Hi,

in this Post I will explain how to create custom fields in MS PROJECT 2010, and then import them to MS PROJEC SERVER 2010, as a Enterprise custom field!

There are nine types of Custom Fields in MS PROJECT 2010:

1. Cost. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put cost in currency. There is up to 10 Cost type fields.
2. Date. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put date. There is up to 10 Date type fields.
3. Duration. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put duration expressed in time. There is up to 10 Duration type fields.
4. Start. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put start time expressed as a date. There is up to 10 Start type fields. Those fields are used for Interim Plans in MS PROJECT 2010, so my advice is that you should use Date type instead.
5. Finish. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put finish time expressed as a date. There is up to 10 Finish type fields. Those fields are used for Interim Plans in MS PROJECT 2010, so my advice is that you should use Date type instead.
6. Text. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put text up to 255 characters. There is up to 30 Text type fields.
7. Flag. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put YES/NO flag. There is up to 20 Flag type fields.
8. Number. Use this type when you need a field in which you will put numeric data. There is up to 20 Number type fields.
9. Outline Code. There is up to 10 Outline Code type fields. I will explain them later in my next Post.

Limits are only if you are working with MS PROJECT PROFESSIONAL alone. If you are working with MS PROJECT SERVER, there are unlimited custom fields!

Custom fields can be applied to Resources or to Task, or to Projects (in MS PROJECT SERVER 2010) . For my first example, suppose that you need information about State from which your Resource is!

I will create Custom Text field:

and I will get:

Now, I will choose Lookup (see the Picture above), and I will get:

I have entered some States (just for example), and now I will click at the + Sign as shown at the Picture above:

I choose that Display order will be Ascending, and I do not want to add any further States in this field. If I put check mark in Allow additional items to be entered into the fields, then user can simply add any value (text) in this field on the screen (which I will explain next), and in that case this value (text) will be added in lookup table.

I am from Croatia, so most of my Resources are from it, and I will make Croatia as default Value:

OK! Now I am going to save this project file as a local project file, let say Project1.mpp!

Now I will re-open my MS PROJECT 2010 with MS PROJECT SERVER account (it must be Administrator account for what I am going to do!):

and I will get:

I will reopen my previous file (Project1.mpp), and I will click on Project Tab, and the on Custom fields, and I will get:

You can see that there is one Task Enterprise custom field (Health), because it is in MS PROJECT SERVER 2010. I will choose Resource type, and I will get:

As you can see, there are four Enterprise Resource custom fields: Cost type, Profit Center (I made this, and it was shown in my previous posts), Resource Departments, and Team Name), and one local (State)! I created this local field before few minutes, remember?

I will click on this field, and then:

and I will get:

Now, let me close MS PROJECT PROFESSIONAL 2010, and open MS PROJECT SERVER 2010:

and I will get:

Voila! It is here! I will rename it:

Finally, I will open My user account:

and then:

and finally:

Here it is.

Regards!