Microsoft Office Project 2003 Inside Out

The project global template, or global.mpt , is an integral part of every project file. Essentially, the project global template is a collection of default settings for a variety of elements throughout a project file. These elements include the following:

• Views

• Custom fields and outline codes

• Tables

• Toolbars

• Groups

• Forms

• Filters

• Macros and VBA modules

• Reports

• Import/export maps

• Base calendars

As you alter settings in your project by customizing your view and calendar settings, modifying tables, and creating sets of custom fields, for example, those changes initially apply to just the current project. If you want your custom settings available to any project opened on your local computer, you can add them to the project global template using the Organizer (see Figure 28-1). Those new settings become your new defaults.

Figure 28-1: Use the Organizer to copy customized elements to the project global template to make those elements available to other projects.

The project global template also contains your Microsoft Project-wide settings, which you access by clicking Tools, Options. In the Options dialog box, various categories of options are available, like View, Schedule, Calculation, and so on. Certain settings apply just to the current project file; others apply to Microsoft Project as a whole and change the project global template. You can use the Set As Default button to add current project settings to your project global template (see Figure 28-2).

Figure 28-2: Any group of options specified as being for the current file applies only to that file unless you click the Set As Default button.

Settings that do not specify that they apply only to the current file apply to Microsoft Project in general (see Figure 28-3).

Figure 28-3: The settings on the Spelling tab apply to your spelling checker options in Microsoft Project in general. Changes here update the project global file.

When you change a Microsoft Project setting, every new file you open from that point on will reflect that change. When you change a local project setting and then set it as a default, it will apply to any new projects, but it will not change the setting for other existing projects.