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How to mass update milestones? Now that the calendar functionality is fixed, I like to use Milestones to populate the calendar but mass editing Milestone settings is not an option.

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Level 10

What I've done: created a report that finds the tasks to which I want to add a milestone. Then I select all of them and Edit, but the Milestone assignment in thge Settings section isn't an option. Is there another way to mass assign tasks to a milestone? Any clever workarounds?

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14 Replies

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Level 2

I'm in the same boat. We just updated our milestone paths and it will be a very tedious and labor intense task for me to go into each project and select the new milestone tasks. Anyone have any tips?

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Level 2

Did you get a response on how to do this? I'm having the same issue.

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Level 7

Hi ladies -

Unfortunately you are correct. A way to bulk edit tasks to add a milestone name doesn't exist today. This is what I've done in the past as a workaround. Keep in mind this works because the team has a template with tasks that are named the same across the projects in their portfolio so I can filter on the portfolio and the task name.

Create a report that pulls a task that exists in multiple projects that you want to add a milestone name to

Include the Milestone Name field in the columns and then inline edit each one in the report - it goes quickly if you just start typing click enter to select the name and enter again to go to the next line item

Iterate on this for each different milestone name

It's not ideal but it works and doesn't take too long once you begin.

Hope this helps,

Teale

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Level 2
The issue I’m having is that I’m not able to inline edit from the report. I swear I’ve done it before so I think something has changed in the system. Jen Buher Space and Business Systems Planner Tractor Supply Co (615) 440-4624

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Level 7

If you can't inline edit it typically means you don't have a milestone path associated with the project.

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Level 10

Or it's an access issue of being able to manage the task. Someone who understands permissions may be able to be more clear. Permissions get me every time.

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Level 7

Good point Jill!

Jen are you full admin in the system? If not, it could be a permissions issue.

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Level 2

Yes, I'm an admin and the milestone paths are assigned to the projects.

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Level 7

That's certainly odd. I'll let you know if anything else comes to mind.

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Level 10

Even if you are an admin, I’m pretty sure that if you don’t have the right permissions on the project or task you aren’t allowed to edit. I think. I’m an admin but I’m also on every single project as a resource manager so I always have access to everything, which is why permissions elude me, I don’t experience the problem too often. I would try adding yourself to a project and see if that changes the inline editing in the report.

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Community Advisor
Hi Jennifer and Jen (et al),I invite you to consider our Sync Template solution, which lets you periodically adapt Milestones (among other aspects) as things change, then synchronize those adjustments out to the real projects on mass (provide you have permissions to do so).Alternatively, you could also use our Excel Updater solution to effectively bulk update; less convenient than Sync Template, but when you have enough Tasks to update, far more efficient than manually inline editing.Regards,DougOn Dec 19, 2020, at 6:48 AM, Workfront One <workfrontone@workfront.com> wrote: All Discussions RelatedToID:0D74X000006Nw7OSASFeedItemID:0D50z00006YLC7nCAH Re: How to mass update milestones? Now that the calendar functionality is fixed, I like to use Milestones to populate the calendar but mass editing Milestone settings is not an option. Jill Ackerman Created 12/19/2020 6:48 AM Even if you are an admin, I’m pretty sure that if you don’t have the right permissions on the project or task you aren’t allowed to edit. I think. I’m an admin but I’m also on every single project as a resource manager so I always have access to everything, which is why permissions elude me, I don’t experience the problem too often. I would try adding yourself to a project and see if that changes the inline editing in the report. View/Answer Teale McCleaf Created 12/18/2020 3:38 PM That's certainly odd. I'll let you know if anything else comes to mind.    View/Answer Workfront, Inc. | 3301 N Thanksgiving Way Ste 500 | Lehi, UT 84043 This email was sent as part of the Workfront One community. | Privacy Policy

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Level 2

I'm 100% sure that if you're the admin, it is not a permissions issue. Adding yourself as the resource manager to all projects is needed for resource planning views. Permissions to edit/manage a project come from two things:

1.) License: You need a Plan license to edit.

2.) Manage Access: If you're not the creator/owner of the project or report, you will need the owner to provide you with manage access.

System Administrator access trumps all of this, so you can edit projects and reports without a project/report owner to grant you manage access.

I no longer have to adjust anything because we did the labor for this already, but I did just run a report to see if I could inline edit. I ran into the issues Jen noted. Perhaps it the report type? I started with a Task report. Is that correct?

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Level 9

Found this thread attempting the same edit myself. I was able to use a Template Task report to mass update the Milestone Path on the template tasks, but nothing I do makes that same information editable in-line on a Task level report for existing projects.

The other thing I noted is that I had a difficult time getting the IDs associated with the path steps themselves. Usually I can just add a View to that resource and see it, but for this I had to build a Milestone report. It feels as if the milestone functionality isn't quite connected to tasks the way other information is, though I'm not sure that makes any sense.

That all being said, I am a determined person, and have thousands of tasks to retrofit with their information - so I finally designed a Fusion module to mass-update them all. Realize not everyone has that tool, but if you've found this thread and you do, reach out and I'll help you build the scenario.

Katherine

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Community Advisor

Well done Katherine,

Alternatively, for those without Fusion, our Excel Updater solution can set Task Milestone IDs, too.

Regards,

Doug