| Microsoft Project 2003 provides a much greater ability to customize the look and feel of Microsoft Project Web Access than earlier versions of Project. Some of these features include tracking settings, home page appearance, and notifications and reminders. This section explores each option and what customization choices you have. To customize Project Web Access, follow these steps: -
Select Admin, Customize Microsoft Project Web Access. You are presented with all the options under Tracking Settings. The first group of choices, Specify the Default Method for Reporting Progress on Tasks , lets you choose how resources should report their time. The three options you have are to use the percentage complete, to use actual work completed and work remaining, and to use hours of work done per day or per period. Depending on how your organization tracks time, or would like to start tracking time, select the option that best suits your needs. Percentage of work complete is the easiest of the three to implement into an organization that has little experience tracking time. It is also the least accurate method. As you move down the list of options, the reporting/tracking of time becomes more accurate. You can start with a simpler method and graduate to one that is more detailed. -
The second section, Lockdown Defaults, lets the administrator turn on or off the ability for a project manager to use a different time reporting method than the one specified earlier. If this option is turned off, the project manager is forced to use the method chosen by the administrator for his or her project. -
The third section of this screen, Time Period Settings, allows you to specify what day the week starts on for timesheet purposes, as well as what interval of time to see. You have the option to view time on a weekly or monthly basis and also to define how many weeks or months to see at a time. In addition, you can specify how often a resource should update his or her timesheet, as well as the maximum number of hours that can be entered for one day. -
Set how far in advance, by days, users can see future tasks. By default, it is set so that resources can see tasks that are past, current, or within 10 days in the future. Gantt Chart Formats Project Web Access lets you customize the look of Gantt charts by changing anything from the color of the bar to whether you even want it to be displayed. To modify the different Gantt charts , follow these steps: -
Select Admin, Customize Microsoft Project Web Access. Then click Gantt Chart Formats under Customization Options in the sidepane. You are presented with a grid of all the types of Gantt chart bars associated with the current Gantt chart. (You can change the current Gantt chart by selecting one from the drop-down list.) By default, you will be looking at the bars across all Gantt charts. -
The options you have allow you to change the format of how the bars will look when you are viewing them with data. First, in the Display column, you have the option of whether to display this bar. For example, if you did not want to show Summary Task Gantt bars, you could simply deselect the display box for that row. -
The remaining options in this grid allow you to change the cosmetic features of a Gantt chart. The main thing to remember is that this section can be customized by an organization but does not have to be utilized in order to successfully deploy Project Web Access. Grouping Formats Similar to the way you can customize Gantt Chart formats, you also have the ability to customize the grouping format for the timesheet, as well as views. By making changes to these sections, you can make it easier for team members to distinguish specific tasks in their timesheet or tasks within a particular view. To modify the grouping formats, follow these steps: -
Select Admin, Customize Microsoft Project Web Access. Then click Grouping Formats under Customization Options in the sidepane. You are presented with a grid of all the properties associated with the current grouping format. (You can change the current grouping format by selecting one from the drop-down list.) By default, you will be looking at the properties across all grouping formats. -
The options you have allow you to change the format of how these levels will look when you are viewing them with data. First, in the Cell Color column, you have the option to change the color of that particular cell . -
The remaining options in the grid allow you to change the cosmetic features of each of the levels in the timesheet and views, as well as define custom grouping formats. The main thing to remember is that this section, like the Gantt chart formatting, can be customized by an organization, but does not have to be utilized in order to successfully deploy Project Web Access. Reporting Nonworking Time In a resource's time sheet, in addition to the resource's tasks, there exists the ability to track time to non-project categories through Administrative Projects. In this section, the resource has the ability to enter time against non- project-specific tasks, such as vacation and sick leave. The administrator can add or delete as many of these administrative projects as needed. To accomplish this, follow these steps: -
Select Projects, Manage Administrative Projects. Then click Add Project to create an Administrative project. This will launch Microsoft Project 2003 Professional with a default non-working project plan that you will then modify. -
For each row in the Gantt Chart, enter a nonworking time category (as if it were a task within the plan). For example, categories might include Vacation, Sick, Training, Administrative work, and System support. -
For each row (task), assign the resources who need to record time against this non-working category. Usually this will represent all of the users. -
When you are finished, save the project plan to the server and publish it. NOTE Don't change the settings on nonworking time categories. Leave the default values for duration, task type, constraint, Start date, work, and so on.
The Default Home Page Appearance As in Project Central, in Project Web Access you have the ability to add custom content and custom links to the home page. This is convenient because it allows you to make commonly used resources, such as an intranet or search engines, easily available when users log in to Project Web Access. In addition, you can put the content directly on the home page itself, and users can access the information without having to leave the page. To modify the home page, follow these steps: -
Select Admin, Customize Microsoft Project Web Access. Then under Customization Options, click Home Page Format. -
The first section on this page is Add Links. When you add an item to this section, it appears on the home page as a hyperlink. To add a new link, click the Insert Row button. A new row is added to the bottom of the list, and you can enter data into the Link Name and URL field. For example, to add a link to the Project Assistants Web site, you would enter Project Assistants in the link name field and http://www.projectassistants.com in the URL field. -
To delete a link, click on the link and click the Delete Row button. To modify a link, click in the cell you would like to modify, and a cursor appears; you can then type changes at the cursor. -
The other section on this page, Add Content, is very similar to the Add Links section. The only difference is that you use this section to add actual content, rather than just a link, to the home page. -
To add, delete, or modify content, follow the same steps you use to add a link. The only difference is the Height field, where you can specify how large you would like the frame that holds the content to be. -
When you are finished, click the Save Changes button. Notifications and Reminders The email reminder service scans the Microsoft Project Server database at the scheduled time each day and sends email messages to remind users about their upcoming or overdue tasks and status reports . The customization options in Project Web Access allow you to specify the mail server, email address, default company email address, and default message that users will receive. In addition, you can set what time the reminder service should run. Here's how you do this: -
Select Admin, Customize Microsoft Project Web Access. Then click Notifications and Reminders. You are taken to the Notifications and Reminders screen. The first field is your SMTP mail server and port. Enter the name and port of the mail server that you would like to use to send reminders. -
The next two fields, From Address and Company Email Address, are for email addresses. The From Address field holds the address that the email reminder will be addressed from. The Company Email Address field holds an overall contact address for the organization (for example, info @microsoft.com ). -
In the Default Email Message field, you can enter any text that you would like to include in the reminder email. -
Under the Schedule Email Reminder Service heading, you can select when you would like the reminder service to run. To change this value, pull down the drop-down list and select a time. -
When your settings are complete, click the Save Changes button. |
