Has anyone had experience with replacing Open Workbench with Microsoft Project ... especially sharing the GLOBAL.MPP which contains customized views ( similar to the way you can create Corporate Views in OWB

[Legacy User]

Evaluating using MSP instead of OWB to edit schedules.  We have many "corporate views" in OWB and would want to do the same kind of thing with MSP ( if possible ).  The views / reports are stored in the GLOBAL.MPP file in MSP, but if you copy the GLOBAL.MPP from one PC to another, it causes problems with the view, produces error messages.

 

Is it even possible to share views with individual installed copies of MSP?

[tara.mcgovern]

Good Morning,

 

We have been able to successfully share the global.mpt file but they do have to be re-created with each upgrade.  To create the global.mpt we update the views on a single user machine.  Then copy that file and replace it on the new users machine.  We have moved away from it a bit as managing the files and ensuring people have the right one was cumbersome.

 

Cheers

Tara

[Legacy User]

Tara

 

Thank you for your reply.  This confirms what we have been experiencing.

 

We start with a single user machine and replace it on the PILOT

workstations but we have experienced problems launching the standardized

views and also customized views.

 

We will add this discovery to our documented findings about the pilot for

the evaluation of whether we change from Open Workbench to Microsoft

Project.

 

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Ed Duszak

Clarity Administrator

[tara.mcgovern]

Hi Ed,

 

We can do it for our user base and it works just fine until we upgrade Clarity.  With each version we have to retouch the global.mpt or we get errors.  We do not have issues copying it from a single machine to another machine.  Going forward we will use and SCCM distribution to place the file in the user's directory when we upgrade to prevent this.  Not sure what errors you are receiving but ours are only when we upgrade.

 

Cheers

Tara

[Anon Anon]

We took the following approach.  We created a custom view library in MS Project but did not push it out on the Global template file.  We have an MPP file with the custom views defined and have instructions on using Organizer in MSP to add the views, tables, filters and sorts to the Global file.  This prevents overlaying user preferences set in the Global file.

[Legacy User]

Peter

 

thanks for your feedback and suggestion.  I will share this with our tech

people and see if we can mimic this approach.  If we can, this will

certainly solve some of our issues

 

 

 

Regards,

 

Ed Duszak

Clarity Administrator

[Anon Anon]

Ed,

 

Let me know if you have any further questions and/or would like assistance in pursuing an acceptable solution.

 

Pete Foley

Senior Clarity PPM Functional Consultant

www.digitalcelerity.com

651-470-4443

[Lisa Olsen]

Hi Ed -

 

Here's some more info on copying a standard global.mpt file to multiple machines...

 

How can you distribute a standard Global.mpt to multiple users?

 

Create an MSP project with your standard views:

1. In MSP, open a blank project.  Create your company standard views by adding fields to views and rearranging columns.
2. Save the project and rename it to “xxxx MSP Standard Views.mpp”.

 

Option 1 (manual): 

Send the “xxxx MSP Standard Views.mpp” file to all MSP users instructing them to open the project from MSP and copy the project settings to their global.mpt file.

 

Option 2 (automated by a macro):

Write a “Project_Open” macro that will automatically copy the standard views to each user’s global.mpt file. Send the “xxxx MSP Standard Views.mpp” to all MSP users instructing them to open the project from MSP.  As soon as they open the project, the standard settings will be copied to their global.mpt file automatically.
 

  NOTE:  If you are using Project Server for your enterprise project environment, you can use the Enterprise Global file which is used to store all of your corporate standards. Every time a user logs into Project Server through MSP, the latest version of the Enterprise Global field is loaded into memory on the user’s computer.

Regards,

Lisa Olsen

[Legacy User]

LJOlsen  replied to the discussion

"Has anyone had experience with replacing Open Workbench with Microsoft Project ... especially sharing the GLOBAL.MPP which contains customized views ( similar to the way you can create Corporate Views in OWB"

 

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