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Activity ID in MS Project and P3

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Tue, 2009-11-24 02:44
John Drokovic
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Joined: 9 Oct 2009
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Can I define my own Activity Id’s in MS Project or are they setup by default by the software? (you can define your Activity Id’s in P3)
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Tue, 2009-11-24 08:02
#1
Bryan Eaton
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Joined: 11 Apr 2003
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MS Project had 2 ID fields, "ID" and "UID". The ID field is the current ’row’ number of your activity like the row number in Excel. UID is the Unique ID that is like an AutoNumber in MS Access, it is the sequence that you added the activity to the schedule and stays with the activity until you delete the activity.

You can add a custom text field to replicate your P3 activity ID, but there is no way to automatically make it unique. This is how you would link or exchange information with P3. You cannot link activities on a text field in Project, so the only advantage you get is to correlate with a P3 file.

You can add also custom text fields to replicate the activity codes of P3. Custom Data Items can be exchanged with the Project Custom Date, Number Text Fields.

MS Project encourages the use of Outline codes and Work Breakdown Structure Codes. I am personally not a fan of them, but they do help with organising your project.

Rather than replicating the help screens here, search Project for WBS, Work Breakdown Structure and Outline Codes. There is a lot of information there.

If you do a search on this forum for "Activity ID" I am sure you will come up with a plethora of arguements for and against their use - some of which are worth reading, but hopefully not repeating again here.

best of luck.
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