.mpt vs .mpp as base template

[James Bohnhoff]

Our organization stores our enterprise-wide master project schedule as a .mpp file. Granted, a .mpt file IS

a template but what are the “dangers” of having a template stored as a .mpp or what are the benefits of a .mpt (we do have security in place to prevent any of our stored documents from being updated by anyone except our PMO).

[Julie Sheets]

The advantage of mpt (template files) over straight mpp files is the concern of users overwriting important data. MPT files are also accessible through the File > New command (assuming the location is pathed correctly in Options.) Those are about the only major differences I can suggest.

[Larry Christofaro]

Julie is correct. Using a template can be easier to create a new project. Having a template as a file can certainly work if it is clean, and if it is stored in a common location it can be updated and always available to everyone. Saving a project as a template allows you to remove bad information like actual work, fixed costs, and baseline information. If you think that might be something worth trying, you can save the current template as a real template to clean it up, and then create a new project from that template. Otherwise, nice but either way works.

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