[Jigs Gaton]

Emma, I’ve done what u propose with files going back to 2010, and any major issues were cosmetic – where older files that are customized by the owners (currencies, columns, colors on the gantt, fonts, etc.) would display in unexpected ways when opened within the master (i.e. expanded out). If your files are standard project files (no customized formulas to fields or inserted VBA), u should be fine, but I think the only way to know for sure is to fire up 2016, insert the files one at a time, and check for functionality & integrity. But theoretically, what you want to do is possible. Best, Jigs

[Jigs Gaton]

@chris sure thing, and it is not complex, u (or ur pal) just have to learn the clicks to imbed sub project(s), and off u go. You may be familiar with the concept in Microsoft Word (called Master Document). Under View / Outline / Master Document in MS Word, you are doing essentially the same thing in MS Project under Project / Subproject. Good luck!

[Jigs Gaton]

Chris, just do what you can to learn about Master Projects and Sub Projects (it’s in the interface). Basically, you create a master plan, imbed the subsets, and then use the master plan or any of the subprojects to change the data, and then data is automatically updated in both places (master and sub). It’s really easy but the only caveat is that you don’t want to move file locations after you set things up. Links are created, and while they can be broken / changed, it’s not intuitive. Also, hosting linked .MPP files on cloud services (with bad / iffy connectivity) can also be problematic. Just a few thoughts – best, Jigs

[Jigs Gaton]

Hi Christine, welcome to MPUG! What I like to do (and I’ve done all that you describe above, and then some), is to use Project Plan 365 (http://www.projectplan365.com) to add collaborators to my project plans. They can either use the free or paid version to view or edit the schedule that you produce, by just examining your plan as presented. Collaborators can see most all the views that you can, and all you have to do is share the .MPP file online. Depending on what collaborators need to do (and how much each collaborator pays the app developer), they can sort, filter, add and update the project data contained in the .MPP file. The tool is simple to use, and is basically a lightweight version of MSP – plus does stuff that MS Project can’t do, like open up a .MPP on an iPhone (without a web browser). With a business plan from Project Plan 365 website, the PM can even define what collaborators can change or not, and all collaborators can work on the same plan in real time (i.e. you are all in the schedule together, in real time). See next week’s MPUG newsletter for my article on “Real-time Collaboration” for more info. Best, Jigs

[Jigs Gaton]

Hi Michelle! Yes, I use custom text fields all the time for this purpose; works great. A resource can be identified by country or department easily this way, and then you can sort and filter on that field to your heart’s content. Cheers, Jigs

[Jigs Gaton]

Yes, while MSP does not have a productivity flag / formula, you can just flag the resource as a fast worker and assign the worker the normally-expected duration for a task, until they have proven to be operating at a higher level of performance (people are not very consistent in real life). Once proven, the task duration can be adjusted to the new normal.Hope that helps!

[Jigs Gaton]

Bert, if you are asking where to put the resource_pool.mpp as you are creating a resource pool for your team, then I think the answer is right next to your project.mpp, on the same file system, whatever that may be, and hopefully that’s a local file system. Cloud storage, master files / subprojects, resource pools and other linked files will work more reliably locally when using MSPP. Different story with MS Project Server or http://www.projectplan365.com, where cloud storage works a bit better when dealing with linked files, such as resource pools. I’ve also used Dropbox for all files whenever those other two options are not available, and even have some clients that use Google Drive, but I’ve seen file-update anomalies on those cloud services, and that’s not good when it comes to resource pools, as that file is always updating itself; and if that get’s corrupted, oh boy…

[Jigs Gaton]

Ha, glad to get one right, and that all is well.
Cheers,
Jigs

[Jigs Gaton]

Hi Michelle, the easiest thing to do is to install a PDF print driver like Foxit PhantomPDF, Adobe Acrobat or Nitro. But regardless of what PDF driver you are using, under Page Setup – Gantt Chart you would select Scaling / Fit to: 1 page wide by 1 page tall. That should do it!
Cheers,
Jigs

[Jigs Gaton]

That’s what it was here in Nepal with shared dropbox files, when syncing was slow. Had problems with master/subprojects too 🙂

[Jigs Gaton]

Hi David, have u seen that anomaly when editing the file on a local drive? I used to see strange things happen like that when editing files stored on dropbox, and my connection was slow.

[Jigs Gaton]

Liz, yes you can enter hours in many ways, and in many different places. Easiest? Just type Xh in the Duration column where X=hours, or do the same wherever you see the Work column. For example, using Task Details you can have a duration of 1 day, but assign resources to the task in hours (ie. me = 4h, you = 4h). Hope that helps!

[Jigs Gaton]

Hi Kennet, that advice just does not seem logical to me, in the sense that who works in such isolation?!? Unless the experienced scheduler was recommending a very very detailed WBS that drills down to individual actions? I would never do that. There is one rule I mostly follow with multiple people working on a task; I never let MS project use the %s under Units, instead I enter in work per day per person manually under View / Details / Task Form, as appropriate, and I use fixed durations or fixed work tasks. I also don’t use automatic resource leveling on complex projects where I can’t easily see exactly what was leveled where (for simple projects it’s okay – I just don’t trust it, call me old fashioned). Hope that helps, and have fun scheduling!

[Jigs Gaton]

Thx for the thx Nick. On Standard vs. Professional, I’ve run classes for years where I would always be using Pro and the students would use Standard, and I don’t recall any problem there…we would exchange files all day long, both simple projects and master plans all seemed to work fine, although we never go down into the weeds (VBA). Cheers, Jigs

[Jigs Gaton]

Mick, in my experience it’s not a very good practice, even though theoretically everything should be OK. Something to put into your Risk Matrix! What I’ve seen the most is not incompatibilities between the data (.mpp is pretty stable), it’s all the rest that my go haywire. Visual representations within the interface, reporting and printing, etc. etc. and if you also have to consider folks OS environment: older software tends to run on older machines / OS’s, and that may introduce bugaboos as well. All that said, if round-tripping between 2013 and 2016, I would say no problem, but 2010 was not a good year.
Cheers,
Jigs

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