| I've been using MS Project 2007 Professional ever | | | | Visual Reports |
| since the release (in fact I started with the pre-release | | | | Now apart from losing the analyse-time-phased data in |
| product). | | | | excel, that I used to use a lot (why did you do this |
| From my point of view there are a few good things, | | | | Microsoft?), you can tap into the power of Microsoft |
| some adding of things that should have been there all | | | | office excel and ms office Visio to produce Pivot |
| along, such as multiple undo (now this is good but why | | | | Charts, Pivot Tables, and Pivot diagrams. The new |
| has it taken Microsoft so long). And they have | | | | visual reports dialog box provides for templates that |
| removed one feature I really liked from MS Project | | | | can be modified by the user as well as the capability |
| 2003 (Analysing Time-Phased Data in Excel) and | | | | to build new templates and share these with other |
| replaced it with some other features in the Visual | | | | users or project stakeholders. Visual reports also offer |
| Reports section, but I miss the simplicity of the | | | | report templates for Visio and Excel to help analyse |
| removed functionality. | | | | resource availability, understand project progress and |
| Oh and in case you are considering the move to | | | | costs, and perform other tasks. |
| Project 2007 and are wondering which version to | | | | The visual reports feature gives the user the ability to |
| purchase - project professional or standard, they are | | | | build or modify on your desktop, OLAP cubes (on line |
| both the same unless you are also installing Microsoft | | | | analytical processing), that can be opened in Excel, |
| Project Server 2007 (enterprise project management) | | | | Visio or saved to MS Project access database files. |
| so if you are using as standalone you might as well | | | | The visual reports function generates six cubes |
| save your money and get the standard version. | | | | including three time-phased and three non time-phased |
| Microsoft set out to enhance the five or so basic | | | | reports covering - Tasks, Resource and Assignments. |
| features of previous versions by adding to - task | | | | Background Cell Highlighting |
| creation, resource management, assignment | | | | Some touchy feely, nice to have stuff has been |
| management, progress tracking, and reporting. | | | | added that will highlight important dates, costs, or tasks. |
| In an attempt to improve on a project manager or | | | | It does this by changing the background colour of the |
| scheduler's ability to manage a schedule, project 2007 | | | | cells in the table section of the view. |
| offers several new and enhanced features. For | | | | Project 2007 has a new Task Pane |
| starters on opening project 2007 one thing you will | | | | This has some useful features including a "new project |
| notice is a fresh look of the interface; it has more | | | | task pane". When you click File, New, the new project |
| colour and style, big deal! Do they think this will impress | | | | window opens. You can now show the driving factor |
| us? Well let's carry on. | | | | that is determining the start date of a task, such as a |
| Additional Functionality | | | | dependency or a date constraint. This feature allows |
| Calendars | | | | you to follow a chain of factors back to find the root |
| Calendars have been improved with calendar | | | | cause of a particular delay. |
| exceptions and work weeks and the addition of new | | | | Cost Resource |
| calendars now available:- The Hijri calendars (the | | | | Another new feature is the cost resource, this enables |
| official calendar in many Islamic countries and The | | | | you to define multiple named time-phased fixed costs |
| Buddhist Thai calendar. | | | | on a task. You can the group and report these costs |
| Change identification | | | | as part of a cost type. This feature supports the |
| Changes you make are highlighted, this really helps you | | | | integration of Project 2007 with accounting systems |
| see and understand immediately , the impacts of the | | | | Budget tracking |
| changes you made to a project, any time you make a | | | | Defines a budget at a high level (program or project) |
| change, all the affected tasks and resource fields are | | | | so you can allocate funds and track costs, work, and |
| highlighted. | | | | materials against the budget. |
| Multiple level undo | | | | Additional Project 2007 Templates |
| How long has it taken, yes the MS Project 2007 now | | | | Additional templates, many of which were supplied by |
| has multiple undo well; it's about time to! It claims to | | | | Microsoft partners, and have been incorporated into |
| allow you to undo and redo up to 99 changes to | | | | Project 2007 - tread carefully here as I have issues |
| views, data, and options, have to admit not tested the | | | | with some of them, some of them have technical |
| number I can do. But so far working OK, what's more | | | | flaws such as Processors and Successor on |
| you are able to undo actions or sets of actions from | | | | Summary tasks and that's a big no-no in my books. |
| macros or third party applications. | | | | |