Export Timeline to PDF in Microsoft Project for the Web

Posted on March 15, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hello,

as you know, Microsoft Project for the Web can be exported to Microsoft Excel (see my Blog Post: (How to export Project for the Web to Excel | Nenad Trajkovski (ntrajkovski.com).

Here is the new option: Export timeline to PDF. It is very easy. First, I will create new Project:

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I will choose the Timeline option, and I will get:

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After I click on tree dots, I will get:

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and, finally, I will get:

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Now, I will open PDF file, and I see, that I have two pages:

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and:

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As you can see, on the first page I have Name, Assigned To, Start, Finish % Complete fields, but on the second page I have only Name field and the rest of the Gantt Chart shown. It can be annoying. If I want to see whole Project in one page I should use Zoom:

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and now, after I export the Project Timeline to the PDF, I will get:

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Great feature from my point of view.

Regards!

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Projects related to Calendar templates–Project for the Web

Posted on March 8, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hello,

Let’s suppose that I have Projects related to two Calendar Templates:

  • Template from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM GMT+1
  • Template from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM GMT-8

I have two Projects related to Template from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM GMT+1:

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and:

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I have another two Project related to Template from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM GMT-8:

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and:

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OK. I want to know which Projects are related to each Template. To do that I should follow next steps:

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and:

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Now, I will choose:

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and then:

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Finally, I will get:

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So here are all Project related to specific Template, which I choose.

If I choose Template from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM GMT-8, I will get:

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To conclude, when I have Projects in different Time zones, this is the way to see all Projects which belongs to specific Time zone.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards!

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Project and Resources in different Time zones with Project for the Web

Posted on February 15, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

today I will show you how is Project affected when Resources from different time zones are assigned to the Task, using Microsoft Project for the Web!

First of all, I will create a Project:

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As you can see, I will use Calendar template which is GMT+1 hour.

Now, using Power Apps I will have three resources:

  • John – he will work in the same time zone (GMT+1)
  • Ellen – she will work in the GMT time zone
  • Mary – she will work in the GMT–6 time zone

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and:

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For Ellen:

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and for Mary:

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OK.

Now it’s time to change working hours for John, Ellen and Mary.

For John:

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and:

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and finally:

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I will follow the same procedure for Ellen:

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and for Mary, as well:

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Now I will create three Tasks:

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  • Duration for all three Tasks is 1 day
  • John will work 8 hours, because his Time zone is aligned with Calendar Time zone
  • Ellen will work 7 hours, because she work in GMT Time zone which is –1 hour of Calendar Time zone, so she will start at 10:00 AM at Calendar Time zone (which is 09:00 GMT Time zone), and she will finish at 05:00 PM Calendar Time zone (which is 04:00 PM GMT Time zone)
  • Mary will work 1 hour, because she work in GMT-6  Time zone which is –7 hour of Calendar Time zone, so she will start at 04:00 PM at Calendar Time zone (which is 09:00 GMT-6  Time zone), and she will finish at 05:00 PM Calendar Time zone (which is 10:00 PM GMT-6 Time zone).

Now I will put two days in Duration field for all three Tasks:

image

As you can see effort is increased 8 hours for every single Task. So, only first day is affected with this Time zone difference. So:

    • John will work 8 hours at first day, and second day because his Time zone is aligned with Calendar Time
      zone
    • Ellen will work 7 hours at first day, because she work in GMT Time zone which is –1
      hour of Calendar Time zone, so she will start at 10:00 AM at Calendar Time zone
      (which is 09:00 GMT Time zone), and she will finish at 05:00 PM Calendar Time
      zone (which is 04:00 PM GMT Time zone). At the Second day she will work from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM according to her (GMT) Time zone
    • Mary will work 1 hour, because she work in GMT-6  Time zone which
      is –7 hour of Calendar Time zone, so she will start at 04:00 PM at Calendar
      Time zone (which is 09:00 GMT-6  Time zone), and she will finish at 05:00
      PM Calendar Time zone (which is 10:00 PM GMT-6 Time zone). At the Second day she will work from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM according to her (GMT-6) Time zone.

Seems little bit complicated? Well, it is. But you have to understand this behavior before you apply different Time zone to particular resource!

Regards!

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Team files option in Microsoft Project for the Web!

Posted on February 10, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hit,

Today I will explain Team files option in Microsoft Project for the Web.

