Chapter 24. Defining Your Own Fields and Forms

In the previous chapter, you learned all kinds of ways to cajole Project into showing you the information you want to see. In this chapter, you’ll go much deeper. You can customize fields to track information that Project’s built-in fields don’t, and then add them to tables (Changing Table Contents). For example, you can create a field that holds the number of lines of code written for each development task. With hours worked and code quantities, you can calculate programming productivity.

Built-in Project forms like the Task Form (usually found at the bottom of the Task Entry view) are really dialog boxes in view’s clothing. Project lets you build your own forms with exactly the fields you want—whether custom or built-in. If the Task Information or Resource Information dialog boxes show too many fields for your liking, for example, you can make a custom form that’s just right. Simplified custom forms are also less intimidating for coworkers who haven’t yet mastered Project’s features.

In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create fields and customize fields to show you the information you need to see. You’ll also learn to use those fields in Project’s forms as well as in forms that you design.

Defining Your Own Fields

When you choose Insert → Column, and then display the “Field name” drop-down list, you realize how many fields Project has. For most of those fields, your customization options are limited. You can change the title that appears ...

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