Formatting rolled up milestones

[shm75]

I've set up a master project and inserted links to a number of subprojects (I've linked them, and inserted as read only). I want to highlight 3 key dates from each of the subprojects so expanded them, selected the relevant tasks and rolled them up to the summary bar. I want to colour code these so selected them individually, clicked Format Bar and changed the fill and colour. This works perfectly on some of them, but not on others. On the ones that don't work, the Sample box shows the formatting the way I want it, but when I click OK the Gantt chart doesn't change.

Can anyone help with this? I'm setting these up the same way, and can't understand why it doesn't always work. Thanks.

 

[JulieInMaine]

I'm not sure what version of Project you are suing - but it's possible that the formatting has gotten 'stuck'. Try selecting one of the tasks that is not working - Format Bar and click the Reset button to remove any existing formats. Click OK and try again.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Sorry s/b "what version of Project you are using.....

 

[shm75]

Sorry, I should have said - it's Project Standard 2013.
I've tried resetting the formatting, but it doesn't help.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Anything different between the tasks? Manually versus automatically scheduled? I cannot come up with why it works on some and not on others. Have you applied the formatting in the individual files or just the master project?

 

[shm75]

The tasks have all been set up from a template, so are all scheduled the same. I'm doing the formatting in the master project.

 

[JulieInMaine]

So it's 3 tasks per project. How many projects are you inserting in the master? Is there any consistency in which ones fail? First, last, middle? If you create a new master project doe the same ones fail or does it appear to be random?

 

[JulieInMaine]

Just to confirm, you are changing all 3 pieces of the milestone bar - start middle and end, yes?

 

[shm75]

I have links to 47 projects. There doesn't seem to be any pattern to which ones aren't working. This is my second attempt at setting this up, and some that didn't work last time are now working - but only the first 8 in the master project and after that I get the same problem.

 

[shm75]

In the original projects that I am linking to in the master, there is a summary task made up of 14 subtasks. I have set milestones to show when 3 key tasks are complete. In the master project, I have rolled these up and want to show the first as red, the second as orange and the third as green.

 

[JulieInMaine]

I am not able to repro this - I am running Project 2013 Pro with the June Cumulative update installed. To make life easier, I have added the rollup field to the master project. Initially I set all tasks to "no" and then just set the inserted summary tasks to yes plus the milestones I wanted to roll up. Does flipping the roll up to no and back to yes seem to trigger things?

 

[JulieInMaine]

Instead of formatting each milestone individually, consider using Flag fields (you'll need 3) and creating a bar style for each one of the types of milestones. Using the Format Bar command cut/paste the "Rolled Up Milestone" bar style to create as many new bars styles as you need - based upon your comment - I'm guessing three. Add the 3 flag fields and set the field to "yes" for each one of your three milestone types. then edit the pasted bar styles to include the appropriate flag in the "show for...." section.

 

[shm75]

Ok, I'll try that, thanks

 

[shm75]

That works perfectly - thanks so much for your help.

 

[JulieInMaine]

Great. Glad to know the bar styles worked for you and thank you for the feedback.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

Thanks Julie, great reply and I've been using this technique now for about 4 yrs for our company. In fact I setup various types of milestones with the flags which have unique formatting which appears on the legend and helps our customer understand what they mean, which they're used to now. I too use a master with project consolidation for linking our major milestones & deliverables.

We just upgraded to 2010 (takes us forever to move to the next version) and am curious what 2013 offers over 2010. I know the Timeline View of 2010 fell short on many levels with formatting. As explained to me formatting the timeline view fell into PowerPoints territory so they have an agreement.

 

[JulieInMaine]

The primary difference between 2010 and 2013 is the reports. They have done some very nice work with dashboard type reports that make for lovely presentation. That and the ability to trace a tasks predecessors and successors is a biggy in my opinion.

 

[AerospaceBrett]

That's good to hear, especially the pred/succ tracing, that's long overdue.