Combining Calendars and Printing them (Project 2000 SR-1)

Topic

New Reply

I would appreciate any ideas on how to combine the calendars of several resources and print the combined view of their vacations/availabilities.
I tried to use the Custom format but it included too many details on their assignments which I did not want. Further, this is a long project so it produced many pages
Thanks for any suggestion

Reply | Quote

Replies

I just need to better understand what you are trying to do. Do you mean you are tyring to show several resources vacations / availabilities on one calendar view show you are using the calendar display like using the gantt display? Or are you trying to combine either task and/or resource calendars for multiple resources?

How are the assignments shown to depict vacations? Or do you use separate tasks for vacations? How do you define when an employee plans a vacation?

Could you define what you mean by availability.

You said “Further, this is a long project so it produced many pages” so how do you plan on filtering the data to get the results you need?

After opening the calendar, why not just apply a filter so you can get the data you need?

Reply | Quote

You a right, I am trying to combine the vacations and availabilities of several resources in one calendar view.
May be this is simpler than I think, but I don’t know how to do it. Here is the way I am arranging the files

I have a common file called Resources shared by several project files.
In the project calendar , all the company vacation/ holidays are recorded.
For each resource, I go to the Working Time tab and I enter their respective vacation days or half-days.
For a long-term absence, or when people are not available for the project, I enter the unavailability dates under Resource Availability.

To filter the Gantt chart, I use the filter from Project, Filtered for, Data Range and I print only the range of dates I am interested in in Print Setup.

Note: The calendar view of the Resource file is empty.

Thanks

Reply | Quote

We are getting closer but we are not there yet.

In the project calendar, you said you are inputting company vacation and holidays. I can understand the holidays, however, does everyone have the same vacation time? How do you account for personnel that take a week off when required. If you put this in the project calendar, then the non-working time would apply to everyone.

Wouldn’t you want to put planned vacations as non-working time in the resource calendar or are you already doing this and I just didn’t understand the post. To really do this you would need to setup a standard project calendar that stores all company holidays and days off that apply to everyone. If you want to track independent resource vacations then each resource would need their own resource calendar and these calendars would need to be maintained.

Your comment that the calendar view of the resource file is empty leads me to believe that you are not using specific resource calendars.

Are we getting any closer?

Reply | Quote

Gary

I am doing exactly what you are saying. The company vacation and holidays are in the project calendar and the
non-working time is in each resource calendar.
Now, I would like to combine all resource calendars in one view so that the whole team knows who is absent when and not only me.

Reply | Quote

Well you stumped me in trying to do this with the calendar view. You could use the resource usage report to see all times when resources are available and not available, but as you said, this is a lot of data.

One other option, although more manual, is to export the data to a file format that can be open via excel and then you could filter out all but zero’s to see when people are not available.

That’s the best I can think of for now. Please post back and let us know how you accomplished what you are trying to achieve.

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the suggestion..
I will take me sometime but I will let you know what I come up with

Reply | Quote

Have you tried using one of the Calendar reports? This would give you a simplified of all of your resource calendars

Reply | Quote

Yes I tried but could not get what I want. The various calendar reports show who is doing what , while I am trying to combine all the vacation calendars in one.
Returning to the suggestion of exporting the project file to Excel, I tried to export the data base but none of the maps gave me what I want.
It is really strange. I could not see where Project stores the information in the individual calendar of each resource.

Reply | Quote

Have you tried creating a specific mapping file to export data?

Reply | Quote

Have you tried creating a specific mapping file to export data?

Reply | Quote

Yes I tried but could not get what I want. The various calendar reports show who is doing what , while I am trying to combine all the vacation calendars in one.
Returning to the suggestion of exporting the project file to Excel, I tried to export the data base but none of the maps gave me what I want.
It is really strange. I could not see where Project stores the information in the individual calendar of each resource.

Reply | Quote

Which report are you suggesting? Also – how would you show when resources are not being used as opposed to when they are being used?

Reply | Quote

Hi Gary,

To create the report I use to print Calendar information for all Resources in a simple printed format:

Select View – Reports
Select the Custom catagory
From the reports dialog box select the New command button
In the New dialog box select Resources as the type of report
Select the Calendar check box from the Resource detail section
Report needs some cleaning up in regards to formatting, but will give all resource calendar details.

Carla

Reply | Quote

Thanks a lot.
How can I export that report to an Excel sheet?

