Is there any way to use Outlook contacts in project?

[Preacherman808]

I can't beleive Microsoft did not create a way to access your Outlook
contacts directly from Project. Ths severely reduces the usability of this
product. Also, is there no way to access the Outlook Calendar as well. What
about setting alarms fo tasks?

 

[Rob Schneider]

I can't beleive Microsoft did not create a way to access your Outlook
contacts directly from Project. Ths severely reduces the usability of this
product. Also, is there no way to access the Outlook Calendar as well. What
about setting alarms fo tasks?

Good thing you don't believe it since they did provide a way ... it's
called VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). There are lots of older
discussions in this newsgroups about this. That being said, Project and
Outlook are different animals and there is not much connection between
the two. Even if you can use VBA to do it, you'll find it complicated
since their roles in life are different.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Preacherman808,

There is *limited* access from MS Project to Outlook. If you wish to, you
may add resources to your project from an Outlook address book - either one
stored at Exchange server level or local contacts. You may also add
resources from Active Directory.

From a Resource View (such as Resource Sheet) see Insert > New Resource from

Address book. To the best of my knowledge, there is no automatic

passthrough of calendar information from Outlook to MS Project however.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

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

 

[Preacherman808]

I found the link in resources but so far it only imports the e-mail address
and none of the other information. I have had to create custom field and
type in the phone numbers and addresses manually. Am I missing something
that can import all of the info. The Global list is not much help as there
are only 7 people on our global list and most of my project contacts are
external.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Preacherman808,

You certainly could export the specific contacts you need from Outlook and
then import the data into Project.

If there were a great number of resources, that would be the route I would
pursue. If it was only a few, I'd probably just type the data or more
likely copy/paste from Outlook.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

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

 

[jwarf]

I am using Project 07 and Outlook 03, and every time I I try to Import my
contacts from Outlook to Project I get a message: "Business Contact Manager
has encounted a problem and needs to close"
And I don't know what is going on - can anyone help ?

 

[JulieS]

Hello jwarf,

Can you tell us the steps you are using to import the contacts?

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

 

[jwarf]

Hello JulieS
Thank you for your interest.
I do as you have told here early on.
I am in Resource Sheet in Project Manager.
Goes to Insert - New Resource from - Address Book.
Then I am in my Outlook address book.
I select a name - ok

... and the program goes: "Business Contact Manager has encounted a problem
and needs to close". And then it closes !
...... and it is not so fun!

Hope you can help!

 

[JulieS]

Hello jwarf,

Thanks for the information. I did a quick text with Project 2007 and
Outlook 2007 (I don't have Outlook 2003 installed to the same computer
as Project 2007) and did not have difficulties. I am assuming that
other than the error message when attempting to import contacts to
Project that Outlook 2003 is working without trouble? I assume you have
contacts set up in Outlook?

I have been doing some exploration in Project 2007 documentation and
have not yet found any comments about a requirement to use Outlook 2007.
A quick google search didn't turn up much either.

So, I suggest trying a detect and repair in Outlook then try again. If
the problem persists, try logging the error on the connect site for
Project 2007. Perhaps some other folks may have had similar problems or
may be able to offer a resolution. The connect site for MS Project is:

http://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/default.aspx?SiteID=235

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

 

[themurf]

the lack of integration is enough to keep me from using Project. I have the
software but the need to duplicate entry of all infomation is too much to
deal with for the small projects we do. Too bad. It would be a nice feature.
Jim