What's the best way to export from Project to other MS programs?

[plf100]

I know the options are either to use the "Copy picture" icon or use the "Copy
picture to Office wizard" analysis tool but if I have anything more than a
few lines on my Gant chart I end up spending hours trying to export the plan
in chunks that are actually legible in Word or Powerpoint!

Any tips??

Thanks.

 

[Rob Schneider]

The plain truth is that there is insufficient space on a small piece of
paper (or screen space) which PowerPoint and Word demands to be used to
explain the full richness of data from a Project Gantt chart. I limit
use of Word/PowerPoint to show only summary tasks and/or snips of data
from Project. And then, it's only in support of commentary in text (or
sometimes audio) which explains the image shown. I use "big pieces" (or
at least Adobe PDF facsimiles of such ... Adobe gives you some ability
to manipulate complex/large image on the screen) of paper to present
output from Project.

 

[John]

I know the options are either to use the "Copy picture" icon or use the "Copy
picture to Office wizard" analysis tool but if I have anything more than a
few lines on my Gant chart I end up spending hours trying to export the plan
in chunks that are actually legible in Word or Powerpoint!

Any tips??

Thanks.

plf100,
Well there are some other options. First, if you have Adobe Acrobat, the
file can be save as a .pdf and then included in other applications.
Another option, although I've never tried it, is to use the add-in for
Project that helps create PowerPoint presentations using Project files.
The link to that add-in and other third party Project viewers can be
found on our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm
Take a look at FAQ 16 - Project VIewer.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[plf100]

Rob/John,

Many thanks for your suggestions. I'm trying to send the plan to some
partners who dont have Project and aren't really familiar with the concept so
pretty pictures are required! I've broken it down into bite-size chunks and
stored them as gifs.

Pam

 

[John]

Rob/John,

Many thanks for your suggestions. I'm trying to send the plan to some
partners who dont have Project and aren't really familiar with the concept so
pretty pictures are required! I've broken it down into bite-size chunks and
stored them as gifs.

Pam

Pam,
You're welcome. You are right, for someone one who does not understand
the detail concepts of complex schedules, a good summary picture is
worth a thousand rows of task descriptions.

John

 

[M. Gawthrop]

Ways that do not work well
1. PowerPoint has a tool in the View, Toolbars, Analysis. This toolbar has
several options for manipulating a Gantt chart into other MS products, but
none captured the entire project. Basically, I found this to import screen
shots. However, you may want to play with it and see if it fits your needs.

2. MS Project has a camera icon which creates a *.gif file – again, it is a
screen shot. But it is a good screen shop, and you can quickly import the gif
into PowerPoint.

What I came up with
This method requires Adobe writer.
1. Format the Gantt chart the way you want it to look in PowerPoint.
1a. If you do not want the right hand timeline, move that off the screen
view. Do this by clicking and dragging the vertical line that separates the
timeline from your left hand columns.
1b. If you want page breaks in certain places, now is the time to set them.
1c. If you typically print in 11 x 17 format, change the page size to 8.5 x
11.
2. Print the MS Project file to Abode PDF.
2a. Check your *.pdf to make sure the columns you want are all on one page.
If not, go back to your MS Project file and adjust the column width as
necessary.
3. In Adobe, go to Document, Extract Pages, Extract pages as separate files,
OK. (Make you set the pages numbers for 1 through the end of your file.)
4. Open PowerPoint. Insert as many new pages as you have extracted pages.
5. For each PowerPoint slide, Insert, Create from file, then browse to your
first extracted page, and click OK. Center, adjust size, and format as
needed.
6. Repeat step five for each page.
7. Save file.