When you have a project within Microsoft Project Online, one of the key benefits is that you also get a project site. Project sites are useful tools for teams to collaborate, track documents, and enforce standardized policies and procedures – amongst other things.

As an administrator, you may have noticed when you create a project site template from a project, it keeps the name of that project as the notebook’s name for all future projects that utilize that template. While convenient, you will probably want to rename your notebooks for organizational purposes.

How to Rename Your Notebook

Say you create a project named “Example.” You can then create a project site for this project and save it as a template. When you open Example’s project site notebook, you should see the following:

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You can apply this template to all future projects of the same enterprise project type.

If you create a second project of the same enterprise project type, named “Testing,” and then generate a new project site, you will see upon opening the notebook that it says “Example Notebook” at the top center – with “Testing” as the project name.

See below:

Microsoft project server tips

Even though the notebook names are the same, they are, in fact, two completely separate notebooks.

To fix this problem, you need to deactivate the project site notebook and then activate the notebook on that particular project site. The steps are outlined below. Note that deactivating the project site notebook will remove all information within the notebook.

1. In the project site, click on the gear icon and go to “Site settings.”

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2. Click “Manage site features.”

microsoft project server tips

3. Scroll to “Site Notebook” and then select “Deactivate.”

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4. Click “Deactivate this feature.”

Microsoft project online tips

5. Then scroll to “Site Notebook” and click “Activate.”

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6. Now if you click on your notebook link in the Quicklaunch, you will see that the notebook name has changed.

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Utilize these project site notebooks to track meeting minutes, capture action items, and collaborate on ideas. They are great tools for your project teams – so take advantage of them!

Stay tuned for more helpful Microsoft Project Server and Microsoft Project Online tips and advice on Tom’s Tech Talk.


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