Repeated imports and Import-Export Cycles

Note only is it possible to merge 2 plans in this way, and to repeatedly do one-way transfers, it is even possible to have a repeated 2-way transfer cycle: Work on MS project file and save as XML Import to PM3 Work on project in PM3 Export from PM3 load exported file into MS-Project and work on file • Repeat.. If you are doing repeated import-export cycles, you need to be tidy with your sequencing: If you update one of Ms-Project or PM3, then sychronise them before updating the other. For example, the following sequence will create conflicting UIDs: Import from MS-Project into PM3 Add items to the MS Project file o creates new UIDs that PM3 does not know about Add items to the PM3 plan Export the PM3 plan o Generates UIDs for its new items Merge into the original MS-Project – the UIDs of the 2 sets of new items will clash. Given the merging rules above, there are some caveats that apply if you are going to repeat one-way or two-way transfers: The import/export mechanism will never delete an item. o If you delete a Task in PM3, but the Task is present in MS-Project which generates an import file, it will put it back in during the import. o So if you are cycling data from PM3 to MS-Project to PM3.. and you want to delete an item, you need to delete it in both places. PM3 allows empty date fields. MS-Project does not. So if a milestone without dates is exported from PM3 and subsequently loaded into MS-Project, then MS-Project will give the milestone a date inherited from the start date of its Summary Task. In MS-Project, you can change the date, but you cannot remove it. When saved as XML and loaded back into PM3, the milestone’s new date will be merged in, replacing the empty date with the value supplied by MS-Project. When a milestone date is imported from MS-Project, it will update the rightmost non-empty date field of the Milestone in PM3 i.e. CompletedDate otherwise Revised(End)Date otherwise Planned(End)Date. An External Dependency is one which links to a Milestone or Task in another other Plan. MS-Project does not have any information about other plans and so cannot show nor record these. Consequently, these are not part of either imports or exports. See also the note below about how Gateways and Dependencies are handled during the export/update MSP/import cycle (below)