Create Links to Text Objects

When you’re managing projects with Microsoft Project, you can increase your effectiveness by creating links to programs that provide mainly text-based information (such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word). When you find yourself using other programs regularly to help maintain project-related textual information about your project plan, you can create a link to that information as an object in a Microsoft Project sheet view.

When you create a link to a text object, the information looks and behaves as if you had typed it into Microsoft Project. But the lower-right corner of each field of linked text in a sheet view contains a small, triangular marker. If you try to edit this object, a message is displayed giving you the choice of saving your changes, canceling the changes, or breaking the link.

Keep in mind that the type of information you link within a sheet view must match the type of information already in the view that receives the text. Because of this, you must first prepare your project file to match the linked text, and then create the link.

To create a link to a text object in a sheet view

Open the source program and the source file.
Select the object, noting the size, order, and type of the information.
Click Copy (or the source program’s equivalent command).
Open the Microsoft Project file in which you want to create the link.
On the View Bar, click the sheet view in which you want to create the link.
If necessary, add columns or create a new table to make the view compatible with the order and type of information in the object.
If necessary, add more fields to the table to accommodate the entire object. (Select the number of rows you’re inserting, and then click New Task or New Resource on the Insert menu.)
If there’s not enough room, information already in the view may be replaced by the incoming object.
Select the field where the upper-left cell of the linked information should begin.
On the Edit menu, click Paste Special.
Click Paste Link, and then click a format in the As box.
For example, if you want to paste the information as text, click Text Data.