How to: Create a View in Microsoft Project

You can set up views in Microsoft Project to provide a visual representation of project data that is useful in tracking your project. For example, you can have a view that helps you track the progress, or a view that shows you how your team resources are being used. Besides the views available in Microsoft Project, Team Foundation provides two additional views for tracking your team projects.

• Team System Gantt   The Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Gantt view contains the same fields as the Microsoft Project Gantt view together with a set of key Team Foundation fields.

• Team System Task Sheet   The Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Task Sheet view contains the set of all fields that are being transferred back and forth between Microsoft Project and Team Foundation Server.

For more information about these views and a list of key fields, see Microsoft Project Work Item Views.

Required Permissions

To perform these procedures, you must be a member of the Readers group or have the View work items in this node permission set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Creating New Views

You can create additional views to customize how you want to display and enter project data. Views are composed from components that include tables, filters, and groups. You have to select which components to use when you create a new view. The following procedure shows how to create a new single view.

To create a new view

1. On the View menu, click More Views.

2. In the More Views dialog box, click New.

3. In the Define New View dialog box, click Single View, and then click OK.

4. In the View Definition in '<name>' dialog box, in the Name box, enter the name for the new view.

5. In the Screen drop-down list, select the desired screen.

6. If the screen you selected requires a table, select the desired table in the Table drop-down list.

7. In the Group drop-down list, select how you want to group the data. If you do not want a group, select No Group.

8. In the Filter drop-down list, select how you want to filter the data. If you do not want a filter, select All Tasks.

9. Select the Highlight filter check box if you want to format tasks or resources that meet the filter criteria in a different way from the other tasks or resources.

10. Select the Show in menu check box if you want the view to appear on the View menu.

11. Click OK.

12. Click Close.

You can also copy views. This is useful if you want to begin with an existing view definition such as Team System Gantt. Then you can change the group, filter, or other attributes to define a new view.

To copy a view

1. On the View menu, click More Views.

2. In the More Views dialog box, select the view you want to copy, and click Copy.

3. In the View Definition in '<name>' dialog box, in the Name box, enter the name for the new view.

4. Complete the rest of the dialog box as needed, and click OK.

Sharing Views

You may want to share views across projects so that you do not have to re-create the same view for each project file. The following procedure shows how to share a view by copying it to the global.mpt file.

To share a view

1. On the Tools menu, click Organizer.

2. Select the Views tab.

3. Select the view that you created, and click Copy.

   The view will be copied to the Global.MPT file.

4. Click Close.

Creating New Tables

Tables are components that you can use in views. Team Explorer includes the following tables.

• Team Explorer Tracking   Use this table to display the columns you see in the Team System Gantt view.

• Team Explorer Full   Use this table to display the columns you see in the Team System Task Sheet view.

Before you create a new table, you should view the Team Explorer Full table. This table shows all the columns that are often used when you work with Team Foundation. The tables are available from the View menu. You should also note which columns are mapped to Team Foundation Server. For more information, see How to: View the Microsoft Project Column Mappings.

To create a new table

1. On the View menu, select Table:<Table Name>, and then select More Tables.

2. In the More Tables dialog box, click New.

3. In the Table Definition in '<name>' dialog box, in the Name box, enter the name for the new table.

4. Click in the Field Name column to select fields to display in the table.

5. For each field you want, select the field name from the drop-down list in the Field Name column.

6. For each field, specify additional settings as needed:

   1. In the Align Data column, specify how the data should be aligned when it is displayed.

   2. In the Width column, specify the width of the column.

   3. In the Title column, enter the name of the column heading if you want it to be different from the field name.

   4. In the Align Title column, specify how the title should be aligned.

   5. In the Header Wrapping column, specify whether the column heading can wrap to multiple lines, or if it should be truncated when it exceeds the column width.

7. After you define your table, click OK. Then click Close to close the More Tables dialog box.

You can also copy tables. This is useful if you want to begin with an existing table definition such as Team Explorer Tracking. Then you can add, remove, or modify the fields to define a new table.

To copy a table

1. On the View menu, select Table:<Table Name>, and then select More Tables.

2. In the More Tables dialog box, select the table to copy, and click Copy.

3. In the Table Definition in '<name>' dialog box, in the Name box, enter the name for the new table.

4. Complete the rest of the dialog box as needed, and click OK.

See Also

Concepts

Microsoft Project Work Item Views

Tracking Team Projects in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project