Combining templates

[Ree Ree]

I have two seperate templates that I need to work with. One in Excel, which
is a requirement that our salespeople fill out) and one that is in Project,
which we want our salesteam to begin using. The project template has a
number of macros running that ask specific questions in order to create the
schedule for you. The questions that it asks (or the information that you
need to give) is already being inputed into the excel spreadsheet (ie.
duration, start date, finish date, project type, etc). How can I combine the
two to where it automatically populates in project the information they are
filling in when using the excel sheet?

 

[Jim Aksel]

This is certainly possible using Visual Basic for Applications.
Most of the details you need can be found in Rod Gil's book called

VBA Programming for Microsoft Office Project

It is avalable from the author at this website:
https://projectserverbooks.com/shopexd.asp?id=71&bc=no

So the answer to your question is, VBA programming is required. If you have
questions about development, you may want to post to the developer group.

--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Ree Ree,

However, I would question what you're doing. You should imput only
Durations, Precedence links and Resource assignments, seldom, if ever,
should you input dates. Project's main task is to take such information and
create a schedule for you to show what is possible with that data.
Inputting dates creates constraints which could affect the flexibility of
Project and defeat the purpose for which you purchased it. If you already
know the start and finish dates, why use Project at all?

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

 

[Ree Ree]

I am in the Construction industry. Elevators to be exact. We use project to
schedule our jobs based on the General contractors schedule. When I say we
already have start and finish dates, they are just estimates. We have a date
that the GC would like us to begin work, but there are several things that
would make that date not realistic. We have an excel template that our
salesteam uses when they estimate a job to be booked in our financial system.
Based on the job type (which I can get into later), it will take us "x"
amount of hours to complete the installation of the elevator. The template
that has been created in Project for us, asks us the Job name, start date,
and template type (meaning what type of elevator are we installing). Based
on that information, it automatically loads pre-construction tasks based on
lead time written in the macro. Then you add units (groups of elevators that
are being installed) based on how we will be installing them and the amount
of hours it will take to install that group. Again, tasks are already loaded
based on the elevator type and the hours are distributed among the tasks
based on the percentage of time it typically takes to perform those tasks
(i.e. the entire job will take 120 hours and 2% of those hours will be
performing task No.1). Once you hit ok on that window, the schedule is
automatically created for you. The entire process takes about 1-2 minutes,
depending on the number of groups of elevators. What I want is for the sales
person to only have to enter the information once (in the excel spreadsheet)
and for Project to take the information it needs (in the template already
created) and create the schedule for them for submittal. The finish date is
not important, even though I stated it before as being something I wanted to
bring in. I hope this makes sense to you. We only use Project for jobs that
are < $500K. We use Suretrak for bigger jobs. The GC's require it.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Ree Ree,

Thanks for the clarification. I agree with Jim that it is a vba task that
you want. I suggest you try posting on the developer newsgroup. Please see
FAQ Item: 24. Project Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and other
useful Project information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Mike Glen
Project MVP