Find and Replace capability?

[JustinKe]

Does anyone have a way to perform a "find and replace" as it relates to the names of tasks? We have a weekly project that requires us to rename tasks approximately 500 times. It would be great if we could do this through a find and replace tool. I've downloaded web apps that allow you to do the initial find and replace, but it doesn't stick when you leave the task screen. Justin Keller The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC

[Doug_Den_Hoed__AtAppStore]

Hi Justin, Using our "http://store.atappstore.com/product/excel-updater/">Excel Updater solution, you coul edit the Tasks names (and any other Task attribute) in Excel, and then upload it to apply the changes in Workfront. Regards, Doug

[pco88]

Maybe kickstarts can work? Export the task kickstart, open up the xlsx file, filter to the project you wish to modify by id. Then all the tasks are left for that project. Rename the tasks by find and replace. Change the IsNew to true (modifying by kickstart does not work), import kickstart and then delete old tasks within the project (mass delete is easier to do, plus you get the chance to recover). Caveat would be if you use updates within task or there are other information within tasks, those may not be copied over but most things are. Complex but repeatable. Polly Co

[DavidCo3]

Just wondering why you need to rename 500 tasks on a weekly basis within this project? Perhaps there is another way to achieve the business requirement without needing to rename these tasks? If you can elaborate, someone may have a good idea. Another (fairly clunky) suggestion without using kickstarts or external services is to use Advanced Search to find all the tasks of a given name within the projects you want them changed in. Then just go down the list pasting (CTRL-V) and hitting Enter per line. Not glamorous, but you could get through the list. David Cornwell

[TheronLa]

Perhaps a naming convention, putting under a parent task, or using some custom fields (calculate a concatenated field to get an automatically generated name) could work? Theron Lalla Marcel Digital

[JustinKe]

We create a new project each week for our circular production. The number of pages in our circular changes each week, so we're constantly adding and subtracting tasks from week to week. Perhaps our best bet is to start each project fresh from a template versus copying the project from week to week. Justin Keller The Stop & Shop Supermarket Company LLC

[AnthonyIm]

Hi Justin, Wow, that sounds intense. Question: are the basic tasks the same but just deal with different objects? Like for us, we have different rounds of creative. In each round, you have Work On Round, Internal Review, Client Presentation, and Incorporate Client Feedback. So we have a template that has those 4 tasks and the Project Manager just adds Round 1, Round 2, and/or Round 3 in their project schedule. Then when they attach a template, they can say that they want Round 1 (2 or 3) to be the parent of task. Then we updated the layout template for My Work to include the Parent Name. So when a user sees it, they see that they have Client Presentation for Project ABC and the Parent is Round 2. (You can also add Parent Name to a task report if you use that more than My Work). This has worked great for us so far. The only time it doesn't work too well is when looking at the resource grid or the User Utilization report in Legacy Resource Planning because that does not have parent task in it. But really, resource managers haven't cared about it too much so I'm not saying anything. HAHAHAHA! Hope that helps Anthony Imgrund FCB