Project 2010 comes with a robust set of fields of several data types. When you right-click a column heading and then click Field Settings on the shortcut menu, the Field Settings dialog box appears with a few modifiable attributes, such as the title or alignment. However, you cannot change what these built-in fields represent or how they are calculated. If you want to track information that Project 2010 does not monitor, such as defect rates during testing, you can create your own custom fields and add them to tables in your views.
Note
For more information about adding fields to tables, see Using Fields. For more information about Project 2010 fields, on the File tab, click Help, and then click Microsoft Office Help. In the Project Help dialog box, click the General Reference link. Click the Fields Reference link. A complete list of fields appears in the Help pane.
Project 2010 provides a set of several custom fields of each data type for tasks and another set of custom fields of each data type for resources. The number of custom fields varies for data type. For example, there are 10 fields for start and finish dates, 20 fields for flags and numbers, and 30 fields for custom text. In addition, there are 10 sets of custom outline codes for both tasks and resources. Microsoft Project Professional 2010 provides similar sets of enterprise-level custom codes. With Project Professional 2010, you can define project-related custom fields in addition to task and resource fields.
The custom fields in both Microsoft Project Standard 2010 and Project Professional are as follows:
Cost. Cost1 through Cost10 expressed in currency
Date. Date1 through Date10 expressed as a date
Duration. Duration1 through Duration10 expressed as time
Finish. Finish1 through Finish10 expressed as a date
Flag. Flag1 through Flag20 expressed as a Yes/No flag
Number. Number1 through Number20 expressed as numeric data
Start. Start1 through Start10 expressed as a date
Text. Text1 through Text30 expressed as alphanumeric text up to 255 characters
Outline Code. Outline Code1 through Outline Code10 (the outline code format is defined by a code mask)
Caution
Even though the Start and Finish fields appear in the Custom Field list, Project 2010 uses these fields to store the dates for interim plans. If you intend to save interim plans in your project, don’t use the custom Start and Finish fields, because information in those fields is overwritten when you save an interim plan. Instead, use custom Date fields for your customized dates.
Note
For more information about interim plans, see Saving Additional Scheduled Start and Finish Dates.
Custom fields already exist; you can’t introduce new fields into the Project 2010 database. What you can do is modify the valid values for custom fields or specify how their values are calculated. You can control how their summary values are determined. You can also substitute graphical indicators for the values for a custom field to make information easier to digest.
Note
An outline code uses a lookup table to define the valid values for the field. See the section Working with Outline Codes, to learn how to create outline codes.
Follow these steps to customize a field of any type other than outline code:
On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click Custom Fields.
The Custom Fields dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 28-18.
Select the Task or Resource option to specify whether this is a task or resource field.
In the Type box, choose the type of custom field you want to customize.
To communicate the purpose of the custom field, click Rename.
Custom field names, such as Cost 1 or Date5, tell you mainly what type of field you’re dealing with. Although you can change the title that appears in a column heading in a table, creating an alias for a custom field is a better approach. By creating an alias, the name you choose appears instead of the field name each time you use the field. In addition, the alias and the original field name both appear in field lists.
In the Rename Field dialog box, enter a descriptive name for the field.
With custom fields, you can control the values that they accept, as well as whether those values are identified in a list of valid values or calculated by a formula. If you do not specify values in some way, the custom field accepts any entry as long as it meets the requirements for the data type—for example, a Number field accepts numbers, not text or dates.
Some types of custom fields accept specific types of data and are easy to fill in—Start, Finish, Date, Flag, and Cost are self-explanatory. However, for Text, Number, and Outline Code fields, leaving the choice of values to the people who type in data could lead to gibberish. By setting up a list of values for people to choose from, called a lookup table, you can help them enter the right values. And, if valid values are specific, you can set up a custom field to accept only the values you specify. You can identify a lookup table for any custom field except for a Flag field, because that type of custom field accepts only Yes or No.
To specify a list of values that appears in a custom field list, do the following:
In the Custom Fields dialog box, click Lookup.
The Edit Lookup Table dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 28-19.
Click a blank cell in the Value column, and then type the value. In the Description cell in the same row, add a description of what the value represents.
For example, if you use a custom text field to store department abbreviations, the Description field can hold the full department name. When you display the drop-down list of values in a task sheet, the value and its description appear in the list.
To specify one of the values as the default, select the Use A Value From The Table As The Default Entry For The Field check box. Click the cell that contains the default value, and then click Set Default.
The default value appears in bold and in blue.
To insert new values, remove existing values, or rearrange the values in the lookup table, click Cut Row, Copy Row, Paste Row, Insert Row, or Delete Row.
You can also rearrange the order of the values by clicking a value and then clicking the up and down arrows to the right of the lookup table.
To order the values, click the plus sign to the left of the Display Order For Lookup Table label.
The By Row Number option displays the values in the order you enter them in the list. You can also sort the values in ascending or descending order. If you choose the Sort Ascending or Sort Descending option, click Sort to rearrange the rows.
