Publishing Project Web sites

Project Web Site Publisher

To facilitate communicating project data in a company with offices local or worldwide, you can publish project plans in HTML format using the Project Web Site Publisher. Transfer these documents to either the World Wide Web (using FTP) or your office intranet, and view them using an Internet browser.The documents contain hypertext links, or jumps, to other pages in the structure, allowing you to move between projects and reports and from page to page within a report.

Caution: Personal information (PI) may be at risk of exposure. Depending on local data protection laws organizations may be responsible for mitigating any risk of exposure.

When publishing a project Web site, you control the level of detail published in terms of activity information and personal information for resources, as well as which project reports you want to include in the Web site.

Note

You can use the default Web site template, or "scheme," to build your project Web site. You can customize the existing scheme or create your own, adding or changing graphics, fonts, and colors.

Project Web sites

The Project Web Site layout enables you to both browse a project plan at a high level and quickly view more detailed information about specific activities, work products and documents, resources, and so on. The Project Web Site layout is divided into three panes. The upper pane contains a navigation toolbar that enables you to look at the various sections of the Web site. The left pane is the navigation pane; the right pane displays the specific details for project elements. Select the element you want to view in the left pane; the right pane displays detailed information about that element.

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You can navigate a project Web site using the project's work breakdown structure (WBS), resource hierarchy, roles, work products and documents outline, activity codes, and issues. For example, visitors can select a resource in the left pane and view the resource's information and activity assignments in the right pane. Similarly, visitors can select a work product or document and view the document’s details and WBS and activity assignments. The level of detailed information a visitor can view depends on the information you choose to publish.

You can also view reports, activity layouts, and tracking layouts in the project Web site. The list of reports or layouts appears in the left pane, and the report or layout itself is displayed in the right pane when you select it.

Publishing activity and tracking layouts

In addition to publishing activity and tracking layouts as part of a project Web site, you can publish individual activity and tracking layouts on the Internet or on your corporate intranet. These layouts are not connected to any previously created project Web site, but instead are self-contained Web sites consisting of the activity or tracking layouts you specify. When no projects are open, layout publishing features are disabled.

For activity and tracking layouts

Published layouts are a snapshot of your project; they are not interactive.

The columns displayed in the Web pages are defined by the layout you select.

Header and footer information saved for a layout is included in the published layout.

Regardless of the view settings, layouts are published with all project elements expanded.

For timescaled layouts, the published timescale begins with the earliest Start Date and ends with the latest Finish Date, regardless of the view settings.

For tracking layouts

Information is published only for open projects, regardless of the layout view. To publish a layout that includes closed projects, publish the layout through the Print Preview feature. Choose File, Print Preview, then click .

Publish projects as Web sites

Before you publish a project as a Web site for the first time, you might choose to create a new folder on your computer or network or verify that the existing folder you want to use is empty.

1)Open the project you want to publish.

2)Choose Tools, Publish, Project Web Site.

3)Click the General tab.

4)In the Web Site Name field, type the title of the Web site.

5)In the Web Site Description field, type a description of the Web site. This description appears on the Web site’s initial page.

6)In the Publish Directory field, type the full path for the folder in which you want to save the project's Web site files, or click and select the location.

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Publishing Project Web sites

7)Click Edit Scheme to modify the specified scheme or select another scheme.

8)Click the Topics tab and mark the appropriate checkboxes to specify the project information you want to publish on the project's Web site.

The checkboxes determine what Activity Details are available on the project Web site. If you clear all checkboxes, then the General activity information option is automatically selected because at least one type of activity detail information must be included in the Web site.

9)Click the Graphics tab and specify which activity or tracking layouts to include as graphical reports in the Web site.

10)Click the Reports tab and specify which reports to include in the Web site.

11)Click Publish.

If the folder you selected contains older Web site files or other files, a message warns you that those files will be deleted. Choose Yes to continue or No to cancel.

Tip

To preview the Web site after creating the files, mark the Automatically Launch Web Site Preview After Publishing checkbox in the General tab.

Publish activity and tracking layouts on a Project Website

Before you publish a project as a Web site for the first time, you might choose to create a new folder on your computer or network or verify that the existing folder you want to use is empty.

1)Open the project you want to publish.

2)Choose Tools, Publish, Project Web Site.

3)Click the Graphics tab.

4)Mark the Include in Project Web Site checkbox to include activity and/or tracking layouts in the project Web site.

5)In the Activity Layouts section, click the Assign button, select the activity layouts you want to include in the Web site, then click the Select button.

6)In the Tracking Layouts section, click the Assign button, select the tracking layouts you want to include in the Web site, then click the Select button.

7)Click Publish.

If the folder you selected contains older Web site files or other files, a message warns you that those files will be deleted. Choose Yes to continue or No to cancel.

The layouts are added to the project Web site's HTML folder.

Publish reports on a Project Website

Before you publish a project as a Web site for the first time, you might choose to create a new folder on your computer or network or verify that the existing folder you want to use is empty.

1) Open the project you want to publish.

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2)Choose Tools, Publish, Project Web Site.

3)Click the Reports tab.

4)Mark the Include in Project Web Site checkbox to include reports in the project Web site.

5)Click the Assign button.

6)Select the reports you want to include in the Web site, then click the Select button.

7)Click Publish.

If the folder you selected contains older Web site files or other files, a message warns you that those files will be deleted. Choose Yes to continue or No to cancel.

The reports are added to the project Web site's HTML folder.

Customize a Project Website

1)Choose Tools, Publish, Project Web Site.

2)Click the General tab, then click Edit Scheme.

3)Click the Splash Tab.

4)Click a splash screen element to select it, or choose an element from the item selector (see image below), then customize it in the fields at the top of the dialog box.

5)Click the Main tab.

6)Click a screen element to select it, or choose an element from the item selector (see image below), then customize it in the fields at the top of the dialog box.

7)Click Save As to save the modified scheme.

Use the existing scheme name to replace the old scheme with the modified one, or give the scheme a new name to save it as a separate project Web site scheme.

Publish Activity layouts

1)Open the project you want to publish.

2)Choose Tools, Publish, Activity Layouts.

3)Select the layouts you want to publish.

4)Click the Select button.

5)Specify a location for the new files and type a filename (with no extension).

6)Click Open.

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