Microsoft KB Archive/69513

PRJ3: Importing Schedule Information into Project

PSS ID Number: Q69513 Article last modified on 10-20-1995

1.00 3.00 3.00a | 1.10 3.00

WINDOWS | MACINTOSH

= SUMMARY =

The minimum information necessary to import Scheduled Start dates into Project for Windows and Macintosh is the Name, Constraint Date, and Duration fields.

= MORE INFORMATION =

If Scheduled Start dates are going to be imported, they must be imported into the Constraint Date field of Project because Scheduled dates are calculated in Project. A duration value must also be included with the dates so that the length of the task can be determined. If no Duration field is imported, all the tasks that are imported will be set to 1 day duration or the value set under the Options menu’s Preferences command. The Duration field should come after the Constraint Date field in the file you are importing.

If Percent Complete values are going to be imported, they should come after the Constraint date and duration values in the file being imported. If they come before the columns, inconsistent values will be entered in the Scheduled Start and Scheduled Finish fields.

A table for importing would have the following ordered fields:

Name Constraint Date Duration Percent Complete —- ————— ——– —————-

Calculating Durations
Duration fields can be estimated from the Scheduled Start and Scheduled Finish fields easily by creating a formula that will subtract the Scheduled Start from the Schedule Finish dates.

This should only be considered an estimate of the duration because the number of days that is calculated includes Saturdays, Sundays, and Holidays, which Project may have set as nonworking days.

As a result, the duration calculated may be longer than will be necessary to complete the task. Once the calculation has been made, the formula should be stripped out so that only the value returned by the formula is still in the column.

To do this in Microsoft Excel:


 * 1) Highlight the column containing the Duration fields.
 * 2) From the Edit menu, choose Copy.
 * 3) From the Edit menu, choose Paste Special.
 * 4) Select Values as the information to paste.

When importing information into Project only fields that are not calculated by Project should be imported. To see which fields are calculated by Project and which fields are entered by the user, see the Fields section on page 127 of the “Microsoft Project for Windows Reference” guide. For Project version 3.00, see the FIELDS.WRI file that is supplied with Project.

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= Additional reference words: 1.0 1.00 1.1 1.10 3.0 3.00 3.00a =

Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1995.