To allow users to enter values not in the lookup table, click the plus sign to the left of the Data Entry Options label and select the Allow Additional Items To Be Entered Into The Fields check box.
In Project 2010, this check box is cleared by default so that the lookup table values you specify are the only valid values unless you say otherwise. If you allow other entries in the custom field, Project 2010 adds those values automatically to the lookup table.
Note
If another custom field (in the current project or another project) contains a lookup table with the entries you want, click Import Lookup Table. If the lookup table resides in another project, open the project file. Then, in the Import Lookup Table dialog box, click the project that contains the lookup table, select the option for the type of field (Task, Resource, or Project), and then click the name of the custom field that contains the lookup table.
You can set up a custom field to calculate its value by using formulas that contain functions and other fields in the Project 2010 database. For example, you might set up a field to show productivity by dividing the number of actual hours worked by the number of lines of code written (stored in another custom field).
To define a formula for a calculated field, follow these steps:
In the Custom Fields dialog box, click the Formula option.
A message box appears telling you that any data in the field will be discarded because the formula will determine the field values. If the field is empty or contains data you don’t care about, click OK to continue. To keep the data in the field, click Cancel, and then choose a different field to customize.
Click the Formula button.
The Formula dialog box appears and displays the custom field name followed by an equal sign above the Edit Formula box.
To add a field to the formula, click Field, point to the field category, and then click the field you want to add. (See Figure 28-20.)
To add a function to the formula, click one of the function buttons.
Alternatively, click Function, point to the function category, and then click the function you want to add.
To type a value in the formula, click the location in the formula where you want to insert the value, and then type the text or number.
To direct the order in which functions execute, insert parentheses in the formula.
By default, Project 2010 does not calculate values for custom fields for summary tasks or for the rows containing rolled-up values for groups. However, you can choose the type of calculation for summary tasks and group summary rows or use the formula you defined for the field. To use the same formula that you defined for the custom field, in the Custom Fields dialog box, under Calculation For Task And Group Summary Rows, select the Use Formula option.
If you select the Rollup option, you can choose from several built-in calculations in the Roll-up drop-down list, including the following:
Average. The average of all nonsummary values underneath the summary task or group
Average First Sublevel. The average of all the values of tasks one level below
Maximum. The largest value of all nonsummary values
Minimum. The smallest value for all nonsummary values
Sum. The sum of all nonsummary values underneath the summary task or group
When you work with a custom number field, the following calculations also appear when you select the Rollup option:
Count All. The number of summary and nonsummary tasks at all levels below the summary task or group
Count First Sublevel. The number of nonsummary and summary tasks one level below the summary task or group
Count Nonsummaries. The number of nonsummary tasks below the summary task or group
In Project 2010, you can control how values in a task custom field are distributed to the assignments within the task. For example, if you set up a number field, you can apportion the value to each assignment. Click the Roll Down Unless Manually Entered option to apportion the contents of the custom field to assignments. Project 2010 divides the value across assignments unless you manually enter values into the custom field in an assignment row. Click the None option if you do not want to distribute the contents of the custom field to assignments.
Graphical indicators in place of custom field values can make values easier to interpret. At the same time, if you want your audience to see status without the actual results, you can use graphical indicators to hide the actual numeric values. For example, you might want to display a green light when a task is ahead of schedule, a yellow light when a task is slightly behind schedule, and a red light when a task is more than 2 weeks late.
To display graphical indicators instead of values, follow these steps:
Open the Custom Fields dialog box and choose the custom field to which you want to apply graphical indicators.
Under Values To Display, select the Graphical Indicators option, and then click the Graphical Indicators button.
The Graphical Indicators dialog box appears.
To assign graphical indicators to nonsummary rows, select the Nonsummary Rows option.
In the table, click the first empty cell in the Test column, click the arrow, and then click the test you want to apply for an indicator—for example, Equals or Is Less Than.
Enter the value for the test in the Value(s) cell.
You can enter a number or other string, or you can select a field whose contents become the comparison value. For example, to display an indicator when a custom number field has a negative value, click Is Less Than in the list in the Test cell and then type 0 in the Value(s) cell. To display an indicator when a custom date field is greater than the baseline finish, click Is Greater Than in the Test cell and then click [Baseline Finish] in the Value(s) field.
Click the Image cell, click the arrow, and then click the graphical indicator to display when the condition is true. (See Figure 28-21.)
To define graphical indicators when other conditions are true, repeat steps 4 through 6 in the next blank row in the table.
Note
By default, summary rows and the project summary row both inherit the same conditions that you specify for nonsummary rows. If you want to use different conditions for summary rows, select the Summary Rows option and then clear the Summary Rows Inherit Criteria From Nonsummary Rows check box. Define the tests and indicators for summary rows as you would for nonsummary rows. To specify different conditions for the project summary row, select the Project Summary option and then clear the Project Summary Inherits Criteria From Summary Rows check box. Define the tests and indicators for the project summary row.