Dear Niles, This solution applies to version 6.1 SP2 and is available in newer version as well.

You can only view activity data at a project level including your UDF you were talking about by adding the Activities button located in the general columns option when creating a portfolio scorecard view in the web. This button uses summarized data from the client and some settings must be changed and the summarization tool run from the client to view down to the WBS level you are attempting to see the activities in.

What this button does for you is allow you to click on it and see from a dashboard or portfolio the activities associated with the project you are trying to track.

In order for this to work though you have to go in the client and set the project default for summarization to the level you want to view in the web and then run the summarization option from the tools bar. You will see on this page that you have to tell the application what level you want to summarize down to. This will basically take a snapshot of the activity level data and allow it to be viewed using the button I described above. See the below example for further explanation of what I'm talking about.

Keep in mind the activities will only show up for exactly where they exist in your WBS structure even though the button is shown for other levels of the project, parent WBS node and child nodes.

For example we have 3 levels of the WBS that we use for our general project WBS structure. They are as follows:

Project Data - is considered as Level 1

Planning - Level 2 which is part of the above project. Parent WBS node.

Pre-scoping - Level 3 which is the child WBS node for planning.

Scoping - Also Level 3 which is a child WBS node for planning as well.

We set our summarization to level 3 and then run the summarization tool. Once this is completed you can go into the project list you created and drill down to the level that your activities in the client exactly reside in and then click on the activities button and the activities associated with that WBS level will appear in a separate window. You can click on the customize button for that popup window showing your activities and add the UDF columns which are associated with the schedule you are tracking.

NOTE: This activities button shows the "VIEW" option at all level of the project and WBS nodes, but the way this works the activities will only show up under the WBS node that they exactly appear in, in your schedule. Some people get frustrated simply clicking on this button at for example the project level will show all the activities for that schedule. Unfortunately the activities do not rollup and will only appear as I have described above.

This is a great feature of the tool that I do not believe gets regularly used because most people do not know it even exists. This should help you view these UDF's at the activity level in this popup window and go back to the project level portfolio view to see the project level information and data.

I hope I explained this as easy as possible but if you have any other questions please contact me at john_murzin@hotmail. com for any of your P6 issues you may need assistance with.