Calculating Outline Levels in Excel

quigley6

New Member
Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
22
Hello,

I have set of data in excel that is organized in nested groups (using the "Data, Group and Outline, Group" step).

Does anyone have a clever way to determine the “outline Level” of this set of data? As I understand it, outline level is simply a numeric reference for how many indents there are in each row (1, 2, 3, 4, etc).

Thank you all.
 

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What is it about the data that is stopping you from seeing the outline levels? Or is it that you have multiple outlines in one sheet?
 
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Hi Glenn,

I need to a quick way to record the Task Name indentation structure (that already exists in Excel) into a column so that I can cut and paste it into MSProject along with the existing spreadsheet information. MSProject has a column field called Outline Level (which is neat by the way) that will automatically indent the Task Name column rows according to the numerical values in the Outline Level column (for example; 1=one indent; 2=two indentations; 3=three indentations and so on.

I have a 2000+ line Excel file that has the tasks identified and indented the way they should be (which is outputted data from another program). I need to cut and paste the Task Names to a MSProject file and capture the indentations at the same time. When merely copying the Task Names from Excel and pasting them into MSProject, the indentations are lost. In essence, I need to come up with the "outline level" for each row in my excel spreadsheet so that these numerical values can be incorporated into the outline level column in MSProject.

I would appreciate any help you could offer. Thanks, Burt
 
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Here's a quick and dirty way to do it:
select cell A1 of the sheet,
do menu command Insert/Name/Define, and create a name called DetailLevel, with a formula ( in the Refers To box ) of:
Code:
=GET.CELL(28,Sheet1!A1)
( alter the sheet name Sheet1 to whatever your sheet is called )
Now in any blank column of the sheet type the formula =DetailLevel and copy down.

That will give you 1 for no indent, 2 for level 2, 3 for level 3. That might be 1 out for your purposes. If so, just make the formula you type in the cells of the blank column be:
=DetailLevel-1

Hope that does it.
 
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That was truly brilliant!

Glenn,

That was truly brilliant! It worked like a charm in Excel. Sorry to belabor you with another question. The “Outline Level” column in MSProject will not let me paste the values calculated in Excel. I tried tricking it by creating a “Number1” Column in MSProject, pasting the values calculated in Excel, and then trying to enter a formula (Outline Level= Number1) in the “Outline Level” column (using Tools, Customize, Field). Can’t get anything to work. Still trying.

Thanks, Burt
 
Upvote 0
That was truly brilliant!

Glenn,

That was truly brilliant! It worked like a charm in Excel. Sorry to belabor you with another question. The “Outline Level” column in MSProject will not let me paste the values calculated in Excel. I tried tricking it by creating a “Number1” Column in MSProject, pasting the values calculated in Excel, and then trying to enter a formula (Outline Level= Number1) in the “Outline Level” column (using Tools, Customize, Field). Can’t get anything to work. Still trying.

Thanks, Burt
 
Upvote 0
That was truly brilliant!

Glenn,

That was truly brilliant! It worked like a charm in Excel. Sorry to belabor you with another question. The “Outline Level” column in MSProject will not let me paste the values calculated in Excel. I tried tricking it by creating a “Number1” Column in MSProject, pasting the values calculated in Excel, and then trying to enter a formula (Outline Level= Number1) in the “Outline Level” column (using Tools, Customize, Field). Can’t get anything to work. Still trying.

Thanks, Burt
 
Upvote 0
Unfortunately I don't know MSProject at all. Maybe someone out there knows what you need.
 
Upvote 0
Incorporating Group-Level Summary Formulas in a Sheet

Glenn (et al),

I have a spreadsheet that is a few thousand lines long. These lines are nested and grouped like they would appear in a Project sheet. At each "roll-up" level, I need to execute a particular formula for that particular roll-up level. The spreadsheet is just too long to paste the formulas. Does anyone have a way to do this? I am thinking a macro...but I have no experiance with them. I would very much appreciate any thoughts/help on this.

Thank you, Burt



Here's a quick and dirty way to do it:
select cell A1 of the sheet,
do menu command Insert/Name/Define, and create a name called DetailLevel, with a formula ( in the Refers To box ) of:
Code:
=GET.CELL(28,Sheet1!A1)
( alter the sheet name Sheet1 to whatever your sheet is called )
Now in any blank column of the sheet type the formula =DetailLevel and copy down.

That will give you 1 for no indent, 2 for level 2, 3 for level 3. That might be 1 out for your purposes. If so, just make the formula you type in the cells of the blank column be:
=DetailLevel-1

Hope that does it.
 
Upvote 0
Do you have access to the unnested ungrouped list? Does the logic of the nesting and grouping make it suitable for Excel "Data/Subtotals" processing?
 
Upvote 0

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