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This month we’ll begin to have a look at various ways
to export data from Project. Why would we want to do that? Well, as Project
does not have a built-in viewer (see: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm)
we might want to show the plan or progress to others. We can do that by simply
showing the view as a picture or putting the data into another application.
Although there are numerous non-Microsoft applications that could meet the
need, I will concentrate solely on Microsoft applications that most of us are
likely to have to hand.
Download this project: http://www.mousetrax.com/pub/AircraftFeb20A.zip
GIF
Picture
One of the simplest exporting methods is achieved
firstly by creating GIF (Graphics
Interchange Format) pictures. GIF is a compressed graphic file normally used
for images that do not require too many colours (maximum 256). The file name
takes the form of filename.gif.
Project is designed with the Web in mind, which allows anyone with an Internet Browser or email
facilities to view details. Let’s say that we want to present the Gantt Chart view of Aircraft A on a web page. I have a
problem here as the amount of data and its size will vary according to the
screen resolution you have personally available on your screen. However,
Project can help us here as the view can be zoomed. Try View, ‚Zoom…
Note that the Zoom dialog allows us to select fixed
weeks or months, a particular task or custom, or the entire project. For now, select Entire Project, and OK.
We should be able to see
the whole project. (Incidentally, I use SnagIt 8.2 to capture and annotate these pictures – great program from http://www.techsmith.com/ .)
To create a picture, click the Copy Picture button (the
little camera on the standard toolbar).
In the Copy Picture dialog, select To GIF image file: and ‚accept
the path and file name, which Project takes from the project file name, or type
in whatever you want, and OK.
We can now find the Aircraft A.gif file using Windows Explorer and double-click on it to open the picture in whatever viewer we have. Thus,
if we send this file to anyone else, they can also view this picture. We can
put this into another application by inserting the file. Say we’re writing a Word report, open Word and click Insert/Picture,
navigate to where we stored the .gif file and open it into Word. I’m not
giving you step by step keystrokes here as it differs according to the
application you wish to use. Suffice it to say that we can use similar
procedures to Insert the file into Excel and PowerPoint. But remember that we are importing a PICTURE and thus the data cannot be changed by the viewer.
I’m sure you are now seeing the limitations with this
procedure. For instance, the picture we have just saved is not quite the whole
project, even though we selected it to be. “Whole project” in the Zoom dialog generally covers the
timescale from start to finish of the project. But in our picture we have text
– resource names - that expands beyond the end of the project. We might well
need, therefore, to customise the output in the Zoom dialog to include more days. This will require some trial and
error to get it right (what a pain, but that’s Project for you!). What is
worse, though, is that scaling is a very important factor. I’ve chosen a simple
project that we can easily see. If we have several hundred tasks and/or we wish
to show more detail on the Gantt chart
and/or the project spans many months, we are in danger of not being able to
read what’s in the picture. Project suffers the same problems as when printing
– see the options open to us in: Microsoft
Project: 8—Printing Reports and Views. We might end up having to create a number of
.gifs to show all we need in the detail we need.
Web
Page
If we want to create a web page for, say, on the
Company’s intranet, then we need to use different procedure. Try File /SaveAs… and in the Save As dialog, select Webpage in the Save as type: pick list and then ‚Save.
This will activate the Export Wizard: click Next>.
Select Use existing map and
then ‚Next>.
Note the built-in maps for our data. We’ll choose the “Who Does What “ report, then ‚Next>.
Note the default selections to see what’s available,
though we’ll keep the default ticks. At the bottom select Include
image file in HTML page: so we can ‚Browse for the ƒgif file if it’s not already showing, and „Finish.
Now find the Aircraft
A.html file and open it (double-click).
Your HTML page should be showing the gif picture we saved and a table similar
to the “Who Does What” report.
Mapping
Mapping is the selection of which fields to include in
the “map” produced for importing the data we want into an application. The “Who Does What” report we’ve just
created is “mapped” with the fields for Resources and Assignments, Start, Finish and Work. So
let’s start again with the Export Wizard.
This time we’ll open it from File, ‚Save
As Web Page…
Select the Aircraft A.html file if it isn’t shown, note ‚Web Page is selected for us giving the html suffix, then ƒSave
Click to overwrite if that message shows and the Export
Wizard will open as before. Click on Next> and in the Export Wizard – Map, select New
Map and ‚Next>.
So, the Export
Wizard – Map Options allows us
to select Task, Resources and/or Assignments data: select Tasks.
For ‚HTML options, select the ƒExport header/row…. We want to „Include image file in HTML page: so
we can …Browse for the †gif file if it’s not already showing, and ‡Next>.
And this is where we get down to mapping. The Export Wizard – Task Mapping dialog gives us control over the final report. Let’s
say we want to see the cost figures along with our gif file. In the Destination
HTML table title: type in a suitable name, say, Aircraft A Costs. Then in ‚Export
Filter, use the drop-down arrow to see the pick list. Note that all the standard filters are available
and your own filters will also appear here if you have created any. Select All Tasks and then we’ll map the fields
in ƒ(Click
here to map a field).
Click the drop-down arrow to see all the standard fields (Columns). Then and as we ‚type in the letter “n” the Wizard takes us to fields beginning
with that letter. We can either type in the full name or ƒclick
on Name to enter the first field.
Now click to right in the To:
HTML Table Field and we can see immediately that the Wizard gives us the first column of a ‚Preview
of the HTML Table ƒas
it will appear. Note that the Data Type „Text is also defined for us based on the field we’ve selected.
Go back to Name and overtype it to change the
word to “Task.” Then ‚fill in the
other three fields for Resource Names, Work and Cost, and ƒtheir respective titles: Resource and Man-hours. Check the „Preview to see what’s happening. Note
that we can subsequently alter the order of the fields by using the …Move arrows. Also, to speed our
subsequent revision or entry of further tables, we have a self-explanatory set
of † buttons. When you’re done, click ‡Next>.
We could then Save
Map for future use, but we’ll just click Finish.
Now find your Aircraft
A.html where we should be able to see the original gif picture as before. In
addition, we now have our mapped table of data as we arranged it.
Conclusion
As Project does
not have a viewer, we started having a look at exporting data by use of the Copy
Picture facilities to create a viewable picture in GIF format. This
can be use to insert into other applications like Word or PowerPoint. We then
used the GIF picture and added to it a built-in report, and then a tailored map of
tabular data for showing in web pages. Next month we’ll have a look at exporting
data to allow the full power of Excel to be used.
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