Making Multi-Project Graphs from Separate Microsoft Project Plans for Version 5.3

Making Multi-Project Graphs from Separate Microsoft Project Plans for Version 5.3 (P53-8_2_1-12112015)

Suppose you desire to build a multi-project project view without first creating a Microsoft Project Integrated Master Schedule. To illustrate an approach to do this, we’ll use the OnePager Pro desktop application. Just follow the steps listed below:

Setting up the Template for a Multi-Project Graph

1) Launch OnePager Pro from the desktop icon and navigate to the “File” tab on the OnePager ribbon. Then, click on the “Options” button. Once you are on the “Options” form, go to the “Template” button on the right side and click it. This action will bring up the OnePager “Template” form. Finally, navigate to the “Advanced” tab on the “Template” form as shown below:

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2) At the “Advanced” tab check the “Safely combine tasks from different files” check-box. This setting allows you to import multiple standalone Microsoft Project plans. If you do not check this box, OnePager may confuse tasks from one Microsoft Project plan with tasks from another plan when the tasks have the same UniqueID in Microsoft Project Professional.

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Adjustments to Rows and Swimlanes

3) Go to the “Rows/Swimlanes” tab page is shown below. Ensure that you are grouping and labeling swimlanes by the “Project Name”, as shown below. Though this step is optional, it is strongly recommended.

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4) Now click the “Save and use” or “Use” button to make this template the current template for the creation of this multi-project project view.

5) Once you’ve saved the “Template” form in the previous step go to the “New…” button on the “File” tab of the OnePager Pro ribbon. You should still be on the “File” tab at this point.

Pull In the First Microsoft Project Source File

6) When you click the “New…” button, OnePager will take you back to the “Home” tab on the ribbon and display the short form version of the “OnePager choices” form. Click the “Select” button in in the upper right corner and select the “BROWSE FILES…” option from the drop down menu. A Windows “Open” form will appear as shown below:

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7) As shown above, select the first Microsoft Project source file in the set three and then click the “Open” button. When you do this, the “OnePager choices” form expands as shown here:

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Pull In the Remaining Microsoft Project Source Files

8) At this point we are going to confirm the name of the Microsoft Project source file, type in a New Project View title, and confirm the snapshot date. Once that is done, we are going to click on the “Add/Remove” button so that the “Data source selection” form will appear and we can use the “Add” button to add the two remaining Microsoft Project source files to the source package for this project view as show below:

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9) When you click the “OK” button on the “Data source selection” form, OnePager will update the “Selected File(s) section of the “OnePager choices” form indicating that all three Microsoft Project source files have been found as shown here:

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Create the Multi-Project Project View

10) Now, go ahead and click the “Create the new project view” button on the “OnePager choices” form and the resulting project view will look like this:

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Setting for Microsoft Project

11) OnePager Pro always uses the label (name) of the project-summary task to identify each project in a multi-project situation. OnePager does not use the Microsoft Project plan name to identify projects. If you want to display the project summary task (Task 0) at the top of a project file, go to the “File” tab of Microsoft Project’s tool bar. Then navigate to “Options” tab and once there to the “Advanced” and check the checkbox that is shown below:

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12) Since we are using the “Pull” Operation workflow to create this multi-project project view, the setting above on the Microsoft Project’s “Project Options” page must be set before the first designated Microsoft Project source file is pulled in and must stay set for all subsequent source file pull operations. This is because, although Microsoft Project as an application will not appear on your screen anytime during the “Pull” Operation, nevertheless, it will be launched by OnePager Pro and will operate on the designated files before OnePager Pro processes them.

Related Links

Creating a NEW Project View via Pull Operation - OnePager Pro for Version 5.3 7.13.1-53

REPLACING a Snapshot via Pull Operation - OnePager Pro for Version 5.3 7.14.1-53

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