Duplicte and triplicate activity lines in spreadsheet after export

[Lee]

Hello!

A customer is trying to export to a spreadsheet. When he does so, the
spreadsheet is populated with some activities in duplicate or triplicate
throughout the worksheet.

A temporary fix/patch is to simply delete the duplicates but is there a real
fix available?

Thanks,

Lee

 

[JulieS]

Hello Lee,

Can you provide more details:
What version of Project including Service Pack
When exporting, did the customer use a custom map or an existing
one?
Which map if built in
What are the detail of the map if custom?

I've never seen what you report and will see if I can reproduce with
some more information.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Lee --

If the customer is using an export Map that exports assignment information,
the system will duplicate each task for as many resources are assigned to
the task, with one resource listed per task line. Does this explain what
your customer is seeing? Let us know.

 

[Lee]

Hi Julie,

I hope to get the details and send by next week.

It takes some time for the customer to get back to me with details such as
the ones you need.

Thank you!!!

Lee

 

[Lee]

Oh my goodness! This absolutely helps!

I went to the worksheet and checked the activities and resources against the
project plan and it was as you indicated! For each resources listed in MS
project, a line did exist in the worksheet. Thank you so much Dale and to you
too Julie!!!!

Is there a way to eliminate the duplications from populating the worksheet?

Lee

 

[JulieS]

Good catch Dale

Lee --

If the customer is using an export Map that exports assignment
information, the system will duplicate each task for as many
resources are assigned to the task, with one resource listed per
task line. Does this explain what your customer is seeing? Let
us know.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Lee,

It sounds as though Dale hit spot on to the problem

Post back if something else develops.

Julie

 

[Lee]

I agree Julie...Right On Dale!

Lee

Good catch Dale

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Lee --

What you are seeing is the way Microsoft Project exports assignments. It
might be better to export only task data and include the Resource Names
column in the export Map. That way, you can see only one line for each
task, plus the resources assigned. Hope this helps.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JulieS --

I got lucky!

Good catch Dale

 

[JulieS]

Pshaw, Dale. You're being too modest.
Julie

JulieS --

I got lucky!

 

[Lee]

Humm - This could work. I'll suggest this to the customer. I'll ask them to
not select the resource name column in the export map but to cut and past it
into the spreadsheet afterwords (if needed). Right?

By the way; Is this a bug (the duplications)?

I would say it is.....what do you say?

Thanks - Lee

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Lee --

Why wouldn't you have them include the Resource Names column, since the
client seems to want to see the resources assigned to tasks? I don't get
that comment. To answer your question again, no, this is not a bug. This
is precisely how Microsoft Project exports assignment data to Excel. An
assignment is a "join" between a task and each resource assigned to the
task. If you assign three resources to a task, the software creates THREE
assignments. That is why your client sees three tasks when they export
assignments data to Excel. To see assignments, apply either the Task Usage
view or the Resource Usage view. The assignments are the items that are
indented and italicized below each task in the Task Usage view, or below
each resource in the Resource Usage view. Hope this helps.

 

[Lee]

I was going by the spreadsheet I was sent. It contained no resource column.
The customer does want to track r. names though.

I believe I may have found a solution. I did the following (in short):

Selected Data
New map
Next
Select Task
Select Export include header
Next
Base on table: Summary
Select Resource names from drop down
Save map or Finish

Waiting to get feedback from the customer now!

Lee

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Lee --

You are on a roll, my friend! When you export Task data, you won't see the
duplicate lines that you get when exporting Assignment data. Hope this
helps.

 

[Lee]

Thank you Dale for your expertise!

All is well in the world again….!

Lee