Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Sharing Custom Elements

Project comes with dozens of built-in elements like views, tables, filters, and groups, which you can use as is or customize to suit your needs. When you customize any of these elements, a customized copy is saved in the Project file you’re working on, so it initially shows up only when you open that file. (Same goes for project-specific Project Options settings, as shown in Figure 23-1.) Other customized elements like maps go directly into the global template, because Project assumes that you want to use them for every project. Fortunately, the Organizer dialog box makes it easy to propagate customized elements to other Project files or to share them with colleagues. This section tells you how.

Tip

It’s a good idea to make a backup copy of your global template before you add or remove elements in it. If you want to get rid of elements you added, or retrieve elements you deleted, then you can replace the active global template with the backup copy. The box above tells you where to find the global template on your computer.

The Organizer helps you copy customized elements from the global template to a Project file, from a Project file to the global template, or between two Project files. Here’s how the Organizer can help:

• Using customized elements in new projects. In many instances, customized elements like views belong to the Project file in which you create them. After you’ve created customized elements, you can make them available to every new project you create ...