Working with Multiple Versions and Other Applications

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Specifying the Default Save Format
Strategies for Sharing Files Among Different Versions of Microsoft Project
Backward Compatibility
Strategies for Sharing Files with Other Applications

Specifying the Default Save Format

By default, projects created in Microsoft® Project Standard are saved in the Microsoft Project 2002 MPP file format. If Microsoft Project Standard users need to share files with users of earlier versions of Microsoft Project or other applications, they can change the default format that Microsoft Project 2002 uses for saving new files.

By default, projects created in Microsoft Project Professional are saved to a Microsoft SQL Server™ or Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) database. Microsoft Project Professional users saving projects to the Microsoft Project Server cannot change the save format. Using Microsoft Project Professional, you can change the default file save format only when saving a project outside the Microsoft Project Server.

You can set the default file format for your organization by using the System Policy Editor.

To specify a default file format for Microsoft Project 2002, use the Save tab in the Options dialog box (Tools menu). In the Save Microsoft Project files as box, select a file format.

After you set the default file format, all new project files are saved in the default format, unless you specify a different format in the Save As dialog box (File menu) when you save a file.

Use a System Policy to Set a Default File Format

Under Microsoft Windows® 98, Windows NT® Workstation 4.0, Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me), Windows 2000 Professional, and Windows XP, you can set system policies for a single user, a specific group of users, or all users in a workgroup. For projects saved outside of the Microsoft Project Server, the Microsoft Project policy template includes a system policy that allows you to change the default value for the Save as type option in the Save As dialog box (File menu). Use this policy to set the default file format for all users in your organization.

To set a policy for the Save as type option for Microsoft Project
  1. In the System Policy Editor, double-click the Default User icon.
  1. In the Local User Properties dialog box, click the plus sign (+) next to Microsoft Project 2002.
  1. Click the plus sign next to Tools | Options.
  1. Click the plus sign next to Save, and then select the Save Microsoft Project files as check box.
  1. In the Save Microsoft Project files as box, select the file format you want to use as the default.

After you distribute your system policies, all users in your workgroup will save Microsoft Project files in the same format.

Strategies for Sharing Files Among Different Versions of Microsoft Project

In many organizations, upgrading takes place gradually — one group of users at a time. During the upgrade process, users need to share files saved in Microsoft Project 2002 with earlier versions of Microsoft Project. There are several strategies that your workgroup can use to make it easier to share files.

Using Microsoft Project 2002, you can open a file created in an earlier version of Microsoft Project. You can also save files to the Microsoft Project 98 and Microsoft Project 2000 MPP file format, as described below.

Microsoft Project 2002 Files Saved in Microsoft Project 2000 Format

By default, Microsoft Project 2002 saves new files in the earlier Microsoft Project 2000 MPP format. To allow easy exchange of data with users who have not yet upgraded to Microsoft Project 2000, you can save to the Microsoft Project 98 MPP file format. When saving to this format, it is important to remember that Microsoft Project 2000 does not include all of the features found in Microsoft Project 2002, so some information for new features in Microsoft Project 2002 may be lost. The following are unexpected results you can encounter when viewing a project created in Microsoft Project 2002 but saved to and viewed from Microsoft Project 2000:

  • Certain fields exclusive to Microsoft Project 2002 (such as Baseline2 or Enterprise Project Outline Code10) cannot be viewed or edited when a Microsoft Project 2002 project is opened in an earlier version of Microsoft Project.
  • When a project created in Microsoft Project 2002 is opened and edited in Microsoft Project 2000, certain changes to the file (such as task names) will be seen when the project is again opened in Microsoft Project 2002, but only if the file name does not change.

For more information about working with different versions of Microsoft Project, see the "Backward Compatibility" section in this document.

Administering System Policies

Microsoft Project 2002 can read system policies and disable a feature based on a certain policy. For example, an administrator may apply a policy that changes the security level used with VBA modules. Microsoft Project 2002 maintains this policy, which allows an administrator to control users' environments.

Saving Microsoft Project 2002 files as XML

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a standard, self-describing SGML-based protocol that is being readily adopted as the protocol for communicating data across firewalls, and has become the natural choice for an interchange format.

