Customize Project Web Access Features


Would most likely be used by administrators.

OverviewA number of items within Project Web Access (PWA) can be customized by the administrator to allow organization of specific requirements for the Web access client interface to be put into place. These include:

IMPORTANT FEATURES  (scroll to view content, or click link to go directly to content)


OTHER USEFUL FEATURES   (scroll to view content, or click link to go directly to content)

A1. Establish Timesheet View Defaults;  Locking Down Periods for No Entry  KEY

Your team members will access Project Web Access, view their timesheet information of assignments across one or more projects, and enter actuals of wok completed.

You can specify a number of default tracking and timesheet settings for Project Server for all users of Project Web Access and Microsoft Office Project Professional 2003, including:

  • Identifying the methods (and enforcing the methods) that users have available to them when reporting their time worked on project tasks using the Project Web Access timesheet.

  • Defining the time period for reporting that is available in the timesheet.

  • Specifying how often resources can enter tracking information.

  • Setting how early upcoming tasks appear in the timesheet.

You might want to work with project managers and the requirements of he organization to decide on the most appropriate default tracking method. We say "default" because even after establishing it you might also allow project managers to a different tracking method on their own.

 

To Use:
If necessary, in the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Customize Project Web Access. In the side pane, under Customization options, click Tracking settings.

 


Specifying the Default Tracking Settings for Project Plans
You can identify the methods (and enforcing the methods) that users have available to them when reporting their time worked on project tasks using the Project Web Access timesheet. You can track progress in projects in three ways in Project Server: by percent complete, by actual work, or by hours of work.

On the Tracking settings page, under Specify the default method for reporting progress on tasks, choose the default tracking method:

  • To track progress based on a percentage of total work completed between 0 and 100%, click 'Percent of work complete.'

    •  E.g. a user enters that their assignment on the task is 50% or 100% complete. This is the least restrictive and least time-consuming tracking method. The Timesheet includes a field that team members use to update how far along they are with their assignments.

  • To track projects based on how much work is completed compared to how much work remains, click 'Actual work done and work remaining.'

    •  This tracking method provides a medium level of detail. The Timesheet includes fields for total actual work and remaining work for each assignment. Team members enter those total amounts for each progress update requested. E.g. out of 40 hours of work scheduled on the entire task (i.e. without a breakdown per day or week) the team member enters that 24 hours have been completed.

  • To have resources enter hours worked (daily and weekly), click 'Hours of work done per day or per week' based on a time period you set. (This option is required if you want to use the timesheet lockdown feature.)  This is the most detailed tracking method. The Timesheet includes a field for each time period, either days or weeks, for the duration of the project. Team members enter the number of hours worked per day or per week and submit those with each progress update. E.g. out of 8 hours of work scheduled on the task for a single day a team member enters 8 hours of work are complete. (Or out of 40 hors for the week, 24 are entered, in which case the work will be distributed across the appropriate days.)


Locking Down the Default Tracking Setting
After you have selected the default tracking setting for projects, you can decide to enforce this tracking method for all projects saved to the Project Server database, or to allow individual project managers to change the default method at the project level.

On the Tracking settings page, under Lock down defaults, indicate whether project managers will select their own tracking methods or will be required to use the default tracking method as defined in the Enterprise Global Template. (Locking down is recommended; i.e select "Force project managers ...")

If you allow project managers to change the default tracking method, they can do so using the Customize Published Fields dialog box in Project Professional.


Under Time Period Settings, specify when your work week begins.

Locking Time Sheet Periods
If projects are to be tracked by hours of work per time period, you can lock the Timesheet periods.

Locking the Timesheet periods ensures that team members can report hours only for current time periods, not for time periods in the past or future. Locking the Timesheet period contributes to the integrity of progress information being submitted by team members.

You elect the Non-Managed Periods option if you want to allow team members to enter actuals at any time, no matter how early or late. You select the Managed Periods option if you want to allow actuals to update only during a specified open period of time.

Select Managed Periods.

Under Managed timesheet periods, select a time period adjacent to the time period that you want to add, and then click Insert Before or Insert After.

For time period you are adding, click Start and Finish to specify the start and finish dates, and then select either Open or Closed. Closed means that the team members can not enter any information into this period any more.

Indicate whether you would like resources to report hours worked on a daily basis, weekly basis, or for the entire time period that was defined in previous steps.

