Importing projects vs. using 'Save As'

P

patcav33

i apologize if this has been asked and answered many times already,
but i have searched this group and not gotten a clear answer on my
question which is:
what is the difference and importance when saving a project using the
Import funtction through Tools-Enterprise Options-Import project to
Enterprise vs. using the Save As-Collaborate-Publish?

other questions i have:
1. if you go the route of using the import wizard, is it correct that
you first have to save the project on your machine locally so that
when you are in the import wizard, you can select it as the project to
import? my thinking on this is that the reason one goes to project
server is so that they dont have to save all projects locally.

2. once you save it locally and import it through the import wizard,
do you then need to go to Collaborate-Publish or does it get published
automatically?

3. you only need to import a project once and then you can use the
'Save' funciton any time you make updates to the project - you would
not use 'Save As' if you are just updating a project because that
would cause you to rename the project?

4. is the only time you would use the 'Save As' function is when you
first create a project and have to save it to your local machine or
when you are not connected to the server?

thanks in advance for any responses

Pat Cavanaugh
 
M

Marcus

Pat,

A quick answer to the ones I know about (someone smarter than me will
eventually give you a longer, better answer):

1. Yes, you have to save the plan locally before using the Import Wizard.
2. After you save, you need to go to Collaborate > Publish. That is, unless
you have your Collaborate > Collaboration Options set to automatically
publish when you save.
3. Correct.
4. You can use Save As to import a project and accomplish pretty much
everything you can through the Import Wizard; however, IMHO, the wizard
spells everything out more clearly and is easier for new users to understand,
especially with the process of substituting local resources for enterprise
resources (plus, it helps find task errors, etc.). Personally, I only use the
Save As function when I am working on an enterprise project (off of the
server) and want to save the project as a local, offline file for some reason.

Good luck,

--Marcus Pierce
 
D

Doug

Pat: I had some problems with a project that I "Save to Project Server". I
recommend using the "Import" Features.

Doug
 
S

Sumit

Dear Pat,
If you are connected to server then you can directly save the project
instead of First saving in local HD and then Importing it.

In case bandwidth is a constraint, its advisable to first work offline and
then connect to import project to server.

We need to publish whenever we make changes to project plan, in fact MS
Project will automatically show E-Mail icons indicating that you need to
publish "New and changed assignments" to update all timesheets.

Save As option is used to either save a local copy as file or save the
project in different name.

Regards,
Sumit.
 
G

Gary L. Chefetz \(MVP\)

Pat:

What you need to understand is that any project created when you're aren't
connected to Project Server and subsequently want to bring into Project
Server as an *enterprise* project, you must use the import wizard. You have
no other choice, any other method creates a non-enterprise project in your
server which should be disallowed in a good installation.

When you launch Project Pro, connect to Project Server, and click New
Project, using Save or Save As is just fine. Just don't open a plan from
Project Server and use Save As to save it on the server as another name.
There are separate steps for renaming projects. When opening existing plans
from Project Server, Save As should be used only to make an external copy of
the project such as saving the project to a share or drive as an mpp file or
XML file etc. Do no use Collaborate > Publish on plans saved off the server
this way.

--

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

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P

patcav33

Gary,
thank you for your response. i have a follow up question. i have a
project that was imported, saved and published. the project manager
has since taken that project and saved it to their machine locally as
an .mpp and made some major changes to it. they are now ready to save
that project as .published and have it viewable on PWA page. my
quesiton is this: the project name remains the same as we have it set
up to save projects as the model name/number so what do they do when
they are ready to post their updated schedule. since it has the same
name, if they go to import it through import wizard, it will tell them
they can not overwrite the default version of a project and to save
the project, type new project name or save as version other than
default. i dont want to change the name or version, so what do i do
in this case? should they cut and paste the new data into the default
version? should i delete the existing project and have them use the
import wizard for the updated project? any insight would be greatly
appreciated.

thank you
Pat C.
 
G

Gary L. Chefetz \(MVP\)

Patrick:

First of all, make sure your PMs never use this procedure to update a plan
in the future. I think there's only one thing you can do at this point:
Delete the original plan from Project Server and substitute it with the new
one by importing it using the import wizard. Make sure to map the resources
correctly and be aware that actual work for any tasks deleted in making the
new version of the plan is lost forever when you do this. Once the plan is
imported, you 'll need to republish all prior assignments and publish all
new assignments.

--

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

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