Modify Many Work Items at a Time
You can modify multiple work items at the same time, a process known as bulk editing, when you use Team Web Access, Office Excel, or Office Project. In Team Explorer, you can modify the link relationships of multiple work items through the query results view. For more information, see View and Modify Work Items in a Tree View and View and Modify Work Items in a Direct Links View.
In this topic
Modifying Multiple Work Items by using Team Web Access
Modifying Multiple Work Items by using Office Excel
Modifying Multiple Work Items by using Office Project
Required Permissions
To perform these procedures, you must be a member of the Contributors group or have your View work items in this node, and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.
Modifying Multiple Work Items by using Team Web Access
To modify multiple work items at the same time in Team Web Access
In Team Web Access, view a list of work item query results that contains the work items that you want to modify.
In the query results list, hold down CTRL, and then click all work items that you want to modify.
Click Bulk Edit and then click Edit Work Items.
In the Edit Multiple Work Items dialog box, click the arrow next to the first field on the left.
On the list that appears, click the name of a Team Foundation field that contains values that you want to modify.
In the field on the right, type or select the information that you want to appear in that field for all the work items that you are modifying.
(Optional) If you want to change another field in all the selected work items, click the plus symbol (+) or click Click to add a new field, and select appropriate information for the additional field.
Click Start.
A list of work items appears in the lower pane of the dialog box. The icon next to each work item indicates whether the bulk edit succeeded or failed on that work item.
If the bulk editing process fails on a work item, in the Work Item Description column, click the link to open the work item, and then fix the error.
When you have finished modifying work items, click Close.
Modifying Multiple Work Items by using Office Excel
To modify multiple work items at a time in Office Excel
Open or create a work item list in Office Excel.
(Optional) If you reopen a work item list, on the Team tab, in the Work Items group, click Refresh.
This step helps guarantee that the work item list has the most current information.
To modify a field that does not appear in the worksheet, add a column to the worksheet by following these steps:
On the Team tab, in the Work Items group, click Choose Columns.
In the Choose Columns dialog box, for each column that you want to add, select the column and then click > (Add).
Use the editing features in Office Excel to change the values for multiple cells.
For example, you can copy the contents of a cell, select a group of cells, and paste the information into all the selected cells.
For more information about how to modify cells in a worksheet, see topics about how to enter and edit data in the Office Excel Help.
On the Team tab, in the Work Items group, click Publish.
If a publishing error occurs, see Working in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project Connected to Team Foundation Server.
(Optional) Save the Office Excel worksheet.
Modifying Multiple Work Items by using Office Project
To modify multiple work items at a time in Office Project
Open or create a work item list in Office Project.
(Optional) If you reopen a work item list, on the Team tab, in the Work Items group, click Refresh.
This step helps make sure that the work item list has the most current information.
On the View menu, click Team System Task Sheet.
The Team Foundation Task Sheet view shows all fields that are exchanged between Office Project and Team Foundation.
Use the editing features in Office Project to change the values for multiple cells.
For example, you can copy the contents of a cell, select a group of cells, and paste the information into all the selected cells.
For more information about how to modify cells in a worksheet, see topics about how to enter and edit data in the Office Project Help.
Review the work items and determine whether there are work items whose data that you do not want to publish. In the Publish and Refresh column, click one of the following options:
No disables both publishing and refreshing
Refresh only enables refreshing but not publishing
Yes enables both publishing and refreshing
Note
Certain fields, for example, a date-calculated field, may be customized so that it is published but not refreshed, even when the Publish and Refresh column for the work item is set to Yes. For more information, see Quick Tips and Operational Differences when Tracking Tasks Using Microsoft Project and Team Foundation and The Microsoft Project Field Mapping File.
For more information, see Publish or Refresh Work Items in Office Project.
On the Team menu, click Publish Changes.
If a publishing error occurs, see Working in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project Connected to Team Foundation Server.
Save the Office Project plan.
Note
An Office Project plan stores information that Team Foundation does not. You should save your Office Project plan to preserve the information that Team Foundation does not store. For more information about how Office Project and Team Foundation manage scheduling data, see Quick Tips and Operational Differences when Tracking Tasks Using Microsoft Project and Team Foundation.
See Also
Tasks
View and Modify Work Items in a Tree View
Create, Open, and Modify Work Items Using Office Excel
Concepts
Working with Team Foundation Clients
Other Resources
Work Items and Workflow (Agile)