Linking MS Project Data into Excel

[Tim]

Hi

I'm trying to link data from an MS project file into
Excel, so we can analyse the hours for certain tasks and
do various other calculations. I select the rows and
columns from Project (eg all the colums including date,
task, duration etc, and all the task rows), hit copy, the
go into Excel.
I then do a Edit>Paste Special> Paste as link and select
Excel data.
What Iget is a lot of #REF errors or #NAME errors, never
the linked info.

Any ideas as to why this is, or how i can make this
method more robust?
TIA
TIm

 

[JulieD]

Hi Tim

what version of Excel & Project are you using?
what view & table in Project are you trying to link to?

i've done this on a small scale and have not had a problem (versions 2000 in
both) and my reference manual for project only provides the additional
information:

***Special Edition Using Project 2000***
pg 825 - Pasting Links to Microsoft Project Data in Other Applications

"Both Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word will accept pasted links to
individual data cells in Microsoft Project tables. ... If you want to copy
a block of values, you outght to modify a table in Project, if necessary to
put the values you want to copy adjacent to each other. Select the block
and, as weith a single value, use the Edit, Paste Special, Paste Link
commands to paste the block of values in Word or Excel. The pasted block of
data is a single entity in both applications and, when you update the links
in the other application, all the values in the block will be updated. That
is why you should arrange the data in Project before copying so that it only
includes the values you wnat to see in the other application.
****

one other idea off the top of my head - be careful of using customised
fields (especially calculated ones) and not taking the source of those
customised fields with you - as this might cause problems (not that i've
actually tested it)

Hope this helps to some degree and if you haven't yet, you might want to
post in microsoft.public.project and check out the FAQs at
www.mvps.org/project

Cheers
JulieD