading P3 and their new product P6 is a disaster.
P3 is losing functionality as new operating systems are released, it is
a 16bit application, already you cannot communicate from within P3 to
Outlook 2007 and use Primavera Post Office, a very useful utility when
updating huge schedules.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Sure it works for small jobs, but for hundreds or thousands of tasks
common in Construction Schedules at the initial setup or whenever adding
tasks is time consuming and error prone.

I believe the macro could be easily done by someone who knows Basic or
C language, in this regard I am somewhat outdated, I am from the
mainframe and keypunching cards era, learned Fortran 35 years ago and
after school never used it. I need the help of the new generation.

This is done by Primavera P3 every time you enter a new task, in the
future you would have a unique task ID you would have control. We use
task ID in a way you can use it for sorting and make it easier to find
your tasks among hundreds or thousands, ID can have suffix and prefix
this is why a text field and not a number field.

Primavera is not upgrading P3 and their new product P6 is a disaster.
P3 is losing functionality as new operating systems are released, it is
a 16bit application, already you cannot communicate from within P3 to
Outlook 2007 and use Primavera Post Office, a very useful utility when
updating huge schedules.

Davilara,

You're right. Can be done with a macro. As you are clearly handling a
large project, why not just hire someone to do this for you?

 

[davilara]

Rob,

I was hoping to get it for free as I believe an IT guy can do the
coding in less than 10 minutes. We have not decided if we will go with
MS Project.

Our jobs are usually managed with schedules of 400 to 700 tasks but the
macro would still be useful. Short of the 100,000 task limit in P3.

Rafael Davila

 

[John]

Sure it works for small jobs, but for hundreds or thousands of tasks
common in Construction Schedules at the initial setup or whenever adding
tasks is time consuming and error prone.

I believe the macro could be easily done by someone who knows Basic or
C language, in this regard I am somewhat outdated, I am from the
mainframe and keypunching cards era, learned Fortran 35 years ago and
after school never used it. I need the help of the new generation.

This is done by Primavera P3 every time you enter a new task, in the
future you would have a unique task ID you would have control. We use
task ID in a way you can use it for sorting and make it easier to find
your tasks among hundreds or thousands, ID can have suffix and prefix
this is why a text field and not a number field.

Primavera is not upgrading P3 and their new product P6 is a disaster.
P3 is losing functionality as new operating systems are released, it is
a 16bit application, already you cannot communicate from within P3 to
Outlook 2007 and use Primavera Post Office, a very useful utility when
updating huge schedules.

davilara,
Your initial post wasn't that specific so I assumed you were looking for
a one-shot type of file purging as opposed to something you will need to
do multiple times. For one-shot type procedures I usually try to suggest
a non-automated solution but there are exceptions. What exactly is your
end goal? Once we understand that, then we can suggest or help with a
viable solution.

By the way, Project and all other Microsoft applications have Visual
Basic for Applications (VBA) built in. It is a very powerful programming
capability that allows the user to do virtually anything they need.

John
Project MVP

 

[Rob Schneider]

Rob,

I was hoping to get it for free as I believe an IT guy can do the
coding in less than 10 minutes. We have not decided if we will go with
MS Project.

Our jobs are usually managed with schedules of 400 to 700 tasks but the
macro would still be useful. Short of the 100,000 task limit in P3.

Rafael Davila

"Free" from here? My experiene is that IT guys and gals are generally
not equipped to do it as they dont' know Project.

 

[davilara]

John

You are right my first posting was short. I understand Visual Basic is
a very powerfull tool, eventually if we go with MS Project I will take
some formal training on it.

I am looking for a procedure to be repeated many times, I believe a
Visual Basic macro can do it in a way it can be used for many purposes,
not just our particular need. I just want a macro that identifies
duplicate entries in a field so that you are able to take corrective
action. We need a macro to keep our own Unique Activity ID but in a way
we can input the value and not as per MS Project wish, something we are
used to do in Primavera Products.

Think of it as a data entry validation where no duplicates for a field,
not a record, are allowed. Please understand I am not an IT person so my
terms might not be the most appropriate.

Thanks for your interest and time. I hope you can understand our need
and as an MVP pass a few to Microsoft before they release MS Project
2010. A few, maybe many, people in our industry are waiting for some
improvements in MS Project to make the jump from Primavera/Oracle to
Microsoft, its new software P6 is too much, while MS Project is not
enough yet. We were happy with P3, now in limbo.

Rafael

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi davilara,

Try posting on the microsoft.public.project.developer newsgroup (forum).
Please see FAQ Item: 24. Project Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and
other useful Project information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[John]

Rafael,
My comments are in-line

You are right my first posting was short. I understand Visual Basic is
a very powerfull tool, eventually if we go with MS Project I will take
some formal training on it.

[John] If you're interested in learning Project VBA, I suggest you
consider fellow MVP, Rod Gill's book on the subject. For more
information see, http://www.projectvbabook.com

I am looking for a procedure to be repeated many times, I believe a
Visual Basic macro can do it in a way it can be used for many purposes,
not just our particular need.

[John] Can do what in a way that can be used for many purposes?

I just want a macro that identifies
duplicate entries in a field so that you are able to take corrective
action.

[John] Which field? What is the anticipated corrective action?

