Customizing Workgroup Messages

Before publishing your first message in any given project, you may want to customize the e-mail messages that Project generates. You can customize the fields that are displayed in the message, as well as the timesheet grid that team members use to report work on the project. You can also add and remove fields.

These and other settings for the workgroup messages are managed in the Customize Published Fields dialog box (Tools Ø Customize Ø Published Fields), shown in Figure 15.14.

Use the Ask for Completed Work list to change the timesheet grid. The default, Broken Down by Day, provides a day-by-day grid for team members to enter daily work on a task. Choose Broken Down By Week if you want team members to enter total hours for each weekly period. Choose As a Total for the Entire Period if you want team members to enter summary totals of only the hours worked for the entire identified period.

Figure 15.14: The Customize Published Fields dialog box

You may need to add fields to workgroup messages. The Customize Workgroup dialog box displays the list of fields currently in workgroup messages on the right and available fields on the left. To add a field, select the field in the Available Fields column and then click the right arrow to move the field into the Fields in the Task View column. To remove a field from the message, select the field and then click the left arrow to move the field back to the Available Fields column. You can only remove fields that you add—standard fields cannot be removed from the workgroup messages. If you click on any field, you see a description of where the field is added.

If you want team members to include overtime work when they enter time in the timesheet grid, select the Track Overtime Work option.

You can give team members the option to decline tasks, or you can restrict that option by selecting or clearing the Task Members Can Decline Tasks option.

To return the field settings to the original default options, click the Reset button.