First of all I will create a Project:

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Now I will assign a Group to this Project. In my example, I have a Group which is already created:

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Now I will create a Task and I will attach a document to it:

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and:

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and:

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Finally I will get:

image

Now, I will choose Team files option:

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and I will get:

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As you can see, I am at the SharePoint site, which belong to my Group not to my Project. What do I mean by that?

Let me create another Project:

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As you can see I use the same Group. Now I will attach a document to the Task, and I will get:

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If I choose Team files option in this Project I will get:

image

As you can see, I have both files in this Group SharePoint site, from First Project, and from Second Project. Now, I will delete First Project:

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and:

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As you can see only Second Project is left:

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If I now choose this Project and go to Team Files I will get:

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As you can see, First Project has been deleted, but all the files which were attached to that Project remained.

What to do if you do not need them anymore? Well, erase them.

What to do if you want to see for each Project their associated  files only? In that case, you should create a group for each particular Project, and you shouldn’t use a common one for multiple Project. But, in that Case when you create a group for particular Project you will have to add Team members in it. If you choose common group, once when the Team member is assigned to that Group it can be “reused” for each project which belongs to that Group.

So, it’s up to you to choose the approach. But remember this: When you delete a Project, associated group is not deleted by default. You should delete it manually!¨

Hope this helps.

Regards!

Posted in MICROSOFT PROJECT, Microsoft Project for the Web, Project for the Web, Project for Web | Tagged | Leave a comment

Groups, Attachments and Microsoft Project for the Web

Posted on February 1, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hello,

Today I will show you connections between Task attachments in Microsoft Project for the Web, and Microsoft Groups.

First I will create brand new Project with one Single Task:

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IF I want to attach a Document to Task, I will get:¸

image

As you can see, I can only add a link to the URL, not an Attachment! WHY?

To answer this question, let me assign a group to this particular Project:

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As you can see I am using existing group, but I could create a brand new one.

Now all three options for Task attachment are available:

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Now I will attach one simple picture From computer, and I will get:

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If I want to attach a file From  team files I will get:

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and:

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As you can see in Teams files I can see only file which I already attached.

Let me, for a moment jump to a Microsoft Group. To do that, I will jump to Outlook in my Office 365:

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and I will get:

image

As you can see, file which was attached to the Project is here. Now I will jump to a SharePoint site created for this particular group:

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As you can see file attached to the Task is in SharePoint site created for the Group. So, the answer for the question above is: “Until I don’t have a group assigned to the Project, I cannot attach a file, because Project doesn’t now where to place it!”.

I will now upload two new files to the SharePoint site:

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Let’s go back to the Project. If I now try to add attachment from Team files I will get:

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To conclude, each file which is attached to the Task is stored to SharePoint site which belongs to the Group which is in turn, assign to a Project.

If I attach a file from my computer directly to the Task, it will be saved in that SharePoint, and if I save a file in that SharePoint, I can attach that file from Team files. SO, Team files = SharePoint files.

Regards!

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Quick look column in Microsoft Project for the Web!

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hello,

today I will show you one new Column which is part of Microsoft Project for the Web: Quick look.

As always, I will create new Project and I will get:

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As you can see, this new Column is placed right beside Name Column by default. Now I will ad one Task:

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As you can see, Quick Look is empty. And you cannot put a value in it like, for example, typing a text. This column is read only!

I will attach a document for this Task:

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and after I choose a file which I want to attach I will have:

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As you can see, my attachment is shown, and I also added a simple comment to the Task.

So I have:

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If I hoover my mouse on Quick look field, I will get:

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and:

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If I click on Note or Attachment, I will in both case get Task Detail screen opened:

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I found this column very useful. Why? Because without it, I should open Task Detail Screen for each and every Task for which I want to check if there is a note or attachment for it. With this new column I see it right away!

Regards!

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, PMI, Project for the Web, Project for Web, PRoject Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

Task attachment in Microsoft Project for the Web!

Posted on January 18, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

WOW! It’s here.

Today I will show you how to attach document or link into Task with Microsoft Project for the Web!

First of all, as always, I will create simple Project:

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After I open Task Detail I will see:

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So I can choose:

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As you can see I can attach file from my computer, or from Team files, or I can add a link.

