Locking table definition (view)

[wendyB]

I have two questions relating to the same issue I'm encountering:

1. I have a custom table which includes several fields (notes, comments
appear appear first) which I've set to a width of 4 each. After applying the
Gantt view which includes this table and saving the file, the Notes and
Comments fields keep reverting to 132. I have gone back and modified the
custom table so that the Notes and Comments fields are only 4 in width, but
each time I open the file after saving it with the Gantt view, I get the same
problem - width of Notes and Comments (first two columns) blow out to 132 and
fill up the entire screen.

2. Second question is, is there anyway to lock the table so that the widths
of all the fields go back to the preset widths if the columns have been
changed in the view?

Thanks.

 

[JackD]

Try creating a table specifically for each view (so customview1 uses
customtable1 and ganttview uses gantttable)
You can not lock the table, but you can record a macro of you setting up the
table the way you like. After you do that when you want to reset the table
you can just run the macro.

 

[wendyB]

Jack

I have tried several combinations of views and tables and even created new
tables, and still face the same problem. I even replaced the Gantt view with
the default from the global template. Same problem with all other views.
It seems that the file is corrupted, as I went back to the last version
before the one where I started to encounter this problem in, and I didn't
have this problem. The only thing I did to the Gantt view was changing it to
reflect the new table, but now even with replacing the Gantt view or creating
a table from scratch I still get the same problem.

Have made a lot of changes since the last version. Where would I start with
troubleshooting the corrupted file?

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Wendy,

If you suspect a corrupt file, you could try the suggestions in FAQ Item:
43. File Bloat? - Might be Corruption.

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

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

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[JackD]

If the file is corrupted there is not much you can do about it besides
saving to another format (like the database format) and then reopening and
saving as a .mpp file.

 

[wendyB]

Mike & Jack

Thanks for the posts.

Tried saving as .mpd and then .mpp, the file compressed, but the problem
didn't go away.

Opened the file with MSP 2000 on a colleauges's machine, said yes to losing
data prompt, and somehow the problem has gone away! Not sure what data I
might have lost, but I'm not using enterprise fields as yet.

Can anyone offer any thoughts on how MSP 2000 may have "discarded the "bad"
data?

Where can I post the .mpp file in question for a technical investigation (by
MS?)

Thanks.

 

[JackD]

The MSP 2000 conversion could "fix" it because there is a "serialization"
process which converts the file from one format to another. The database
save does something similar. It reads the project file and does a
conversion. Now, I don't know the exact details of how errors in the source
file are handled, but it appears that the serializer drops any bad data and
makes up data where it is missing in order to make a functional file. It
seems likely that the conversion to 2000 format is more intensive than that
to the database format.

As for troubleshooting the file, I recall the response by one of the
microsoft developers when I presented them with a badly corrupted Project
2000 file during beta testing. To paraphrase, "from the corrupted file we
can tell that the jet has crashed into the ground, but we can't tell how it
got there". You can open a support ticket with Microsoft, but I think that
it may cost you money and it won't really help much.

--
-Jack ... For Microsoft Project information and macro examples visit
http://masamiki.com/project
or http://zo-d.com/blog/index.html


..

 

[wendyB]

Thanks for the insight.

The MSP 2000 conversion could "fix" it because there is a "serialization"
process which converts the file from one format to another. The database
save does something similar. It reads the project file and does a
conversion. Now, I don't know the exact details of how errors in the source
file are handled, but it appears that the serializer drops any bad data and
makes up data where it is missing in order to make a functional file. It
seems likely that the conversion to 2000 format is more intensive than that
to the database format.

As for troubleshooting the file, I recall the response by one of the
microsoft developers when I presented them with a badly corrupted Project
2000 file during beta testing. To paraphrase, "from the corrupted file we
can tell that the jet has crashed into the ground, but we can't tell how it
got there". You can open a support ticket with Microsoft, but I think that
it may cost you money and it won't really help much.

--
-Jack ... For Microsoft Project information and macro examples visit
http://masamiki.com/project
or http://zo-d.com/blog/index.html


..