Reply | Quote

Mostafa,

There is not a way that I know to export Project Reports. For the purpose of sending Project reports to others to view that don’t have Project software I have used Ghost View:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
a free download that provides a report viewer. There is another product called Cute Writer that does the same thing, I have not used it myself, but know others that have.

There are Administrative reports with Project Server software for displaying Resource non-working time in a report or Project file, I believe Project Central, the collaborative product for Project 2000 also had some similar options.

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the hint.
I concluded from this exchange to make an Excel sheet with the Project calendar information for all the resources.
Thanks for the help again

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the hint.
I concluded from this exchange to make an Excel sheet with the Project calendar information for all the resources.
Thanks for the help again

Reply | Quote

Carla,

Thanks for the tips and advice.

Reply | Quote

Carla,

Thanks for the tips and advice.

Reply | Quote

Mostafa,

There is not a way that I know to export Project Reports. For the purpose of sending Project reports to others to view that don’t have Project software I have used Ghost View:
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/
a free download that provides a report viewer. There is another product called Cute Writer that does the same thing, I have not used it myself, but know others that have.

There are Administrative reports with Project Server software for displaying Resource non-working time in a report or Project file, I believe Project Central, the collaborative product for Project 2000 also had some similar options.

Reply | Quote

Thanks a lot.
How can I export that report to an Excel sheet?

Reply | Quote

Hi Gary,

To create the report I use to print Calendar information for all Resources in a simple printed format:

Select View – Reports
Select the Custom catagory
From the reports dialog box select the New command button
In the New dialog box select Resources as the type of report
Select the Calendar check box from the Resource detail section
Report needs some cleaning up in regards to formatting, but will give all resource calendar details.

Carla

Reply | Quote

Which report are you suggesting? Also – how would you show when resources are not being used as opposed to when they are being used?

Reply | Quote

Have you tried using one of the Calendar reports? This would give you a simplified of all of your resource calendars

Reply | Quote

Thanks for the suggestion..
I will take me sometime but I will let you know what I come up with

Reply | Quote

Well you stumped me in trying to do this with the calendar view. You could use the resource usage report to see all times when resources are available and not available, but as you said, this is a lot of data.

One other option, although more manual, is to export the data to a file format that can be open via excel and then you could filter out all but zero’s to see when people are not available.

That’s the best I can think of for now. Please post back and let us know how you accomplished what you are trying to achieve.

Reply | Quote

Gary

I am doing exactly what you are saying. The company vacation and holidays are in the project calendar and the
non-working time is in each resource calendar.
Now, I would like to combine all resource calendars in one view so that the whole team knows who is absent when and not only me.

Reply | Quote

We are getting closer but we are not there yet.

In the project calendar, you said you are inputting company vacation and holidays. I can understand the holidays, however, does everyone have the same vacation time? How do you account for personnel that take a week off when required. If you put this in the project calendar, then the non-working time would apply to everyone.

Wouldn’t you want to put planned vacations as non-working time in the resource calendar or are you already doing this and I just didn’t understand the post. To really do this you would need to setup a standard project calendar that stores all company holidays and days off that apply to everyone. If you want to track independent resource vacations then each resource would need their own resource calendar and these calendars would need to be maintained.

Your comment that the calendar view of the resource file is empty leads me to believe that you are not using specific resource calendars.

Are we getting any closer?

Reply | Quote

You a right, I am trying to combine the vacations and availabilities of several resources in one calendar view.
May be this is simpler than I think, but I don’t know how to do it. Here is the way I am arranging the files

I have a common file called Resources shared by several project files.
In the project calendar , all the company vacation/ holidays are recorded.
For each resource, I go to the Working Time tab and I enter their respective vacation days or half-days.
For a long-term absence, or when people are not available for the project, I enter the unavailability dates under Resource Availability.

To filter the Gantt chart, I use the filter from Project, Filtered for, Data Range and I print only the range of dates I am interested in in Print Setup.

Note: The calendar view of the Resource file is empty.

Thanks

Reply | Quote

I just need to better understand what you are trying to do. Do you mean you are tyring to show several resources vacations / availabilities on one calendar view show you are using the calendar display like using the gantt display? Or are you trying to combine either task and/or resource calendars for multiple resources?

How are the assignments shown to depict vacations? Or do you use separate tasks for vacations? How do you define when an employee plans a vacation?

Could you define what you mean by availability.

You said “Further, this is a long project so it produced many pages” so how do you plan on filtering the data to get the results you need?

After opening the calendar, why not just apply a filter so you can get the data you need?

Reply | Quote