In the Trenches with Microsoft® Office Project 2007

Using Custom Fields

Custom fields are one of Project’s most powerful features—using them, you can track, view, and report on a wide variety of information that Project stores but either doesn’t make visible to you by default or doesn’t present in quite the way you want. When would you use a custom field? You can use custom fields, for example, when you want to:

• Create lists from which to select values to ensure accurate data entry,

• Store additional data about a task or resource,

• Create formulas to perform calculations on data, and

• Insert icons that present information graphically.

In 7, for example, I present an example of creating a resource-oriented custom field to track budget resource information. Before you dive in and start defining custom fields, ...