Type the maximum number of hours that a resource can enter per day for a single task. Type 0 if you do not want to set a maximum number of hours per day.

Click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page to save al changes in this screen.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
For more information on additional features related to this topic, including Working with Non-Managed Timesheet Periods, Moving to Managed Timesheet Periods from Non-Managed Timesheet Periods, and  Define Current and Future Task Visibility, we recommend you review chapter 8 of the Admin guide for variations. Download


A2. Establish the Default Fields for the Timesheet View
The Timesheet view is set up with a standard set of task and assignment fields. That set of fields changes according to the tracking method chosen. You or the project manager can change the fields that the team members see in their Timesheets. As the project server administrator, you can choose from the full set of Microsoft Project fields to dictate the set of avail-able Timesheet fields. In turn, project managers start with your selected set of fields to tailor the Timesheets for their individual projects. If you have defined any custom fields, including custom outline codes, you can include those in the set of default Timesheet fields as well. In fact, as of Project Web Access 2003, outline codes with drop-down value lists (or "pick lists") can be used and displayed as such in the team members’ Timesheets.

To modify the set of default Timesheet fields, follow these steps:

To Use:
 -In the Admin page of Project Web Access, click Manage Views in the left pane. The Specify Views page appears.

-Scroll down the table, almost to the bottom, to find and click the Timesheet view under the Timesheet category. The Timesheet view definition appears below the table.

-With the Timesheet view selected, scroll all the way back up the page again and then click Modify View. The Modify Timesheet View page appears.

-Select one or more fields in the Available Fields box on the left and then click Add to add them to the Displayed Fields box on the right. This process adds the selected fields to the default set of available Timesheet fields. If you have defined any custom fields in the enterprise global, they are also part of the list of Available Fields.

-Select one or more fields in the Displayed Fields box on the right, and click Remove to delete them from the default set of available Timesheet fields.

-When you’re finished defining the fields you want in the Displayed Fields box, click the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page.

For more on working with Views click here.

B. Customize E-Mail Notifications and Reminders

Project Server generates e-mail notifications and reminders for each user whenever new, overdue, rejected, or forthcoming events occur. Users can configure alerts for their reminders from the Project Web Access home page.

Before e-mail notifications and reminders can be used by members of your organization, the appropriate server and account information must be identified, either during Project Server setup or later using Project Web Access. As the Project Web Access administrator, you can:

  • Configure a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server to handle e-mail notifications and reminders.

  • Specify the default contents of e-mail notifications and reminders.

  • Set the time that Project Server sends e-mail notifications and reminders.

The Notifications and Reminders page in Project Web Access allows the Project Server administrator to maintain the default sender e-mail address and message information that is automatically included with each e-mail notification or reminder sent by Project Server, as well as specify the SMTP server and associated port number.


To Use:
 If necessary, in the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Customize Project Web Access. In the side pane, under Customization options, click on Notifications and Reminders.

Set default e-mail notification and reminder settings
On the Notifications and reminders page, under Set default sender e-mail address and e-mail message, enter the default e-mail information.

  • In the SMTP mail server box, type the name of your SMTP server. Verify the port number in the Port box.

  • (Optional) In the From address box, type the default e-mail address. This address is the reply-to address for all notification and reminder e-mails. the Company e-mail address box, type the host and domain portion of your company’s default e-mail address.

  • In the Company e-mail address box, type the host and domain portion of your company’s default e-mail address.

    The company e-mail address is appended to user e-mail addresses where a host and domain are not specified. For example, for users at Microsoft, the address microsoft.com would be appended to a user’s e-mail address: someone@microsoft.com. Each user’s e-mail name is entered in the E-mail field on the Add user page (click Manage users and groups, then choose Use accounts, and then Add user). The part of the address entered here is appended to the user’s e-mail name if no host and domain name is specified, creating a full email address for the user.

  • In the Default e-mail message box, type the default message you want appended to all notification e-mails. For example: This e-mail message may contain confidential information and is intended only for the recipients named above. If you do not want a message automatically appended to notification e-mails, leave the Default e-mail message box blank.

Click Save Changes.


Schedule e-mail notifications and reminders
 On the Notifications and reminders page, under Schedule e-mail reminder service, select the time of day you want Project Server to scan for and send e-mail reminders to users about upcoming or overdue tasks and status reports.