We need a macro to keep our own Unique Activity ID but in a way
we can input the value and not as per MS Project wish, something we are
used to do in Primavera Products.

[John] Sorry but I don't understand what you are trying to say:
"...keep our own unique activity ID..."?
"...input the value..."?
"...not as per MS Project wish..."?Sorry if my responses sound hard-nosed but neither I nor anybody else
will be able to assist you unless we can better understand exactly what
you are trying to do.

John
Project MVP

 

[Rob Schneider]

Rafael,

In addition to comments/questions by John and Mike, are you sure that
you continue to need to do in Project what you did in Primavera Products
to achieve the business need? What is your need?

 

[davilara]

Yes, being able to control my Tasks ID is a must, I must be able to make
reference in a future correspondence to this unique task ID in a way
Task ID is always the same.

Unique task ID as per MS Project to me is useless as is, ID is even
worst as if intended to make you lose track of previous schedules.

After inserting tasks into your jobs, how you match old task ids with
new ones? Or you just make bar charts and never update your schedules?
Do you shred all schedules and only keep the latest?

Somehow I feel like MS World is another world, it is getting harder for
me to accept the transition from Primavera to MS Project.

 

[Rob Schneider]

Yes, being able to control my Tasks ID is a must, I must be able to make
reference in a future correspondence to this unique task ID in a way
Task ID is always the same.

Unique task ID as per MS Project to me is useless as is, ID is even
worst as if intended to make you lose track of previous schedules.

Why? What's the gap?

Have you considered using our own custom field (Text or Number) that is
either manually created, or created automatically by a function?

After inserting tasks into your jobs, how you match old task ids with
new ones? Or you just make bar charts and never update your schedules?
Do you shred all schedules and only keep the latest?

UID's don't change.

Are you saying that the Task ID numbers is the only way you
display/report on tasks? Not their names?

Somehow I feel like MS World is another world, it is getting harder for
me to accept the transition from Primavera to MS Project.

From what you say, it appears to be another world. But it is a world
that exists, and does a good job, none the less.

 

[davilara]

-Have you considered using our own custom field (Text or Number) that is
either manually created, or created automatically by a function?-
-Yes this is the origin of my request.

-Are you saying that the Task ID numbers is the only way you
display/report on tasks? Not their names?-
-We use both but at times we got Tasks as Pour Concrete Slab that
repeats many times in a single job otherwise the name become too long.
We identify area through other fields, like activity codes. I believe
you might have two tasks with the same description/name in MS Project .

-From what you say, it appears to be another world. But it is a world
that exists, and does a good job, none the less.-
-yes it seems like an application useful for IT, does not seem good for
Construction Jobs. Now I understand why MS Project is essentially banned
from federal construction jobs. I was willing to give it a chance but
the gap is too much.

I also understand Primavera products are not for everyone.

Thanks anyway, I am giving up, forget about my request for a macro.

 

[Rob Schneider]

-Have you considered using our own custom field (Text or Number) that is
either manually created, or created automatically by a function?-
-Yes this is the origin of my request.

Humm. I think you were asking about getting someone to write a macro
for you "to flag all activities with duplicates in a text field."
Probably wording, but what I read you asked for is something completely
different than what I suggested. I don't yet understand your need and
until knowing that anything I say is just a guess. I do know it's best
to get back to the basics and understand need--then move to solutions.

-Are you saying that the Task ID numbers is the only way you
display/report on tasks? Not their names?-
-We use both but at times we got Tasks as Pour Concrete Slab that
repeats many times in a single job otherwise the name become too long.
We identify area through other fields, like activity codes. I believe
you might have two tasks with the same description/name in MS Project .

Then use Unique ID which (never changes by the way), or use a WBS code,
or invent your own, or use activity codes. Or use all of them to
concatenate a special field? Most anything is possible and relatively easy.

-From what you say, it appears to be another world. But it is a world
that exists, and does a good job, none the less.-
-yes it seems like an application useful for IT, does not seem good for
Construction Jobs. Now I understand why MS Project is essentially banned
from federal construction jobs. I was willing to give it a chance but
the gap is too much.

I also understand Primavera products are not for everyone.

Thanks anyway, I am giving up, forget about my request for a macro.

I use Project all the time for planning "largish" projects that have
absolutely nothing to do with IT. Project is a complex calculation
engine supported by a complex data base with a mature user-interface for
the managing the data, computations, and results. That's it.

I'm not sure that this thread helps understanding your assertion that
Microsoft Project is banned from federal construction jobs. Is it?
What law prevents it? What country? Project may or may not be up to
the task of helping people who only know and can use Primavera. And it
depends on what the point of using the tool is. I doubt Project can not
do all (or even some) of what Primavera does and I'm sure that planners
with years experience at influencing the direction of projects know well
how to make best use of it.

Primavera is clearly a prominent tool. Franky, since embedded in the
industry, if no compelling reason for change, then why change? And
clearly, if it's a lack of a free 10-minute macro that stops considering
the change, then change clearly not warranted.

In the 80's we used Artemis for a huge construction project and for how
it was used for that purpose, I'd hate to propose even the 2007 release
of Project. But I guarantee that in my "then-role", I'd use Project
2007 to do the overall planning and forecasting. Boy, do I wish we had
even he earliest versions of Project for that project. Heck, even
Visicalc would have been a great help!