Project types and templates

A project template is a reusable starting point: a project's structure — its tasks, durations, links and calendars — with everything that belonged to that one project cleared away. A project type groups templates, and each type can name a default template that a new project of that type is offered first.

Where to find it#

• To make a template, open the project you want to reuse: Save as a project template… is the last item of Tools ▾'s This project group, and also an item in a project's ⋯ menu on Home (after Make a copy…, before Archive).
• To manage types and templates, open the Company page › Standards. The Project types and project templates card reads "Types group your project templates. A new project offers the type's default project template first." It lists the most recently updated types with how many active templates each has; Manage… opens the full list.
• To use one, start a new project — see Creating a project.

Saving a project as a template#

Save as a project template… opens the New project template screen: a Name (1 to 60 characters), a Project type, and five lists. Kept and Cleared for a fresh start start collapsed and sum up what a template takes and what it leaves behind. Fixed dates and Dated calendar entries open by themselves when this project has constraints, deadlines or dated calendar entries that won't carry over (otherwise they read "None in this project."). Task notes is where you tick the notes to keep (none are ticked at first; Select all and Clear help).

A template keeps the task hierarchy and levels, durations and work hours, predecessors and successors, milestones, the calendars' working weeks with their annual holidays and recurring shutdowns, crew and equipment demand, column definitions, splits and formatting, and the task notes you tick.

It clears everything that belonged to this project: the data date, baselines, update snapshots, the contract ledger, progress and actual dates, assignees, crew and equipment fills, attached files, checklists, share links, the import source, constraints and deadlines, and the calendars' dated holidays and working exceptions.

A company admin saving a template can also tick Set as the default for the chosen type. The project you saved from doesn't change.

Project types#

In the Project types and project templates dialog, each type is a heading with its templates under it:

• Default template picks the template a new project of that type is offered first.
• Rename… and Retire act on the type; a retired type shows Restore.
• Each template row shows Retire (or Restore once retired).
• Templates saved with no type sit in a No project type list, where each one can be moved to a type.
• The add row at the foot creates a new type.

Starting a project from a template#

When you create a project from a template, everything is re-dated from the start date you type. Company defaults fill in first, then the template, then anything you changed by hand. The new project is its own: renaming, editing or retiring the template later never touches a project already made from it.

Who can use it#

• Anyone with an Editor or Admin role can save a project as a template.
• Managing types and templates — renaming, retiring, restoring, choosing defaults — is for company admins.
• A Field account never sees a template's contents.

See Who can see and do what.

Good to know#

• A company can keep up to 100 project types ("The project type list is full (100)") and 200 project templates ("The project template list is full (200)"), retired ones included. A template holds up to 2,000 tasks.
• Type names and template names must be unique: a name that matches an active one apart from capitals or spacing is refused — for a type, "That project type is already on the list"; for a template, a message that the name already exists.
• Training course projects can't be saved as templates.
• A calendar standard sets the working calendar for projects that don't bring their own — see Company calendar standards.