Sharing Microsoft Project schedules: Customizing templates
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DiggIn Part 3 of this series, we show you how to give the online versions of your Microsoft Project schedules a custom look. (In Part 2, Sharing Microsoft Project schedules: Modifying templates, we showed you how to tweak the maps, or templates, that are used to create schedules.)
You can customize the appearance of your construction schedule by modifying some of the pre-designed templates that came with Microsoft Project. After opening a template, you can save it with a new name, modify the HTML code and then apply the template in the Map Options dialog to any schedule you create.
First, open up a text editor like Notepad and choose File > Open. You can find the templates that came with Project in this path: \Program\ Files\Microsoft Office\Templates\1033\Microsoft Project Web. Once you find the templates, choose the one named Centered Mist.html. This is for illustrative purposes, only since you could choose any of the pre-designed templates to base your modified template upon.
Click File > Save As and save the file with a new name. That way you won't mess up the original.
Let’s start by changing the background color of your Microsoft Project schedule to a background graphic. The background graphic requires a GIF image.
Unless you know the GIF file you want to use for your background, you need to do a little exploring. Check under Program Files\Microsoft Office\ and begin opening folders until you find the folder labeled Bitmaps. On some systems it may be under the ART folder; on others it may be under the Office 10 folder, and it may be under another folder on other systems. (You could also use Start > Search and enter that folder name in the document name box to do a system-wide search for it.)
Once you find the Bitmaps folder, if there are no GIF files in it, then there may be an additional folder named Styles. Open that folder and Select the file named ACBLUPRT.GIF.
Copy that file to the same folder where you just saved the re-named Centered Mist.html file.
Find this Comment:
<!-- ******* BACKGROUND, LINK, AND FONT COLORS ******* -->
Change the beginning of the next line of code to read:
<BODY BACKGROUND="ACBLUPRT.GIF" TEXT="#336666" LINK="#336666"
Now, we also need to make some changes to the text color of the Start and Finish dates and the Page Title so they will show up better with the new background. To make the dates more visible, modify the following line as such:
<!-- ******* START AND FINISH DATE ******* -->
ORIGINAL <FONT COLOR="#D6E0E0" SIZE="2" FACE="Arial">
NEW <FONT COLOR="#3333CC" SIZE="2" FACE="Arial">
Then, to make the Title more visible modify this line as such:
<!-- ******* TASK TABLE TITLE ******* -->
ORIGINAL <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#D6E0E0" FACE="Arial Narrow">
NEW <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#3333CC" FACE="Arial Narrow">
If you want to find the codes for other colors, then you can search the internet using the term "hex colors" and you will get page sources such as Safe Hexadecimal Color Codes.
While you are at it, you may have noticed that, when you use these pre-designed templates, there will be some links to Microsoft that show up at the bottom of the page. You may rather have links there that relate to your business and the particular project. Suppose you want to have a link to your home page and an email link so someone can easily send an email to the project manager from this page.
Here’s how to do it.
At the bottom of the page find the comment:
<!-- ******* MICROSOFT LINKS ******* -->
Then, make these changes where the code between the quotes (") is your business Web page address and an email address of your choice. The text between the < > becomes the text you want to use to describe the links.
<A HREF="http://www.HappyHomeBuilders.com/">Happy Home Builders</A>
<BR>
<A HREF="mailto:chet@happyhomebuilders.com”>Send Mail to Project Manager</A>
There is another modification to consider. When your document is open in a browser window, the Title Bar will read as "Microsoft Project Exported Information." You can change this to a title of your choice by changing the text between the TITLE tags.
<TITLE>Microsoft Project Exported Information</TITLE>
<TITLE>Happy Home Builders</TITLE>
Now, save the template. The next time you want to have the HTML rendering of your project schedule incorporate these custom attributes, just select the checkmark next to "Base Export on HTML Template" when you are at the Map Options dialog box and use the browse function to select it. Below is an example of how some of these changes render.
With imagination and a good knowledge of HTML there are many more changes you can make to the templates. Plus the ability to customize maps gives you some powerful options for displaying exactly what you want to display. Between the two, the Microsoft Project Standard 2003 schedules you create can become a cornerstone for communicating via the Web with your team.
Company Overview
BuildIT Systems was founded in 2000 by "stressed-out contractors" who sought a better way to organize and share key construction scheduling information. The company's Web-based system, called BuildIT, is now used by contractors throughout North America, as well as their subcontractors, suppliers and clients.
Toll Free: 866-585-5050
Web: builditsystems.com