MSP 2007 -- HowTo Freeze Task Dates in an MPP file 2

[Jackson920]

Hi:
I've got a resource loaded schedule in MSP 2007. I have been sending my client the schedule as a PDF, because I don't want them to see assigned resources or work. I just want them to see Task ID, Name, Start, Finish, Predecessor and Successor fields. They are insisting on getting the MPP, so they can do what-if scenarios. My question is how can I freeze the dates in the schedule, so that when I remove work and resources, the dates don't change? Does anyone have any recommendation what the best way to do that is?

Thanks,
David

 

[johnherman]

You can assign a Must Start On constraint for each task, and then a fixed duration. That will "fix" the start date and duration. It will have to be a special version of the MPP because it won't do resource loading and balancing after you fix the start date and duration.

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[Jackson920]

Thanks John: I was experimenting with this last night and did exactly that, but I was getting strange errors on some tasks with the must start on, so I switched to start no earlier than. I also added two date fields and copied the start and finish dates into these date fields before I made any changes. Then I could do a compare Date1 does not equal [Start] and fix anything that had changed. It's a good enough solution.

Ideally, it would be nice if I could lock the resource and work columns, so that they weren't viewable and then I could just send them the file without the above manipulations. There is no version of MSP that has that capability, is there?

Thanks again for your answer!

Regards,
David

 

[johnherman]

As far as I know, if you give them the MPP, you give them the ability to see and change those fields. Julie is the MVP here, and she may know a way to protect those columns in some way, so hopefully she stops by and takes a look at this thread.

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[Jackson920]

ok, thanks John. If MSP2010 has a function to lock columns so they couldn't see it, I have access to that version too.

 

[JulieInMaine]

John is correct. If you give someone an mpp file, they can change any field, see all data. There is no version of Microsoft Project that allows for the locking of fields. Sorry.