Creating baselines

You can create a baseline at any time while working on a project. You can baseline selected tasks or the current view. If the current view is the chart that represents the programme, you can baseline the whole project.

To create a baseline:

Display the view that you want to baseline. If you want to baseline the whole project, you must display the chart that represents the programme. To baseline only certain tasks, select the tasks that you want to baseline. If you want to associate a different baseline with each individual project in a portfolio, click the chart or summary group in the project view to view the tasks within the individual project.
On the Project tab, in the Properties group, click Baseline Manager. The Baseline/What If Manager appears.
Click New. The Baseline Wizard appears.
Follow the instructions on the screen to create the baseline. You specify whether you want to embed the baseline into the project using the Embed the baseline in the file check box on the first page of the Baseline Wizard. If you choose not to embed the baseline, you are asked to specify a file name and location for the baseline file; if you are baselining an Asta Enterprise project, you are asked to specify the data source in which to save the baseline.

The advantages and disadvantages of working with embedded baselines and baselines that are separate files are listed below:

Type of baseline	Advantages	Disadvantages
Embedded	Possible to share a project and its baselines by giving people a single file.	The file size of projects is increased as a project's baselines are saved in the same file as the project. This may present problems if you want to email large projects to people - although you can compress ("zip") files before sending them.
Separate file	The file size of projects is smaller.	When sharing a project and its baselines, you need to give people the project file and all of the project's baseline files individually, and ensure that they are saved in the same folder structure to enable the project to locate its baselines.

Do not embed baselines into projects if you work with projects that are located on a network drive, rather than on your local PC, as this can lead to problems if your network connection fails.

When you have completed the wizard, the new baseline is listed in the Baseline/What If Manager. Depending on your display options, the new baseline may be displayed in the bar chart automatically. A graphical indicator - four horizontal grey bars - is displayed in the Name column in the Baseline/What If Manager dialog for any baselines that are embedded. This makes it easy to identify which baselines are embedded and which exist as separate files.

When you create a baseline of a subchart but not its owning chart, the baseline includes a baseline task for the expanded task of the subchart so that the project's hierarchy is maintained in the baseline. If you open the subchart's baseline in the owning chart you will see a baseline task for the expanded task, indicating that the subchart is included in the baseline.

You should mark one baseline as being the "current baseline".