In many organizations, upgrading takes place gradually—one group of users at a time. During the upgrade process, users need to share files saved in Microsoft Project 2000 and previous versions of Microsoft Project. There are several strategies that your workgroup can use to make it easier to share files.

In Microsoft Project 2000, you can open a file created in an earlier version of Microsoft Project. However, when this file is saved in Microsoft Project 2000, not all of the new features in Microsoft Project 2000 are supported. Likewise, a Microsoft Project 2000 file can be saved to Microsoft Project 98 format, but data relating to new or enhanced features in Microsoft Project 2000 may be lost.

Working with the new and previous version of the MPP file format

By default, Microsoft Project 2000 saves new files in the Microsoft Project 2000 MPP format. You cannot open a file saved in Microsoft Project 2000 MPP format in a previous version of Microsoft Project. However, you can save a Microsoft Project 2000 file in the Microsoft Project 98 file format to allow easy exchange of data with users who have not yet upgraded.

When saving to this format, it is important to remember that Microsoft Project 98 does not include all the features found in Microsoft Project 2000, so some information may be lost when saving to this format. Microsoft Project 2000, however, will remind you of this when you save to the Project 98 MPP file format.

For example, because the format for storing timephased baseline data changed in Microsoft 2000, if you create a project in Microsoft Project 2000 and save timephased baseline data, it will be discarded when you save the project in Microsoft Project 98 MPP format. But if you import a Microsoft Project 98 file or you initially specify Microsoft Project 98 as the format in which to save before you enter timephased data, and then you save a baseline, no timephased data is lost saving to the Microsoft 98 file format.

If users in your workgroup use an earlier version of Microsoft Project, you can change the default file format for saving new files to Microsoft Project 98 on the Save tab of the Options dialog box (Tools menu) or by using the System Policy Editor. All files are saved in the default format unless you specify a different file format in the Save As dialog box (File menu).

Installing Microsoft Project 2000 and Microsoft Project 98 on the same computer?

Installing Microsoft Project 2000 on a computer with Microsoft Project 98 is not a configuration tested for Microsoft Project 2000. Therefore, we do not recommend installing both versions on the same computer. Because of differences in OLE file registration in Microsoft Project 98 and Microsoft Project 2000, there may be problems with file references stored in a project file for resource sharing, inserted projects, and cross-project linking.

What happens to Microsoft Project 2000 data when it's saved to Microsoft Project 98 file format?

The MPP file format underwent some changes for Microsoft Project 2000, so some data will change or be lost when saving to Microsoft Project 98 file format. The following features were added or enhanced in Microsoft Project 2000 and are not supported in Microsoft Project 98:

