Editing a Project in Microsoft Project

There are several guidelines for editing a project in Microsoft Project and exchanging the information with OpenAir.

• Server use — Always use the same OpenAir server after editing a project. While you may have a test account and a production account, push or pull the OpenAir project to or from that same server account after editing. Never update projects and push and pull them across multiple OpenAir servers because each server may assign a different internal ID to the same task.

• Drag and drop — Always use drag and drop when editing tasks in Microsoft Project. If you cut and paste tasks from one place to another in a project, the information OpenAir uses to identify a task can become corrupted.

• Copy and paste — It is a limitation of Projects Connector that when you copy and paste tasks from another project, you may get an error message in OpenAir. We recommend that you if you copy and paste tasks from one project to another, do not paste into the initial phase on the project list. Create a new phase and paste into that one. See FAQ: Push and Pull Projects

• Fixed units task type — Remember that OpenAir treats all task types as fixed units task types. So, to maintain project compatibility, we recommend using only the fixed units task type. Refer to Application Differences for more information.

• Deleting a task — Ensure that a task does not have OpenAir transactions associated with it before you delete it in Microsoft Project. If OpenAir does not allow you to delete a task, do not do it in Microsoft Project. While the task will be removed from the Microsoft Project file, it cannot be removed from OpenAir due to its association with invoicing, billing, or timesheets.

• No overwrite — Create a new project file when you pull a project from OpenAir to Microsoft Project. Do not overwrite an existing project file. When the file in OpenAir is locked, the new project file is automatically associated with the project it was pulled from in OpenAir. Make changes in Microsoft Project and push it back to the same project in OpenAir.