Linking between projects in MS project 2003

[Jim Whiteford]

I have a question with linking between projects. I have tried the information
provided by Microsoft as shown below:

Link selected fields dynamically between Project plans

In Microsoft Office Project 2003, open the project containing the source
(source: The location where moved, copied, imported, or exported information
originated; can be a view, table, document, or other program. In OLE, the
document or program that furnishes information to a linked object in a
destination, document, or program.) information you want to link (linking: In
a project, establishing a dependency between tasks. Linking tasks defines a
dependency between their start and finish dates. In OLE, establishing a
connection between programs so that data in one document is updated when it
changes in another.), and then select that information.
Click Copy Cell .
Open the project into which you want to paste the information.
On the View menu, click the sheet view you want.
Select the area where you want to paste the information. You can paste into
another project or into the same project.
When pasting a text object into a sheet view, select the field where the
upper-left corner of the information should be pasted. Make sure there are
enough blank fields in the view to accept the object without overwriting
existing fields.

On the Edit menu, click Paste Special, and then click Paste Link
Whenever you change information in the source project, Project will now
update the information in the destination project automatically.



This does not seem to be working. I have done this, and then to check that
the link was working properly I updated the dates in one but the other did
not pickup the change.

In prior versions I believe I remember just having to have the two projects
open, selecting the tasks to be linked in both projects and selecting the
linking button. Once completed a task was entered below the task linked to
with the name of the task it was externally linked to but was in a light
shade of grey. Now my memory might be faulty since I have not used this in
quite a while. I have a lot of links to set up so I am hoping for something
relatively easy.

Any suggestions/direction on how to make this work?

 

[Jim Aksel]

This may be a duplicate.
Insert both projects into a master file (a 3rd file). Select the first
task, then its successor and then click link.

This can be done without a master project, but I do recall there were some
problems.
You have two files, put them both in the same folder and hopefully their
names are short like a.mpp and b.mpp.

To make Task a.mpp line 1 the predecessor to task b.mpp line 1: Open file
b.mpp and then open the task information dialog box for task b.mpp 1. Select
the predecessors tab, and in the ID column type: \a.mpp\1
The first \ gets you to a directory .... you can hard code to anywhere you
need to go, if you keep the files in the same folder it is easy. If the file
lived somewhere else:

\\Server\Folder\Subfolder\AnotherSubfolder\a.mpp\1

If this post helped, please consider rating it.

 

[Jim Whiteford]

Jim-

Thanks for the reply. I was worried that you were going to provide the
answer you did. I have 80 programs with 4 projects per program with about
200-300 tasks that I need to work with. Microsoft definitely did not help the
user out with changing the way linking works.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Jim,

Pardon me for bumping in, but I think there may be some confusion
between linking and linking

In your first post you detail the information from Project Help about
creating "dynamic" links using copy and paste special. That is
"linking" but it is Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) that is most
commonly used to link data from one file (such as cost data from an
Excel spreadsheet) into another file (a Project.)

At the end of the post you describe linking tasks by creating external
predecessors and sucessors using the link tasks button. Yes, that is
also "linking" -- but it is linking tasks to one another in a
predecessor/successor relationship. The method you describe (using the
link tasks button) still works just as it has in previous versions.

Perhaps the simplest method to link tasks in one Project file to tasks
in another project file is to create a temporary master file for the
purposes of linking. Open a new project and choose Insert > Project to
open the Insert Project dialog box. You may select multiple project
files by using the CTRL key and clicking on several project files.
Click the insert button to insert the selected files into the blank
project file. Click the Task Name column heading to select all tasks
and click the Show button on the Formatting toolbar and choose All
Subtasks. This will expand out all levels of all tasks. Then you can
simply click on the predecessor task in one project, press and hold down
the CTRL key to select the successor task. Click the Link task button
on the standard toolbar and you have linked the two tasks. Continue
linking as necessary. No need to save the consolidated file, just say
"Yes" when prompted to save the inserted project files.

If you open one of the inserted project files, you will see the external
predecessor/sucessor as the gray task you note in your initial post.

Fellow MVP Mike Glen has several excellent articles about Multiple
project management in his series of tutorials. See the URL below for a
link to Mike's articles:

http://project.mvps.org/mike's_tutorials.htm

Article 18 Under the Topic "Master Project - Insert" give great
information in detail about what I have sketched out above.

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

 

[Jim Whiteford]

Hi JulieS,

Thanks for the additional info and you are correct I am trying to link tasks
between projects. I have tried having 2 projects open at the same time,
chosing one task, holding the control button and chosing the successor task
in the other project but it didn't create the link. I will try your
suggestion and let you know how it goes.

 

[Jim Whiteford]

Hello again JulieS,

I just gotta say you rock! Thanks so much for your very helpful suggestion.
It worked as hoped.

 

[JulieS]

You're most welcome Jim and thanks for the enthusiastic feedback :-D

Julie