Global Change

What a planner means

Tools > Global Change (Professional) writes new values on many rows at once. Oracle: you can change all activities, resource assignments, or project expenses, or a selected group. You edit existing values or assign new ones (example: assign resources to a group of activities).

This is not a filter. A filter hides rows. Global Change mutates the project. See Filters and Layouts Are a View, Not the Schedule.

If / Then / Else

Oracle: If statements pick which rows. Then / Else say what to write. Unlimited If/Then/Else. At least one Then is required. If is optional: a Then with no If applies to all activities in the current filter.

Multiple Ifs: All of the Following or Any of the Following. Multiple Thens run in the order listed. Else needs at least one If.

Subject Area (when you add an If): Activities, Activity Resource Assignments, or Project Expenses.

You name the specification, click Change, get a Global Change Report, pick rows, then Commit Changes or Cancel Changes (data returns to its original state). You can save the report as ASCII.

Rows exclusively locked by another user do not change. Oracle: open Exclusive if you need the whole project.

Security: if your profile cannot access the items, you cannot commit.

Manual future-period values can change or delete when you globally change certain dates, duration type, curve, or units (Oracle lists the fields). EPPM: a unit/duration Global Change uses Application Settings hours/period and ignores the “use the assigned calendar for hours per time period” checkbox.

Not in the project XER

Export/import the specification as a PCF file (Tools > Global Change > Export / Import). Like a layout .plf, it is not a project XER table. Oracle’s project XER map does not list GCHANGE. Do not invent a GCHANGE table in a Viewer parse.

One Oracle conditions page says “multiple instances of global change specifications are not stored” and that only the last set of conditions is available. That conflicts with New / named spec / Copy / Export PCF. Treat named specs + PCF as the working UI; do not invent a storage rule from the “not stored” sentence.

Microsoft Project

No If/Then Global Change. Find/Replace or a macro is not the same object. Do not map PCF to MSP Organizer.

Don't

• Treat Global Change as a filter, as Calculate schedule, or as a layout.
• Treat a PCF as schedule logic or as stored in a project XER.
• Invent a GCHANGE table on the project XER map.
• Run or replay a Global Change from a Viewer.
• Treat Then-with-no-If as “the whole database” (it is the current filter).