First I will choose: From Computer:

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and here it is:

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If I click on the attachment it will open, and if I click on the tree dots I can remove the attachment:

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Now I will add a link to URL:

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and I will get:

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So, for each Task I can have many attachments, and they can be same or different type!

Great feature!

Regards!

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, Project for the Web, Project for Web, PRoject Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

Non working hours bug in Microsoft Project for the Web

Posted on January 11, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi

Today I will show you a bug in Microsoft Project for the Web.

Let’s say that we have two Resources: John and Ellen. At 01/15/2021 John is suppose to work from 01:00 PM to 05:00 PM, and Ellen is not suppose to work at all.

So, let me setup a Resource Calendar for that:

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and:

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and:

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and here we are:

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and finally:

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For John, I will repeat steps above and I will setup non working times like this:

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So, working time for John looks like:

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Now I will create new Project with two Tasks:

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Ellen is going to work 32 hours form Monday to Thursday, and that is OK! BUT” Joh is going to work 32 hours as well, which is not OK, because he is suppose to work From Monday to Thursday 8 hours per day which is 4 days * 8 days per day = 32 hours PLUS 4 hours (from 01:00 PM to 05:00 PM) at Friday, which means that John total effort should be 36 hours, not 32 hours.

If you try this scenario in MS PROJECT 2013/2016/2019/ONLINE the result will be correct!

Regards!

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Start and Finish time for Task in different Project Calendar using Microsoft Project for the Web!

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

today I will explain something that can seems as a bug, but it is not in Microsoft Project for the Web! It is a bit tricky, and I got an explanation directly from Microsoft.

Let me show you!

Firs I will setup a calendar template from 09 AM to 01 PM:

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and:

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I will use this Generic Resource to create the Calendar Template:

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Now I will setup Resource calendar for Ellen which will be from 09:00 AM to 05:00 PM:

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Let me create a simple Project, using previous Calendar template:

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Finally I will create a single Task with 1 day Duration:

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As you can see Start date is 1/4/2021 (at 09:00 AM which cannot be seen because I couldn’t grab it, but if you hoover mouse on start date you will se this), and End date is 1/5/2021 at 01:00 PM. WHY?

Project defines one day of duration as 8 hours of work (I.e. the scheduling engine ensures there is time in the project calendar for 8 hours of work). Given my calendar, each working day can only support 4 hours of work (according to the project calendar). Therefore, the scheduling engine is scheduling 8 hours of working time, which takes place over 2 days on my project calendar (as there are only 4 hours of work each day).

Now I will assign Ellen to the Task and I will get:

image

As you can see, Effort is 12 hours. WHY?

The scheduling engine is scheduling 1 day of duration according to the project calendar. Therefore, as above, the task is scheduled from 1/4/2021 9am – 1/05/2021 1pm as that is 8 hours of work according to the project calendar

After the task is scheduling according to the project calendar, the effort is calculated based on the resource calendar. Effort is determined by scheduling work for the resource any time between the task start and task finish when the resource can work. Therefore, Ellen is scheduled to work 1/4/2021 9am-5pm (even though 1pm-5pm is outside the project calendar) AND 1/5/2021 9am-1pm. This results in 12 hours of work for Ellen.

It seems a little bit confusing, and it is confusing. But, you must remember this logic when you are building a schedule like mine.

Regards

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, PMI, Project for the Web, Project for Web, PRoject Management | Tagged | Leave a comment

Time off for specific Resources in Microsoft Project for the Web

Posted on December 28, 2020 by Nenad Trajkovski

Hi,

I’m going to show you how to setup, for example, Vacation for specific Resource, using Microsoft Project for the Web.

Let’s say that Ellen will take day off at 01/01/2021, but everyone else will work at that Day.

To set Day off for Ellen, I should follow this steps:

image 

and then:

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and:

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and finally:

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So I will have:

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Now I will assign John to his Task, and Ellen to her Task in My Project:

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As you can see, john and Mary are going to work on the Task which has 5 days Duration, from 12/28/29 to 01/01/2021, but John has 40 hours effort, and Ellen has 32 hours effort since she will not work at 01/01/2021.

This is my last post for this very odd year.

I wish you a very happy New Year, and all the best to you and your families.

Smile

Posted in Microsoft Project for the Web, PMI, Project for the Web, Project for Web, PRoject Management | Tagged | Leave a comment