Formula Help - Flag tasks that have been updated

[ARBrock]

Good morning,

I ran up against a problem this morning and was hoping someone could point
me in the right direction.

One of my project coordinators wants to be able to look at the calendar view
and see visually the tasks that have been updated since our last meeting.

I thought the best way to go about this is to create a custom filter and a
custom flag and then have that filter applied as "highlighted."

The problem I am encountering... is that I don't know how to get the formula
in the custom flag to read "if anything about this task has been changed
since a user defined date range, then yes... if not, no."

Any ideas?

It may be helpful to know that we are dictating the schedule (we arent using
dependencies and allowing project to update anything for us) for right now,
so any updates would have been done manually (ie: I manually changed the
start date, I updated the task name, I added a resource, I added a new task).
We are using project 2007 and project server (well, we have project server --
we aren't currently using it much at all).

-AshleyRose

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Ho,
No way to do this with a flag or any, because I don't think project ahs a
"last updated" field" on task level.
However, the compare project versions add-in will help you.
Tools, cutomiaze, toolbars, check in compare project versions.
Here's the help:

Compare two versions of a project
Show All
Hide All
You can use the Compare Project Versions utility to review differences
between a current version and an earlier version of the same project in a
detailed report. You can also use this tool to contrast a current version
and a projected version of the same project.

1.. On the Compare Project Versions toolbar, click Compare Project
Versions .
If the toolbar is not displayed, on the View menu, point to
Toolbars, and then click Compare Project Versions.

2.. Under Choose the project versions you want to compare, in the
Project version 1 (earlier version) and Project version 2 (later version)
boxes, select the versions you want to compare.
To locate project versions, click Browse.

If you use Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, you need to
log on to Microsoft Office Project Server 2003 to open projects that are
stored there. You can only compare project versions that you have access
permissions for.

3.. Under Choose the tables to be used in the comparison, in the
Task Table and Resource Table boxes, click the tables that contain the data
you want to compare.
If you don't want to compare tasks or resources, click None.

4.. Click OK.
A temporary project is created to display the tasks and resources of
both versions for comparison and reporting purposes only.

5.. To keep the report for future reference, click Save on the File
menu.
Tip

The comparison report displays color coding and indicators that
provide information about tasks and resources. To see a legend and get help
about the symbols used, click More Information on the toolbar.
Notes

a.. A comparison report resembles but is not a project schedule. It
may look like a consolidation of the projects you analyzed but it only
contains the differences between those projects.
b.. You cannot compare projects you open in Internet Explorer with
the Browse buttons in the Compare Project Versions dialog box or projects
that are embedded as an OLE object in another document.
c.. The Compare Project Versions utility only compares tasks and
resources. It does not compare assignments.



Greetings,

 

[Jim Aksel]

We use Jan's method here.
If you want to try something different...
Try adding a custom date field (Date1 or similar). You can rely on the
integrity of the users to populate this field whenever they make a change
(????!!!). So if they update the schedule task today, they would populate
the field with today's date.

Now, apply this formula for flag1:
IIf([Date1]>cdate("01/25/2007"),True,False)
You can change the date manually, or use something else like [Status Date].
You can make the test as complex as desired.

A last changed time stamp would be a wonderful field, wouldn't it?
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

 

[ARBrock]

Well I suppose I could add the date field as you suggested... I am the only
one who updates the projects (as of now...)... I was hoping for something
more automatic.

Yes a last updated timestamp would be an excellent idea!

Thanks Jim!

-AR

We use Jan's method here.
If you want to try something different...
Try adding a custom date field (Date1 or similar). You can rely on the
integrity of the users to populate this field whenever they make a change
(????!!!). So if they update the schedule task today, they would populate
the field with today's date.

Now, apply this formula for flag1:
IIf([Date1]>cdate("01/25/2007"),True,False)
You can change the date manually, or use something else like [Status Date].
You can make the test as complex as desired.

A last changed time stamp would be a wonderful field, wouldn't it?
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

Good morning,

I ran up against a problem this morning and was hoping someone could point
me in the right direction.

One of my project coordinators wants to be able to look at the calendar view
and see visually the tasks that have been updated since our last meeting.

I thought the best way to go about this is to create a custom filter and a
custom flag and then have that filter applied as "highlighted."

The problem I am encountering... is that I don't know how to get the formula
in the custom flag to read "if anything about this task has been changed
since a user defined date range, then yes... if not, no."

Any ideas?

It may be helpful to know that we are dictating the schedule (we arent using
dependencies and allowing project to update anything for us) for right now,
so any updates would have been done manually (ie: I manually changed the
start date, I updated the task name, I added a resource, I added a new task).
We are using project 2007 and project server (well, we have project server --
we aren't currently using it much at all).

-AshleyRose

 

[Jim Aksel]

Use the compare projects wizrd as Jan described
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

Well I suppose I could add the date field as you suggested... I am the only
one who updates the projects (as of now...)... I was hoping for something
more automatic.

Yes a last updated timestamp would be an excellent idea!

Thanks Jim!

-AR

We use Jan's method here.
If you want to try something different...
Try adding a custom date field (Date1 or similar). You can rely on the
integrity of the users to populate this field whenever they make a change
(????!!!). So if they update the schedule task today, they would populate
the field with today's date.

Now, apply this formula for flag1:
IIf([Date1]>cdate("01/25/2007"),True,False)
You can change the date manually, or use something else like [Status Date].
You can make the test as complex as desired.

A last changed time stamp would be a wonderful field, wouldn't it?
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

Good morning,

I ran up against a problem this morning and was hoping someone could point
me in the right direction.

One of my project coordinators wants to be able to look at the calendar view
and see visually the tasks that have been updated since our last meeting.

I thought the best way to go about this is to create a custom filter and a
custom flag and then have that filter applied as "highlighted."

The problem I am encountering... is that I don't know how to get the formula
in the custom flag to read "if anything about this task has been changed
since a user defined date range, then yes... if not, no."

Any ideas?

It may be helpful to know that we are dictating the schedule (we arent using
dependencies and allowing project to update anything for us) for right now,
so any updates would have been done manually (ie: I manually changed the
start date, I updated the task name, I added a resource, I added a new task).
We are using project 2007 and project server (well, we have project server --
we aren't currently using it much at all).

-AshleyRose

 

[BillB]

It depends what you mean by anything. If you mean Actual Start, Actual
Finish, Actual or Remaining duration, you could create a macro to copy those
fields to Start1, Finsh1, Duration1, and Duration2, run the macro before you
update, then create a filter based on field comparisons after you've
updated.

You could extend this to other fields as well. The only problem would be
comparing resource assignment values.

Bill B