Refresh a schedule when the spreadsheet changes

A Milestones schedule generated from a spreadsheet can be updated when the spreadsheet changes.  The following steps are necessary to have the Milestones schedule tagged so that it then can be refreshed, when the spreadsheet changes.

Spreadsheet and Import Steps Necessary for Refresh

1. The first row of data placed on the Clipboard must be a row of column headings which will be used as the tag names for symbols, columns, and cells.
2. To refresh a spreadsheet a Unique ID field (see pg 12-11) must be in the spreadsheet.
3. During the initial import of the spreadsheet, in the Import Custom Format dialog,   Tag Imported data.
4. The UniqueID field from the spreadsheet must be mapped to the Milestones UniqueID field.

When a schedule is created from a spreadsheet using Milestones Professional's Smart Import from Clipboard, the symbols, columns and cells will be tagged.

Refresh from Spreadsheet

The tagged imported Milestones schedule can be Refreshed when the spreadsheet changes.

1. Open the changed spreadsheet, highlight and copy the spreadsheet cells.
2. Choose Connections | Excel | Import/Update from Excel | Refresh from Clipboard.  The Refresh from Clipboard dialog displays.
3.  Refresh Using:  Select the drop down arrow, all column headings from the spreadsheet copy will display in the menu.  The column containing the Unique ID’s must be chosen to have the refresh work.
   •  Symbol Text and  Symbol Notes: Symbol text and notes can be added to the schedule from column information in the spreadsheet upon Refresh.  First the symbols on the imported Milestones schedule need to be manually tagged with the spreadsheet column headings.  Then by checking on the option Refresh Symbol Text and/or Refresh Symbol Notes the symbols that were manually tagged will display the text upon Refresh. Here is the tag format to manually tag the symbols.  Substitute different column headings for any or all bold fields (no spaces and all commas are necessary to delineate fields).

   • Unique Identifier,Date Field,Symbol Text Line 1,Symbol Text Line 2,Symbol Text Line 3,Symbol Note

     ACTUAL TAG EXAMPLE: abc3,start,Task,,,Resource

     Unique Identifier task numbered abc3, the Date field is for the Start symbol, Symbol Text Line 1 is information from the spreadsheet Task column, nothing is imported into Symbol Text Line 2 and 3, Symbol Note is information from the Spreadsheet Resource column.

   • Percent Complete

     1.  Refresh Percent Complete.   Select the column from the spreadsheet that contains the percent complete value.  Milestones’ symbols and/or horizontal bars will fill to status based on the value.

   •  Update individual bars & symbols.  Use this option if multiple task are on a single task row in the Milestones schedule.

   •  Refresh tagged columns. Use this to update tje columns on the Milestones chart with informaiton from the spreacsheet. 

   •  Highlight changed dates.   Use this to highlight any dates which were changed. Once highlighted,  toggle the display on and off using  Connections | Other | Refresh Highlighting.

   •  Automatically recompute Date Range. Use this to change the schedule's date range based on dates in the Excel spreadsheet. 

4. Once all refresh options are selected choose OK. The Milestones schedule will update and a dialog box displays showing update information.

When changing your spreadsheet never alter the column headings or the Unique Id of a task that has already been imported.  The copied spreadsheet data must include the Unique ID column and all original columns with their original headings for successful refresh of the Milestones schedule.