Organizing Resource drop down menu

Question

Here is my issue,

I have way to many resources but they are necessary and since any of my projects could use any of the resources at any time I wanted a way to make the drop down menu in Gantt Chart view feel more organized and easier to work through. Now I have used Project to the liking of my company and I know there are a lot of ways to do some tasks but basically what I want to do is have the drop down menu be a little more detailed. For example I have my resources organized by department , I'd like to transfer that to the drop down menu be able to jump to engineer and pick a name. Can this only be done by making numerous lists? Or can I achieve this through some other means like using a different field to organize them. Right now I just rely on a macro that allows me to use ID's and then quickly switch them with the corresponding resource.

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

It is not possible to customize Resource Names field's drop-down list. Project does not work like Excel. 

Regards.

Answer 2

• In Resource Sheet view, add Text1 field to the table and rename it as Department. 
• Then define a lookup list containing the department names for Text1 resource custom field.
• In Resource Sheet view, populate Text1 field for all the resources by selecting department

names from the drop-down list.

• Define a filter with the following column values:

Field Name: Text1

Test: contains

Value(s): "Select department from the list: "?

Note on the question mark.

You can now switch to the Gantt Chart view and assign resources by applying the filter created to the resource list in Assign Resources dialog box.

Pls tell if you need the steps in more detail.

Hope it works.

Regards.

Answer 3

Jake683,

It might be possible through the use of a change type event to trigger a custom userform. The userform could be structured any way you want it (Journey moment).

Just a thought.

John

Answer 4

I apologize this is exactly what I needed it, it actually helps tremendously and removes the need for a drop down menu at all.

For anyone that needs this I recommend it, I have 1500+ resources and grouped them into about 50 groups and cut down so much lag time from loading a long list. Another nice thing is you can use this for any type of grouping, say through OBS codes or maybe your departments are numbered.

Too bad project can't do this via a drop down menu also, seems simple enough if excel can do it.

Answer 5

This is so close to what I want but still quite far away.

I populate my tasks with resources through the gantt chart view, using the drop down menu it will give me all of my resources.

What I really wanted to do was have the drop down menu be organized to my liking but now I am seeing this is challenging.

The only work-around I have achieved so far is populating resources with an ID then have a macro switch them out. I really want to just edit or customize the drop down menu in some way.

ie: click drop down menu to assign a resource to task A (Resource list opens to a list of departments, click department, opens a list of names)

Perhaps this is impossible and I want to much out of Project :)