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Change activity Description Length

13 replies [Last post]
Thu, 2005-06-16 07:58
Sid Dickerson
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Joined: 9 Sep 2002
Posts: 6
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Need information on increasing the activity description length from 120 to 150. I have check user preferences can not find were to change it. Any information would be useful.
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Replies

Tue, 2005-06-21 16:24
#1
Henk van der Heide
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Joined: 7 Aug 2004
Posts: 101
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
I cant understand and think of a situtation that someone needs 250 characters for an activity name. Isn’t it better to use the log fields ??
Maybe it’s better to seriously increase these lenghts.


Regards

Henk
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Fri, 2005-06-17 10:57
#2
Philip Jonker
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Joined: 7 Nov 2004
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Hi Zhang,

The only way you can change anything in P3 is the day Primevera allows us access to the database structure behind P3. This will mean you will need to learn new report writing skills, how to use calculated field, etcetera etcetera. The old open plan planners still had these skills.

This is a two edged sword, how do you make programs users friendly, or other wise for expert users? If you allow people the freedom and they do not know what they are doing they are liable to cock it up. So restrict access to only certain things, and it will work. This is what user friendly is in terms of software, in common use.

Regards

Philip
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Fri, 2005-06-17 09:49
#3
Dayanidhi Dhandapany
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Hi Sid,

I have Primavera Project Planner Professional(P4) version 4.1 which is equivalent to P3e/c in my office system. I did not come across this kind of activity description problem so far(i mean i don’t have a situation to use the description more than 120 characters), when i read Bill’s Suggestion it would be a better solution to your problem as i thought. But after you have mentioned that you are using 150 characters in your database program, hence your P3 "E" is chopping of anything more than 120 characters, you can be thinking of capturing the description field into a userdefined field(if possible)rather than Activity Description through some programs like VBA application in Activity4.xls file and through SDK you can set the user defined field to display the item as per your requirements and then you can hide the P3 ’E’s default display of activity description field and do some gimmicks to display the userdefined field title as Activity Description and show this column in the schedule.

HTH

Daya
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Fri, 2005-06-17 07:32
#4
Sid Dickerson
User offline. Last seen 18 years 30 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 9 Sep 2002
Posts: 6
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
This is a P3 Enterprise Forum. We were discussing "E’s" activity description length. The 48 charter length issue along with other limitations is why we are using P3e for our Turnaround. I use a Access Database program for planning and I allowed the planners to use up to 150 charters for there description. Not that big of a problem since P3e will chop off anything over 120 when we use out auto migration link and send it to "E".

Thanks
Sid
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Fri, 2005-06-17 04:19
#5
Dayanidhi Dhandapany
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Hi Sid,

I think, Bill’s suggestion seems to be a better alternative in order to have more than 120 characters in the activity description. you can follow his suggestion.

Cheers!!!

Daya
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Fri, 2005-06-17 04:00
#6
Sukumaran Subaram...
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Joined: 2 Mar 2005
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Groups: GPC Malaysia
Sid,

I’m wondering, How you managed to increase the activity description length from 48 to 120 characters? Could you share the procedure with other PPers.

Regards.
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Fri, 2005-06-17 00:43
#7
Zhang Haixiang
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Joined: 14 Apr 2005
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Hi,

I have tried to increase the length of activity description of P3 several years ago the first time i use it.
Now I understand, it’s defined by the structure of P3 datebase, the length for this field is 48 char, no way to increase. You should try some alternatives.
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Thu, 2005-06-16 13:02
#8
Philip Jonker
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Hi Sid,

I suggest you practice your abbreviations, and bon’t try and identify your activities in to too much detail, make sure other people involved understands your descriptions.

By the way you are lucky, 120 characters, we mickey mouses in P3 are limited to 48, but we seem to be able too live with it.

Regards
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Thu, 2005-06-16 12:39
#9
Bill McMichael
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Sid,

Here’s another possible solution if you need more than 120 characters for an activity name. That is a long activity name by the way.

Create an activity user defined field of text type. User defined fields of text type can be 255 characters.

Use Global change to initially transfer existing activity names to this new field. You will be able to use this field as your alternative description on layouts and reports.

Regards,
Bill
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Thu, 2005-06-16 12:35
#10
Sid Dickerson
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Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
Thanks for the info. I was sure P3 said it was 255 in one of there sales pitches but that must have been something else.

Thanks
Sid
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Thu, 2005-06-16 12:27
#11
Bill McMichael
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Sid,

The activity description is 120 characters. It cannot be increased.

If that is not enough description for you, you also have notebook topics, assignable to activities, that can contain thousands of characters.

Regards,
Bill
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Thu, 2005-06-16 09:09
#12
Sid Dickerson
User offline. Last seen 18 years 30 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 9 Sep 2002
Posts: 6
Groups: Petro-Chem / Oil & Gas
I have check there. That is for Activity ID lengths not Activity Description lengths. I have look everywhere but can’t seem to find it. It was my understanding that it would handle up to 255 charters in the description. Thanks for you help
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Thu, 2005-06-16 08:53
#13
Steven Oliver
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Try Admin, Admin Preferences, Id Lengths.


HTH

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