Multi-line resource name or text fields?

[dgmoore]

Is there a way to format a text or resource name cell so that multiple
rows of text are displayed? We would like to see

Jim Jones
Joe Smith
Ralph Green
Sally Brown

instead of

Jim Jones, Joe Smith, Ralph Green, Sally Brown

Word wrap is tricky because of differences in name lengths, etc. We'd
like to be able to use carriage returns.

Thanks
Dave

 

[dgmoore]

My original posting was reformatted - we want to see a list rather than
a comma-separated string

--- Dave

 

[John]

Is there a way to format a text or resource name cell so that multiple
rows of text are displayed? We would like to see

Jim Jones
Joe Smith
Ralph Green
Sally Brown

instead of

Jim Jones, Joe Smith, Ralph Green, Sally Brown

Word wrap is tricky because of differences in name lengths, etc. We'd
like to be able to use carriage returns.

Thanks
Dave

Dave,
Sorry, no can do on the carriage return idea. The only Project field
that will accept carriage returns is the Notes field and then you will
only be able to see those by looking at the Notes field via Task
Information/Notes tab - attempting to view the Notes as a column in a
view will truncate at the first carriage return.

If you really have your heart set on viewing resource names as a list,
your best bet is to set up a custom field with a value list. Bear in
mind that it will only display the list when the selection box is
activated, otherwise the field will display the single name that was
selected the last time the value list was activated.

Is there a reason why you don't like the comma delimited version of the
field? Depending on what your end goal is, there may be other solutions.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[dgmoore]

Thanks, John - I came up with an alternate solution. The users just
find it easier to read names from a list than a string - I just told
them to enter the names with first/last separated by an underscore or
period (Joe_Smith, etc) and to separate the names with spaces
(Joe_Smith Sam_Brown etc) and then to adjust the column width until the
names wrap. This is not a perfect solution, but good enough for what
they want.

Cheers
Dave

 

[John]

Thanks, John - I came up with an alternate solution. The users just
find it easier to read names from a list than a string - I just told
them to enter the names with first/last separated by an underscore or
period (Joe_Smith, etc) and to separate the names with spaces
(Joe_Smith Sam_Brown etc) and then to adjust the column width until the
names wrap. This is not a perfect solution, but good enough for what
they want.

Cheers
Dave

Dave,
Your're welcome but it sounds like you found your own solution anyway.
I assume you had them set the list separator under their regional and
language settings from "," to " ", otherwise the word wrap idea won't
work.

John

 

[dgmoore]

Good point - but the wrap seems to work ok even with list separator =
','.

Thanks
Dave

 

[John]

Good point - but the wrap seems to work ok even with list separator =
','.

Thanks
Dave

Dave,
Something is fishy then because the Resource Names field (where assigned
resources are listed) will not allow spaces if the comma is the
delimiter. You must be using a spare text field, where you method WILL
work.

I also realized that your schedule must be chewing up a lot of vertical
space because to see the resources in a list, the height of each row
must be big enough to show all resources. Pretty inefficient use of
space (schedule readability) ... but hey, if it works for you ...

John

 

[dgmoore]

John,

As is typical in my environment, what they are managing is calendars,
not schedules. They require that their files be set up so that Project
changes no dates unless users change them intentionally, yet they want
to display dependencies, rollups and summaries and even fantasize about
CPM. Resources are not managed as resources per se - they are just
names put against tasks, but with no work or hours associated. In this
particular case, they don't care how high the Gantt rows are as long as
they can display a list of resource names in one of the table columns.
Schedules don't drive projects - they just report project status.

Anyway, thanks for your comments.

Dave