Lots of Questions if you have a second or two?

[Dan Pickard]

Hi,

We have been using Project Server and Project Professional for a little
while and built up a list of questions that seem to have us stumped. Any
help would be really appreciated.

1. How do we delete tasks from our list if they are removed or re-assigned?
Currently, if tasks are deleted or re-assigned they are still displayed with
an X at the side.

2. Accepting changes to tasks. We thought the system could be set to
automatically accept changes submitted by a resource. Wayne has tried to
configure this but it doesn't seem to work. How do we set it up properly?

3. What is Lead Name and why would be use it.

4. How do we unhide tasks that have been hidden by mistake.

5. Why does the task screen always expand every project and not save the
last view?

6. Why, when we add holidays via task screen, does it show up as
consecutive dates from the first day holiday to the current one. Example, if
I booked 2 May and 24 June off as holiday it would be shown on system that I
took holiday from 2 May through to 24 June rather than just the two days.

7. Is it possible to remove the Administrative Project from the View My
Tasks?

8. When opened, a project doesn't show all tasks. Some are hidden. To show
all tasks we have to collapse the branch and filter again. Sometimes this
solution does not resolve the problem.

9. How do we archive completed projects? We may need to view the archived
projects at a later date so we do not want to delete them.

10. How do we amend the name of a project that has been published.

11. Is it possible to move tasks from one project to several other projects
to improve reporting? Eg we have a project call Miscellaneous and we would
like to move some of the tasks in this project and split them between several
other projects.

Any and all help is greatly appreciated and sorry for all the questions.

Many thanks

Dan Pickard

 

[Gary L. Chefetz \(MVP\)]

Dan:

See my answers in line with your questions:

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
"We wrote the books on Project Server"
http://www.msprojectexperts.com

-

Hi,

We have been using Project Server and Project Professional for a little
while and built up a list of questions that seem to have us stumped. Any
help would be really appreciated.

1. How do we delete tasks from our list if they are removed or re-assigned?
Currently, if tasks are deleted or re-assigned they are still displayed with
an X at the side.

Select the task and use the Hide button on the toolbar.

2. Accepting changes to tasks. We thought the system could be set to
automatically accept changes submitted by a resource. Wayne has tried to
configure this but it doesn't seem to work. How do we set it up properly?

You can create update rules, however you still need to run these to accept
updates. The system is not capable of processing these by itself.

3. What is Lead Name and why would be use it.

The lead name is populated when a user delegates a task and selects the
option to become the lead for the task.

4. How do we unhide tasks that have been hidden by mistake.

The Project Manager must select the task or assignment and use Collaborate >
Publish > Republish

5. Why does the task screen always expand every project and not save the
last view?

Could you be more specific?

6. Why, when we add holidays via task screen, does it show up as
consecutive dates from the first day holiday to the current one. Example, if
I booked 2 May and 24 June off as holiday it would be shown on system that I
took holiday from 2 May through to 24 June rather than just the two days.

Enter single days as one update

7. Is it possible to remove the Administrative Project from the View My
Tasks?

Remove the plan from the system to accomplish this.

8. When opened, a project doesn't show all tasks. Some are hidden. To show
all tasks we have to collapse the branch and filter again. Sometimes this
solution does not resolve the problem.

Project remembers your last view of the project.

9. How do we archive completed projects? We may need to view the archived
projects at a later date so we do not want to delete them.

There is no simple answer to this question. It depends on what your business
rules are. There's no specific functionality to do this. Some people save
them as mpp files, others will use a second instance of Project Server, and
others will use a simple database approach. Again, your requirements are key
to the correct answer.

10. How do we amend the name of a project that has been published.

Download the project renaming tool from http://microsoft.com/downloads

11. Is it possible to move tasks from one project to several other projects
to improve reporting? Eg we have a project call Miscellaneous and we would
like to move some of the tasks in this project and split them between several
other projects.

There's no automated way of doing this. You'll need to close out or delete a
task in plan A and recreate it in plan B.

 

[Dan Pickard]

Thank you so much for all the answers, that has been fantastic. Regarding
number 5;-

5. Why does the task screen always expand every project and not save the
last view?

Basically what happens is that we open a project that contains many other
projects and the main tasks are always expanded for each project. We then
minimise the tasks and save the file but on opening it goes back to a
maximised view.

Many thanks

Dan