How to determine which projects are tied to which preference sets

We'll do! Hopefully it will allow for filtering project numbers. 

Captain Steve,

Looks like you're the CAD Nazi, gonna lock down the ability to create or modify preference sets.  Although, I do think that is a good idea to limit who can and can't modify a preference set!

Rob,

It was great seeing you this past weekend. I don't want to take away privileges at all. But the people that do not understand the implications of making changes to a preference set should not be making changes. I'd rather educate people and give them the freedom to IMPROVE our preference set rather than restricting people the ability to help our cause.

What are your (and anyone else who would like to chime in) views or opinions on the matter? 

Jer,

Will there be a note somewhere that states who modified the specific Preference set last and when it was done (besides knowing which projects are pulling from each Preference Set)?

We do want to add timestamp and modified_by fields to the database, but don't currently have a time scheduled for it.

--J

My opinion is that there should be a hierarchy regarding the modifications.  Similar to Administrator privileges versus Power Users and Standard Users in terms of a network.  If you feel that everyone should be able to have the ability to modify a "standard" preference set then everyone could have Administrator privileges.  However I prefer that a select group of individuals should have that ability.  

If set up this way and a standard user wanted to make modifications to a preference set, they could start with the "Master" preference set and do a "save as" with a suffix after the name as an identifier so that a different user would be able to deduce that some changes were made to the Standard preference set.

If you do add the modified info regarding the timestamp and modified by fields, would it be possible to also show what was modified?

Rob,

As I understand what you are saying, that is exactly how the system is set up currently.

As for the timestamp, to show what was modified would require a log of all activity, which we don't have any plans for.  We do, however, have plans for an ability to Print all of the Preference settings, which could then be compared more easily.

--J

Rob,

Are you using Preference Set permissions? It's already possible to lock out certain users from editing an existing preference set. They would have to make a copy/new preference set to edit anything, which if I'm understanding correctly is Steve's original comment - they're making too many rogue copies. But at least they can't change the office standard original set.

Preference Set Permissions (Read-Only, Read-Write & By User)

There are also project permissions.

-Amanda

Rob, Jer and Amanda,

You are all so helpful. I was fishing for comments and you all delivered. You're right Amanda. The "rogue" copies are what I'm concerned with. I'd like to purge the rogue copies, but don't want to do so without knowing which projects they are tied to it. I got another suggestion outside of this forum. It was delete the copy (of course I'd back it up first) and let whomever complains about it being gone raise the issue. I don't like this option because I get upset if the printer is out of toner when we're trying to make a submittal. Imagine the frustration this could cause if some last minute changes were needed to be made and the profile was missing. I don't know. If it was easily determined which projects were tied to which profiles the issue could be solved "easily". For now, I guess we'll just have to have these extra profiles in our dialog box potentially adding to confusion. 

BTW, we manage the profiles the way that the profiles are meant to be managed. Just as Rob (my good friend) and Jer (my most favorite wizard) suggest.

Again, thank you all. Is there a way to "easily" determine which projects are tied to which profiles to be included in the newly overhauled project manager?

-Seaweed

Steve,

Here's an idea...  This would add an extra task which I'm not in favor of but if you were to create a spreadsheet that everyone could access.  It'd be a list of all of the projects.  Have a field available to populate which shows which preference set it uses.  Make it available and mandatory for each person to fill out each time a new project is created.

To ascertain what the "unwanted" preference set belongs to, pass around the list and ask all PMs to fill in which preference set their project uses.

Not sure if it's possible but, if Land F/X could export the entire Project List as a csv file to be used in Excel, that would speed things up considerably!

I've attached an excel file which is the basics of what I was thinking....

The new Projects screen already has a new Report button, that can send out to Excel.  The only thing missing is the Preference setting for each, which as I mentioned is an easy addition.  The plan is to wrap up the new dialog by the end of year, so just a couple weeks away here.

--J

Jer,

Awesome. We can "easily" wait a few days.

Rob,

That spreadsheet was great! The inside reference gave me a wide grin. Thanks!