Click Save Changes. A message is displayed if the e-mail processing engine is not set up properly on the Project Server.


To sign up for e-mail notifications and reminders
Team Members and Project Managers can sign up for e-mail notifications and reminders on their Home pages in Project Web Access.

In Project Web Access, on the Home page under Actions, choose from the two types of e-mail notifications available:

  • Click Alert me about my tasks and status reports to set up e-mail notifications for when your tasks and status reports are updated.

  • Click Alert me about my resources on tasks and status reports to set up e-mail notifications for when you would like to be notified when your resource’s tasks and status reports are updated.

Click Save Changes.
 

C. Take Enterprise Projects, Resources Off-Line
Sometimes an administrator may need to bring enterprise projects or resources offline so that (e.g.) you can do maintenance on the Project Server database (as explained in the next section). Rather than look all around the company for the person or machine that has the project or resource online, you can take it offline yourself.

To Use:
In the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane click the Manage enterprise features link under Actions.

Select check-in enterprise projects or check-in enterprise resources, select the desired project or resource that appears and click the Check-in button.

D. Cleaning Up Project Data

Sometimes it may be necessary to create more space in the Microsoft® Office Project Server 2003 database. This can be done by removing redundant or old information from the database. The Clean up Project Server database page in Microsoft Office Project Web Access 2003 allows the administrator to remove specific task assignments, task updates, projects, to-do lists, resources, and status reports from the database on time- or user-based criteria.

1. To delete task assignment data from the Project Server database

To Use:
In the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Cleanup Project Server database.

On the Clean up Project Server database page, under Specify items you want to delete, select Tasks.

In the Delete list, select either All task assignments or Only completed task assignments and then indicate the range of tasks that Project Server will delete:

  • Ever sent.

  • Older than Type a number in the text box and then select days, weeks, months, or years from the drop-down list.

  • Sent between Select a date from each of the calendar dialog boxes.

Under If necessary, specify the users whose items should be deleted, indicate whether you want to delete the specified task data for all users or for just a specified user.

Click Delete.


2. To delete resource task changes from the Project Server database

To Use:
In the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Clean up Project Server database.

On the Clean up Project Server database page, under Specify items you want to delete, select Resource task changes.

Indicate the range of resource task changes that Project Server will delete:

  • Ever sent.

  • Older than Type a number in the text box and then select days, weeks, months, or years from the drop-down list.

  • Sent between Select a date from each of the calendar dialog boxes.

Under If necessary, specify the users whose items should be deleted, indicate whether you want to delete the specified resource task change data for all users or for just a specified user.

Click Delete.
 

3. To delete status report data from the Project Server database

To Use:
In the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Clean up Project Server database.

On the Clean up Project Server database page, under Specify items you want to delete, select Status Reports.

Indicate the range of status reports that Project Server will delete:

  • Ever sent.

  • Older than Type a number in the text box and then select days, weeks, months, or years from the drop-down list.

    •

  • Sent between Select a date from each of the calendar dialog boxes.

Under If necessary, specify the users whose items should be deleted, indicate whether you want to delete the specified status report data for all users or for just a specified user.

Click Delete.


4. To delete project and to-do list data from the Project Server database

To Use:
 In the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Clean up Project Server database.

On the Clean up Project Server database page, under Specify items you want to delete, select Projects and To-do Lists.

Select a project from the list of available projects. Select Delete the SharePoint team Web site for the specified project to delete all Windows SharePoint Services data associated with the project.

Click Delete.


5. To delete resources from the Project Server database

To Use:
In the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Clean up Project Server database.

On the Clean up Project Server database page, under Specify items you want to delete, select Resource.

Select a resource from the Delete the selected resource list.

Type a comment in the Deletion Comment text box.

Click Delete.
 

6. To delete projects using the Open dialog box in Project Professional

You can permanently delete projects that are stored in the Project Server database by using the Open from Microsoft Office Project Server dialog box in Project Professional. You can only delete projects that would otherwise normally be available by using the Open from Microsoft Office Project Server dialog box.

To Use:
Open Project Professional and connect to Project Server.

On the File menu, select Open to open the Open from Microsoft Office Project Server dialog box.

Select the project you want to delete, and then click the Delete button to the right of the Group by drop-down list.

Confirm the deletion. This action is permanent; the project will no longer be available on Project Sever.
 

