Create or modify a custom field

You can create or modify custom fields within Microsoft Office Project Web Access and add these fields to your projects.

You can also apply lists (or attributes) to custom fields that help create the values that team members see and use. These attributes are derived from:

• Lookup tables     These tables contain predefined values that, after they are created, can be picked from a list by team members when they add a custom field to their project plans.

• Formulas     Formulas can be used to generate field values by calculating multiple fields and functions.

What do you want to do?

Create or modify a custom field

Create or modify a lookup table

Create a formula for a custom field

Create or modify a custom field

1. On the Quick Launch, click Server Settings.

2. On the Server Settings page, click Enterprise Custom Field Definition.

3. To create a new field, click New Field.

   To modify a field, select the field that you want to modify by clicking the field name in the table.

4. On the New Custom Field page (or Edit Custom Field page if you are modifying an existing field), type a name for the field in the Name box.

5. In the Entity and Type section, in the Entity list, click Project, Resource, or Task, and then in the Type list, click the field type.

6. In the Custom Attributes section, indicate if the field has an associated lookup table of predefined values. If you want to create or modify a lookup table, see Create or modify a lookup table.

7. To create a formula that generates a value for the custom field, select Formula in the Custom Attributes section and then type the equation for the formula.

   For example, the following formula returns a value of "No baseline," "Overbudget by 20% or more," or "Under budget":

Switch(Len(CStr([Baseline Finish]))<3, "No baseline", ([Cost]+1)/ ([Baseline Cost]+1)>1.2,"Overbudget by 20% or more", ([Cost]+1)/([Baseline Cost]+1)>1, "Overbudget",True,"Under budget")

1. To display field values as the type of data or text to display that you selected in the Entity and Type section, in the Values to Display section, select Data.

2. To display graphical indicators instead of data, in the Values to Display section, select Graphical indicators.

   • In the Criteria for list, click Summary rows, Non-summary rows, or Project summary to specify for which type of information you want to display graphical indicators.

   • To further refine which type of information you want to display with graphical indicators, in the grid, select a test, a field value to test against, and the image to be displayed for the graphical indicator.

   • Select the Show data values in ToolTips check box if you want to display the field value as a ScreenTip.

3. In the Required section, select Yes or No to indicate if users are required to enter data into this field. For example, you can display a red button image if the value in a cost field exceeds the budget.

4. Click Save.

Note: If you use a graphical indicator to define the field's value, Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 opens when you click Save in order to verify the graphical indicators or the functions within the formula. Close Office Project Professional 2007 when you finish creating or modifying the field. You don't have to make any further customizations within Project Professional to the custom field that you created in Project Web Access.

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Create or modify a lookup table

1. On the Quick Launch, click Server Settings.

2. On the Server Settings page, click Enterprise Custom Field Definition.

3. To create a new lookup table, click New Lookup Table.

   To modify an existing lookup table, click its name in the Lookup Tables for Custom Fields table.

4. On the New Lookup Table page (or Edit Lookup Table page if you are modifying an existing lookup table), type a name for the lookup table in the Name box.

5. In the Type section, select the type of project information that you want to use in the lookup table.

6. In the Code Mask section, specify the numeric or alphabetic structure of each value in the lookup table.

   For example, if you want the values in the lookup table to contain two letters followed by three numbers in a hierarchical structure, then in the first row of the code mask table, click Characters, type 2 to indicate the number of characters, and then type a period to use as a separator between the values. In the second row, click Numbers, type 3, and then type a separator for the second portion of the lookup table value.

   Tip: The structure of your lookup field codes is displayed in the Code Preview box.

7. In the Lookup Table section, type the values in the table and create a hierarchical relationship between each value. These values must conform to the code mask definition that is specified in the Code Mask section. These are the values from which the users can select when they enter data into the custom fields. To help create the value's hierarchical relationship, click the buttons on the toolbar above the table:

   • To specify a hierarchical relationship, select the row that contains the value that you want to indent, and then click Indent .

   • To create a new row, click Insert Row .

     To continue the example above, if you want the values for the lookup table to contain two letters followed by three numbers in a hierarchical structure, in the first row of the lookup table values, type the first two-letter character value. In the second, third, and fourth rows, type the three-digit numbers that are related hierarchically to the first row, and then indent each under the first row. In the fifth row, type the value for the second two-letter character value, and so on.

     Tip: If your administrator has installed the Infrastructure Update for Microsoft Office Servers, in the Lookup Table section, you can click Export to Excel or Print to perform the corresponding actions on the data in the table.

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Create a formula for a custom field

1. On the Quick Launch, click Server Settings.

2. On the Server Settings page, click Enterprise Custom Field Definition.

3. Click the name of the field for which you want to associate a formula, or click New Field.

4. On the New Custom Field page (or Edit Custom Field page if you are modifying an existing formula), in the Custom Attributes section, click Formula.

5. To help you build a function, click Pick Function. In the list of functions, click a function category, and then click the function that you want to use.

   The function appears in the box.

6. To further develop the function, click Pick Operator, and then click an operator. The operator is added to the formula.

   Keep the following in mind as you build a formula:

   • Enclose Project fields in square brackets. For example, this formula [Name]&"."&[Project] will return a value that includes the name of the task followed by the name of the project with a period (.) between the two names, in the form TaskName.ProjectName.

   • A formula can contain up to 29 levels (nests) of functions.

7. Click Save to save the field with the associated formula.

Note: When you click Save, Microsoft Office Project Professional 2007 opens in order to verify the functions within the formula. Close Office Project Professional 2007 when you finish creating or modifying the field. You don't need to save any changes within Project Professional, since Project is being used only to verify the formula.

Why can't I perform some actions in Project Web Access?

Depending on the permissions settings you used to log on to Project Web Access, you may not be able to see or use certain features. Also, what you see on some pages may differ from what is documented if your server administrator customized Project Web Access and did not customize the Help to match.

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