• Calendars   Microsoft Project 98 supports only three shifts on a calendar. Five-shift calendars are converted to three-shift calendars.
• Contoured resource availability   Because Microsoft Project 98 does not support contoured resource availability, data entered in the Resource Availability table in Microsoft Project will be retained only if the table has only one row. If the table has more than one row, Available From, Available To, and Max Units fields in Microsoft Project 2000 are mapped directly to the corresponding fields in Microsoft Project 98. The Max Units value in the Resource Availability table will not be used in Microsoft Project 98; instead, the value in the Max Units field in Microsoft Project 2000 is mapped directly to the Max Units field in Microsoft Project 98.
• Custom fields   For custom fields with user-defined formulas or pick-lists (lookup tables), including outline codes, only the static value is retained. The formulas and pick-lists are not saved. For custom fields that display graphic indicators instead of values, only the values are retained. Graphic indicators are not saved.
• Deadline dates   Microsoft Project 98 does not support deadline dates. Dates entered in the Deadline field, Start Slack field (calculated), and Finish Slack field (calculated) are lost.
• Estimated durations   Microsoft Project 98 does not support estimated durations. Values entered in the Estimated Flag field for Primary Duration are converted to the Duration field in Microsoft Project 98. Internal Estimated fields for DurationX and Baseline Duration are lost.
• Formatting   If many fields are formatted individually in a Microsoft Project 2000 file, some formatting may be lost when the file is saved in Microsoft Project 98 format. Because buffer will be truncated when a file is saved in Microsoft Project 98 file format, any formatting that exceeds truncated buffer will be lost.
  Microsoft Project 98 does not support automatic colors. Automatic colors are mapped to an appropriate Microsoft Project 98 color.
  Microsoft Project 98 does not support individual row heights. Rows with different height settings are reset to the row height setting in the table definition.
• Grouping   Microsoft Project 98 does not support grouping. The current grouping applied to all views, as well as any groups saved with the project, are lost.
• Leveling   Microsoft Project 98 supports only 10 levels of priority. The 1,000 priority levels of Microsoft Project 2000 are mapped to the priority levels in Microsoft Project 98, so tasks that have unique priorities in Microsoft Project 2000 may be assigned the same priority in Microsoft Project 98. Filters that reference a specific priority are also re-mapped to the Microsoft Project 98 priorities.
• Maximum resource units   Microsoft Project 98 does not support resource units greater than 10,000. Any assignment with Max Resource Units greater than 10,000 is changed to Max Resource Units = 10,000.
• Material resources   Microsoft Project 98 does not support material resources. Resources with Type = Material are converted to normal work resources. Values in the Material Label and Type (Resource fields) and Assignment Resource Type (Assignment field) are also lost.
• Macros   Macros that use new events, methods, properties, or objects fail when run in Microsoft Project 98.
  In order to ensure that macros are transferred properly when saving to the Microsoft Project 98 format, Microsoft Project 2000 adds a VBA (Microsoft Visual Basic® for Applications) statement in the Project_Open event. This statement forces Microsoft Project 98 to save the macros in the version of VBA that ships with Microsoft Project 98. This statement is:
  ThisProject.VBProject.Description = ThisProject.VBProject.Description
  The comment on this statement says:
  "While saving your file to Microsoft Project 98 format, Microsoft Project 2000 added this line to ensure that your VBA macros are loaded properly."
  This statement simply sets the Description of the VBProject to its current value. Nothing changes in the file, but this causes the VBA information in the file to be saved by Microsoft Project 98.
  If a Project_Open event handler exists, Microsoft Project 2000 adds this statement at the beginning of the existing subprocedure. If the existing subprocedure already has a line that matches the line Microsoft Project 2000 is trying to add, the first occurrence of such a line in that subprocedure will be deleted and the new one will be added to the top of the subprocedure to ensure that this statement will be executed by Microsoft Project 98. If a Project_Open event handler does not exist, Microsoft Project 2000 will create one and add this statement.
  Opening such a project in Microsoft Project 98 will display the Macro Virus Warning dialog box. You should click the Enable Macros button to allow the Project_Open subprocedure to run and cause Microsoft Project 98 to save the VBA information. If you click the Disable Macros button and then open the VBA editing environment or run a macro, Microsoft Project 98 will not properly save the VBA information and will place the VBA information in a state that will render it inaccessible in both Microsoft Project 98 and Microsoft Project 2000.
  If you have saved a project to the Microsoft Project 98 format and later choose to save to the Microsoft Project 2000 format, this VBA statement will remain. If you want to digitally sign the project, you should remove this statement. If you do not, when the project is opened in Microsoft Project 2000, the description of the VBProject will be modified, and saving the project will not retain the digital signature.
• Month duration unit   Microsoft Project 98 does not support "Month" as a unit of duration. Duration units and cost rates expressed in months are converted to days.
• Network Diagram views   Changes to the layout of Network Diagram views made in Microsoft Project 2000 are lost when you save to Microsoft Project 98 file format. If the active view includes a Network Diagram as a slave view, the view is saved as a single-pane view. Filters applied to a Network Diagram view are lost. If the file contains customized PERT formatting or layout originally created in Microsoft Project 98, any new tasks added in Microsoft Project 2000 will appear as nodes stacked up in the upper-left corner of the Network Diagram view when viewed in Microsoft Project 98.
• ScreenTips for hyperlinks   Microsoft Project 98 does not support ScreenTips for hyperlinks. ScreenTips are lost.
• Task calendars   Microsoft Project 98 does not support Task Calendars. Tasks are scheduled only according to the Resource Calendars or the Project Calendar. Task Calendars are lost when saving to the Microsoft Project 98 file format.
• Timephased data in baselines   To retain timephased Baseline fields (Baseline Work, Baseline Cost) and Earned Value fields (timephased as well as regular) when a file is saved in Microsoft Project 98 format, you must ensure that the baseline is saved in Microsoft Project 98 format. In Microsoft Project 2000, you must specify Microsoft Project 98 as the save format (either by saving the file or by setting the default save format), before saving the baseline. If you save the baseline without first specifying Microsoft Project 98 as the save format, when you save the file as Microsoft Project 98, timephased baseline data will be lost.
• VBA macro digital signatures   If you save a VBA project with a digital signature in Microsoft Project 2000, the digital signature is lost when saving to Microsoft Project 98.
• WBS code masks   If you specify a code mask for WBS fields in Microsoft Project 2000, that information is lost when saving to Microsoft Project 98.
• Workgroup settings   If you specify a Web for Default Workgroup Messages in Microsoft Project 2000 (Tools menu, Options command, Workgroup tab), that information is lost when saving to Microsoft Project 98, and the default setting in Microsoft Project 98 is supplied.