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Some Microsoft
Project users need to be able to work on a
project when they are not able to connect to
Project Server such as when they are traveling,
working in the field without a connection or at
home without the ability to login to the system.
 Experience:
Most of our customers tell us that this is important functionally that is funky at best. If
you have a lot of project managers taking
projects offline you will need to clearly train
them on how to do this correctly so that a lot
of support time is not consumed by having to
address the situation in which a project manager
spent an entire weekend working with their
project offline up at a cabin in the mountains
and now that they are back in the office they
can't get it back online. In addition, going
offline with a project and working with cache
under a particular profile is confusing and
counter intuitive to many users. Technically,
cache has not worked well historically and there
is not a reasonable way to deal with problems
associated with bringing a project back online
if not taken offline correctly, saving backups,
etc.
 
Most users place a
high value on being able to take a project
offline and work with it away from the office.
Essentially,
working with a project offline involves checking
out a project (opening the project from Project
Server), taking the project offline, and working
offline under the same account that the project
was taken offline.
Initially, do this:
-
Check with your
Project Server Administrator to make sure
that you have the permission to take a
project offline.
-
Make sure you
can choose how you connect to Project Server. To work with a
project offline, you have to be able to
"Work Offline" under the same Project Server
Account that you were originally logged in
under when you took the project offline.
-
In the Project
Server Accounts dialog box select Choose
an account (File | Info | Manage
Accounts | Choose an account).
To take a project
offline.
-
Login to
Project Server. Start Microsoft Project,
select the correct profile and then click
the OK button.
 Note:
If
you select the Computer profile, Microsoft
Project is opened without being connected to
Project Server. Use this profile when you want
to just work with *.mpp files. Using the
Computer profile is not how you work with a
project offline from Project Server or how to
open enterprise projects that are in your local
cache.
-
Open the
project you want to take offline.
-
Take the
project offline. (File | Info | Manage
Accounts | Work Offline)
You can also take a
project offline by clicking on the Connection
button on the status bar and selecting Work
Offline.
Once you have taken a
project offline you need to close the project.
This is a critical
step; make sure you keep the project checked
out. At this point it makes no sense to us why
the software asks the user to check in a project or not.
In offline mode, it is technically checked out from Project Server, but if
you do not keep it checked out, even though it
is checked out, you will not be
able to make changes to the project offline.
If a project has been taken offline and then
checked-in it will mean that the project can be
opened but only as read only. The Read-Only
status is easy to miss since your only
indication of read-only mode is in the title
bar.
If you take a
project offline and then check it in, you will
get the following obscure and confusing message.
Perhaps it should read "We apologize for asking
you if you want to check-in a project that is in
offline mode and technically checked-out. Checking-in the project that is
offline means that you can no longer work with
that project offline and then go back online
with the changes."
Note:
If
you
wanted to take a
project offline, make changes and then save the
project to Project Server as new project, you
might check-in the project. However, a better
practice would be to save the project as an *.mpp
file, make your changes and then import the
project to the enterprise. If you wanted to take
a project offline to work on it not connected to
Project Sever, and then save it as an enterprise
template when logged in to Project Server, then
checking-in the project while in offline mode
would be considered a good practice.
To work with a
project offline:
-
Login under the
same profile but Work Offline under that
profile; don't actually login to Project
Server. This will allow you to open the project
you put in offline mode from the cache on
your computer.
Note:
You
are not connected to Project Server when working
offline. However, working offline under a
profile allows you to open what you have in
cache. Opening a project in cache is always
opened as read only and you can not save changes
back to Project Server. However, if a project in
cache is in offline mode, you can sync those
changes when you reconnect to the server.
-
Make and save
your changes as you normally do.
To bring a project
back online:
-
When you are
ready to bring the project back online, login
to Project Server.
-
Open the
project. The system will bring the project
back online automatically.
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Save and or
Publish the project.
Exercise
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In this
exercise you are going to be making changes
to a project so we recommend you not do this
exercise in your production environment.
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Login and open
any project.
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Take the
project offline (File | Info | Manage
Accounts | Work Offline).
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Close the
project but do not check-in the project.
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Exit Microsoft
Project and then open Project again. This
time, select the same profile you were using
when you took the project off-line, and
click the Work Offline button.
-
Open the
project and add a new task. Save and close
the project and do not check it in.
-
Exit Project
and then open Project and select the same
profile you were just using and then click
the OK button.
-
Open the
project that was offline. The project is now
online. Save and/or publish your changes.
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