E. Gantt ChartStyle and Timescale

You can customize the colors, patterns, shapes, and styles of the Gantt Charts available in Project Web Access. The changes you make to each Gantt Chart will be available wherever that Gantt Chart appears in Project Web Access. Project Web Access has 22 different Gantt Chart formats available, seven of which are preconfigured for use in the Project Center, Views, and Tasks areas in Project Web Access and Project Professional.

To Use:
 If necessary, in the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Customize Project Web Access. In the side pane, under Customization options, click Gantt Chart formats.

The Gantt Chart page shows a list of the different Gantt styles. You can see the color, and pattern of the start, middle, and ends of the bar for the different bar types, and whether or not they will be displayed can be altered to produce a customized Gantt style. This style can then be applied when specifying Project Web Access (PWA) views (see the Manage Viewssection in this section of the outline).

On the Gantt Chart formats page, under Specify the bar styles and timescale for Gantt Charts, select the Gantt Chart you want to customize from the Gantt Chart drop-down list.

Customize the Gantt bars as necessary. To change the middle bar shape, bar color, bar pattern, and start and end shapes and colors, select the new style from the drop-down list. To show or hide a bar when the Gantt Chart is displayed, select the bar, and then select or clear the Display check box.

Click Save Changes.

F. Formatting the Outline Levels of Views (Grouping Formats)

This feature enables the administrator to modify the look of the outline levels of tasks that appear in the Timesheet, Gantt Chart, and other viewson the Tasks page. For each view you can indicate the color at each level. (E.g. for the Gantt Chart view the first level of bars can be yellow, the next level gray, the next level yellow, the next gray, etc. Or for the Timesheet view you can indicate that the first level of the hierarchy that will appear will be yellow.)

Customizing the Views grouping format will apply the updates to all related Project Center, Resource Center, Project, and Assignment views.

To Use:
 If necessary, in the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Customize Project Web Access. In the side pane, under Customization options, click on Grouping Formats.

On the Grouping Formats page, under Specify grouping formats, select the grouping format you want to customize from the Grouping format list. (e.g. select level 1 under Timesheet).

Customize the grouping format as desired. To change the cell color, cell pattern, font color, or font style for a grouping format, first select the grouping format, and then select the new style from the drop-down list.

Click Save Changes.

G. Home Page Appearance

You can a) add your own additional links to appear on the Home Page (e.g. http://www.microsoft.com), and b) add additional content to the Home pagethat comes from a web page or a file.

To Use:
 If necessary, in the Project Web Access Admin center, in the side pane under Actions, click Customize Project Web Access. In the side pane, under Customization options, click on Home Page.

ADD LINK(S)
On the Home page format page, under Add Links, click Insert Row.

  • In the Link Name column, type the name of the link as you want people to see it on the Project Web Access home page.

  • In the URL column, type the URL (including the http:// prefix).

Click the Up or Down buttons to change the order that content sections will appear on the Project Web Access home page.

Click Save Changes.


ADD CONTENT
Under Add Content, click Insert Row.

  • In the Section Name column, type the title for the content section.

  • In the URL/Path column, type the complete URL or path name (including the http:// or file prefix).

  • In the Height column, type a height for the window (in pixels).

Click the Up or Down buttons to change the order that content sections will appear on the Project Web Access home page.

Click Save Changes.

H. Add/Modify/Delete Menus Pages and Item Links
You can modify/add to the main page tabs that appear across the top of Project Web Access (i.e. Home, Tasks, Projects, etc.), as well as the activities within a tab/page (.g. within the Status reports tab/page, you can add or remove an activity that a user can select on the left side of the page.)

To Use:
 In Project Web Access, click the Admin link at the top of the page, then click the Server configuration link on the left, and then click the Menus link on the left.

All of the menu items are listed (Home, Tasks, etc.), along with the link activities for each menu item, plus the order that the link appears for a particular menu.

You can:

-modify the order of a link item on each page by adjusting the order # of an item on a menu

-move links to a different page by selecting a different Menu for an item and entering an order #

-change a link's name

-create an entirely new custom menus item by clicking the Add Custom Menu button. You can create there a top level menu or a sub-level menu. You should also list the URL for that item. Click Help for more info on this.

[Project Server 2002 screen]

-delete a custom menu by selecting an item and clicking the Delete Custom menu item

Click the Apply Menu Changes button to incorporate any changes.
 
 
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