When you save a file in the XML format (.xml), Microsoft Project 2002 creates XML tags for Microsoft Project text and graphics that Web browsers can display on a Web page. To learn more about the Microsoft Project 2002 XML schema, see the file Projxml.xml, located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\1033 (this folder, 1033, contains the files for the English version. Files for other languages are contained in the folder that corresponds to the locale ID [LCID] for that language).

Working with Projects in a Database

Supported database file formats

Microsoft Project supports the following databases through Open Database Connectivity (ODBC):

  • Microsoft Access 2000
  • Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 or later
  • MSDE 1.0 or later
  • Oracle Server, version 8.0 (or later) server and client

Microsoft Project 2002 can also make the ODBC connection automatically when writing to and reading from Microsoft Access 2000 databases, when users directly select Microsoft Project Database (MPD) or Microsoft Access Database (MDB) as the file type in the Open and Save dialog boxes (File menu).

Opening Microsoft Project 2000 projects that were stored in a database

A project that was previously saved to a database using Microsoft Project 2000 can be opened in Microsoft Project 2002. However, if the project is saved to a database again, it will be saved with the Microsoft Project 2002 database structure. Because the Microsoft Project 2002 database format has been completely changed, there will be two copies of the project in the database, one in the original Microsoft Project 2000 database format, and one in the Microsoft Project 2002 database format.

Upgrading the database structure from Microsoft Project Central to Microsoft Project Server

You can use the Database Upgrade Utility to upgrade some or all of the tables in a Microsoft Project Central Server database to the Microsoft Project Server 2002 database structure. To learn about upgrading a Microsoft Project Central Server database, see the Upgrading the Microsoft Project Central Server Database resource kit article.

Backward Compatibility

Microsoft Project Professional (when it is offline from the Microsoft Project Server) and Microsoft Project Standard use the same file format as Microsoft Project 2000. Microsoft Project Professional projects, when saved using the Save As dialog box, contain additional fields and data not found in Microsoft Project Standard.

By default, Microsoft Project 2002 saves new files in the earlier Microsoft Project 2000 MPP format. To allow easy exchange of data with users who have not yet upgraded to Microsoft Project 2000, you can save to the Microsoft Project 98 MPP file format. When saving to this format, it is important to remember that Microsoft Project 2000 does not include all of the features found in Microsoft Project 2002, so some information for new features in Microsoft Project 2002 may be lost. The following are unexpected conditions you can encounter when viewing a project created in Microsoft Project 2002 but saved to and viewed from within Microsoft Project 2000:

  • Fields exclusive to Microsoft Project 2002 (such as Baseline2 or Enterprise Project OutlineCode10) cannot be viewed or edited when a Microsoft Project 2002 project is opened in Microsoft Project 2000.
  • When a project created in Microsoft Project 2002 is opened and edited in Microsoft Project 2000, certain changes to the file (such as task names) will be seen when the project is again opened in Microsoft Project 2002, but only if the file name does not change.

Strategies for Sharing Files with Other Applications

Use import/export maps in Microsoft Project 2002, when transferring project information to and from other applications, to ensure that information is imported into the proper fields in Microsoft Project or exported into the proper fields in a destination file.

Edit import/export maps to identify which fields will be exported, and where in the destination format the data will go. You can also apply an export filter to project data, as part of an import/export map. You can use import/export maps to exchange data with the following applications and file formats:

  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Excel
  • ODBC databases
  • CSV and tab-delimited text files
  • XML format

You can also use import/export maps to export project data to HTML format and Microsoft Excel PivotTables.

Administrators can define and distribute standard import/export maps for an organization by customizing existing import/export maps and deploying them to users as part of a template file or project file, saving them in the Global file using the Organizer (Tools menu, Organizer command, Maps tab. Administrators can also copy the map to the enterprise global template for users connected to the Microsoft Project Server.

Predefined Import/Export Maps in Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project contains a number of predefined import/export maps for use in exporting and importing project data to other applications and file formats. It may be useful to make a copy of one of the predefined maps and customize it for upgrading particular data. While any map can be used with any file format or database, certain maps are designed with a particular purpose in mind. The following maps are predefined, and can be selected in the Export Wizard.

