Working in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Project Connected to Team Foundation Server
You can communicate with Visual Studio Team Foundation Server by using Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Project. You can decide to either work in an online mode where you are connected to the server that hosts the team project that you have accessed, or in an offline mode where you are accessing the local computer and document.
Important
You may receive the following error if you install Office 2010 on the same computer as a previous version of Office.
Team Foundation Error
Interface not registered (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80040155)
You may be able to resolve this error by repairing Office 2010. You can access the Repair option by opening the Control Panel, choose Uninstall or change a program, open the context menu for Office 2010, and then choose Change.
Common Tasks
You can start work from Team Explorer, Excel, or Project. Your worksheet or project plan can be tied to a list of work items or a work item query.
To work in Excel, see Bulk add or modify work items with Excel. To work in Project, see Schedule tasks and assign resources using Microsoft Project.
.png "Open Query Results in Office Excel")
.png "Exporting Work Items to Office Project")
For information about connecting, disconnecting, and working offline in Excel and Project, see the following topics:
When you import work items into Excel or Project, local copies of your work items are created. The data in the local document at first matches the data in the database, but you or other team members can change the data about work items and cause the two to differ. To view the most recent changes from the database, refresh the document. This downloads the latest values in the data store to your local document. To write changes from the document to the database, publish the changes. Publishing uploads the changes you made to the work item tracking data store.
Resolve publishing errors
Review the following topics to resolve any publishing errors that arise when working in Excel or Project.
Problem |
Resolution |
|---|---|
Resolve data conflicts. A data conflict occurs when one team member changes a field value in either Microsoft Project or Microsoft Excel at the same time another team member changes the same field in Team Foundation Server. You can use Team Foundation Server tools to resolve these data conflicts. |
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Resolve data validation errors. A data validation error occurs if a team member changes a work item in a way that violates the rules for that type of work item. You can use tools in Team Foundation Server and Office Excel to resolve these errors. |
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Resolve invalid links in a tree. An invalid link occurs if a team member views work items in Microsoft Excel as a hierarchy or tree list, and moves a work item or sorts the list so that it breaks the dependencies between work items. You can resolve this error by reviewing the error message and repositioning work items to reflect the work item structure. |
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Correct summary tasks that are reporting hours. If you determine that hours are counted twice in reports that contain task hours, you can correct the problem by using the Work Items With Summary Values team query. |