Forum Discussion
Detailed question about comparison of 2 Microsoft Project files
Hi there, I'm very clear on how to perform a comparison of two Microsoft Project files which share an ancestry (e.g. you've created a project, some changes occur over a month, and then you compar...
schnerrific,
In order to compare two Project files some type of reference index is needed. In the case of the Compare Project utility the Unique ID is that reference.
A couple years before Microsoft developed the compare utility I wrote my own compare macro which used the Unique ID as the reference between the two files. However, unlike the Microsoft version which create a separate new file with the differences, my macro used the Marked field as an indicator in both files for added tasks, deleted tasks and tasks with changes. My macro also color coded all changes in both files for an easy, visible output format.
John
In order to compare two Project files some type of reference index is needed. In the case of the Compare Project utility the Unique ID is that reference.
A couple years before Microsoft developed the compare utility I wrote my own compare macro which used the Unique ID as the reference between the two files. However, unlike the Microsoft version which create a separate new file with the differences, my macro used the Marked field as an indicator in both files for added tasks, deleted tasks and tasks with changes. My macro also color coded all changes in both files for an easy, visible output format.
John
John-project thanks for your answer, you clearly know your stuff so I'm keen to hear more! It's interesting that you say it is the 'Unique ID' which Microsoft uses as I have two files that appear to be identical (same Unique IDs, task names and dates) as I generated both of them from the same macro. However unless I'm misunderstanding something, Microsoft's compare utility highlights them as being entirely different. i.e. shows all of the rows of file A with negative signs on the left, followed by all of the rows of file B with positive signs on the left.
If you can think of anything else I should be considering please let me know.
Would be very interested to know more about the macro you wrote as perhaps that is a path I need to go down.
- I actually just realised that even though in the source files (file A and B) the Unique IDs are the same (number 1-400) when I displayed Unique ID in the comparison view it had the numbers going up to 800 so I'm not sure what to make of that...
- After some more googling, I'm starting to wonder if it is actually the GUID that is the factor. As I can see that column has different values in the two files. So I'll explore that to see if it helps.