Use this map

To import or export this data

"Who Does What" report

Resources, their assignments, their start and finish dates, and their work

Compare to Baseline

Tasks with their ID and name, duration (current, baseline, and variance), start and finish dates (current and baseline), work (current, baseline, and variance), and cost (current, baseline, and variance)

Cost data by task

Tasks with their ID, name, and costs (total cost, fixed cost, baseline cost, cost variance, actual cost, remaining cost)

Default task information

Tasks with their ID and name, duration, start and finish dates, predecessors, and resource names (the same information as displayed in the task Entry table)

Earned value information

Tasks with their ID, name, earned value fields (BCWS, BCWP, ACWP, SV, CV) cost, baseline cost, and cost variance

Export to HTML using standard template

Tasks with their ID and name, duration, start and finish dates, resource names, and % complete; resources with their ID and name, group, max units, and peak; assignments with their task ID, task name, resource name, work, start and finish dates, and % complete (useful to export information to a Web page; export options are set to use one of the supplied HTML templates)

Resource "Export Table" map

Resources with all of their information

Task "Export Table" map

Tasks with all of their information

Task and resource PivotTable

Tasks with their name, resource group, resource names, duration, start and finish dates, and cost; resources with their name, group, work, and cost (designed for exporting to an Excel PivotTable)

Task list with embedded assignment rows

Tasks with their ID and name, work, duration, start and finish dates, and % complete (designed to export data to Microsoft Excel or a Web page and to look like the Task Usage view, although the indentation doesn't appear in Excel)

Top Level Tasks list

Tasks with their ID and name, duration, start and finish dates, % complete, cost, and work
How fields are processed when importing data into Microsoft Project 2002

Values in certain fields in Microsoft Project can be calculated based on data in other fields. The order in which fields are processed by Microsoft Project depends on what other fields are entered by the user. For example, if the user enters values in the Duration field and Start field, Microsoft Project calculates the value of the Finish field. If the user enters values in the Start and Finish fields, Microsoft Project calculates the value of the Duration field. When data is imported into Microsoft Project, the order of the imported fields can affect the calculation of data in the project; therefore, the sequence in which data is applied when importing is enforced by the processing order in Microsoft Project 2002.

When Microsoft Project reloads a complete project that has been flagged as having been externally edited, it first restores the project back to its pre-edited state, and then applies the changes in the processing order. When data is imported into a new project, there are no original values in a previous version of the project to compare with the values in the imported version, so Microsoft Project creates default tasks and applies the updated values according to the standard processing order.

When using the Import Wizard to merge or append project data to an existing project, Microsoft Project 2002 generally follows the standard processing order, as long as no columns contain null, or zero length, values. In the case of import-merge and import-append operations, null values in schedule-related columns may cause data being imported to be processed in a different order than the standard processing order. It is recommended that merge and append import maps be tested before deployment, to ensure that they provide the expected results. If they do not provide the expected results, try creating multiple maps with fewer columns and executing them consecutively.

Project options (for example, settings in the Options dialog box [Tools menu]) are loaded and applied before any data is loaded. If any options are externally modified, all schedule data loaded for the project is applied under the modified settings. In the processing order, task fields are always processed before assignment fields. If there are any conflicts, time-phased data always has the highest precedence and overrides any conflicting field changes.

Processing order of task fields:
  • Actual Work
  • Work
  • Remaining Work
  • Duration
  • Actual Duration
  • Remaining Duration
  • Start
  • Finish
  • Constraint Type
  • Constraint Date
  • Actual Start
  • Actual Finish
  • Stop
  • Resume
  • Percent Complete
  • Cost
  • Fixed Cost
  • Actual Cost
  • Leveling Delay
  • Percent Work Complete
  • Resource Names
Processing order of assignment fields:
  • Units
  • Start
  • Finish
  • Assignment Delay
  • Leveling Delay
  • Actual Start
  • Actual Finish
  • Actual Work
  • Remaining Work
  • Regular Work
  • Work
  • Actual Overtime Work
  • Remaining Overtime Work
  • Overtime Work
  • Percent Work Complete
  • Task Name
  • Resource Name