Linking project 2003 std to Excel

[Dave]

Here is what I want to do:

Link the following to excel:

Task name, duration, start, finish, resource, status

I then will put conditional formating on the above information to show
status of the project, what is on schedule, what is behind schedule, etc...

The linking has been a nightmare and way unstable. I contacted support @
microsoft and they instructed me to use mapping in export wizard, however
this only exports the data, Not links it like I need.

I want the data in excel to look at the data and update everytime someone
opens it... what I refer to as linking.

Here is how I went about linking and maybe someone can point out my problem

ctrl C the cell in project

move to excel

paste special

click paste link radio button

select Microsoft Excel 8.0 fomat


This is very unstable and I am trying to link 1500+ cells into one
spreadsheet..

Any suggestions?

Thanks!
Dave

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Dave,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Yes - don't do it! Such links have always been fragile Why don't you do
the conditional formatting within Project?

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

 

[Dave]

Mike,

I am trying to create a "dashboard" for upper management to have a brief
overview..

overal status is in red and behind schedule....

or

Overall status is on schedule and green, etc..

Secondly it will link to the level 1,2 and 3 tasks and show individual
status of those in a very colorful file.

I have no idea how to do this in MS project 2003.

I just want to link cells in excel and have them be updated when it is
opened up...

This report goes to people that do not need to know the intricate details of
the schedule....

Any other advice?

Thanks

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Dave,

You might like to see FAQ Item: 31. Customizing Task Bars. FAQs, companion
products and other useful Project information can be seen at this web
address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm.

You might also like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #14 & 15 on customizing fields, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the articles before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

Dave,

Mike has given good advice not to use that sort of linking. The fact that
Microsoft says the same thing should make you think twice about it.

Your best options are to either define a good export map (with filtering) or
use a custom VBA routine to export and format the information you want.

-Jack

 

[Wahou]

Dave hello - I am trying to do sthing very similar to you - would you mind
getting in touch with me if you progressed since that post ? I also am
struggling with conditional formatting on the Gantt chart to transform it
into a scorecard.
pls contact me at (e-mail address removed) and give me a way to contact you if that
is OK, I would appreciate it , thanks and regards Wahou

 

[Balzyone]

I recently had to create a dashboard for corporate reporting. I found it
easier to create a master entry tab in Excel that had the specific items for
each month, a tab for each of the drill down graphs that support the
dashboard (to show in graphic form the answers to why metrics are off), and a
tab for the actual display. This could work for what you are trying to do
and not use a link. You could set up the dash board with the entry tab and
have project do the calculations and export to the designated spot. If you
have it import raw data into the places it needs it then do calculations from
there, you may get the results you are after. I did this and it came out
awesome as a plotter printout. My director was very impressed and other
groups are interested.