Importing project updates via Excel

[nick1000]

I have a "master" project plan and receive updates from another project plan.
I've tried inserting and linking the project plan, but each line item from
the secondary plan needs to embedded into a different line item in the master
plan, rather than just at the bottom of the current project.

I've mapped the secondary plan into an excel file, and identify each line
item by a uniqueID. I then import this into the master plan, using the unique
ID as a merge key into text30 (which is pre-populated with the corresponding
number, to tell the import where to place the new data).

This updates the master plan with the imported data, but every other line
reverts back to the project start date - is there any way around this? Or is
there an easier way to import data into a project, from another project file,
but in a way that line items can be integrated....ie. so it doesn't just
stick it at the bottom of the existing project.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Nick,

Are you using Project 2007? If so, importing data into a project plan
is removing links between tasks, causing the tasks to revert back to
the start date of the projects. It is a bug that I imagine is being
worked on.

Usually importing data works fine.

Sorry I don't have a better answer.

Julie

 

[nick1000]

Hi Julie,

I am using Project 2007, so hopefully an update will come out at some point
to fix this.

I do have a copy of Project 2000 on another machine, so will try importing
Excel to this version.

Thanks for your reply, and help on both issues.
Nick

 

[JulieS]

You're most welcome Nick. We're all waiting for that fix I think.

Julie

 

[MikeV]

I created a unique merge code by combining the first 10 letters of two
strings stored in a Custom text field and the name field.

I refered to it in the import mapping dialog by seting it as the merge key
code.

I attempted to import updates to field values from an identical MS Project
file into an exact copy of the same file as a test of the import via excel
utility in MS project.

I used an excel file for the import that I created by exporting selected
fields in MS project to create a common/template excel file for importing
specific data.

When I did the import using my custom built text merge key, data updates
were applied to summary activities and subordinate activities incorrectly. It
appears that using a merge key mapped to my custom text field (whose value is
returned via a formula) did not work.

I hope that the import of data from excel is not limited to only using the
ID field as that can not be maintained as a unique key shared by the multiple
MS project files that I hope to upoad updates from into a master file I
maintain.

I may need to chat on line or talk to someone to get this data import
working. I suspect a bug/glitch in MS Project as did select a unique merge
key code to do the import.