Kimberly
this seems to be working. I will add this to my project sheet that has all the tasks that I am tracking. I have been working with a test sheet for now.

it is not that I was giving up, it is just that I have been working onn this for a couple of weeks. first it was the problem where only a certain amount of data in the notes field was getting exported when I created the excel sheet for this project. I was working with someone to get a macro together that would export all of the information in the notes field.

then I had this problem.

I do have a couple of questions.
1) does the order of the fields in the sheet matter? in two of your responses, you mention to enter the fields in a certain order.

2) I have created the fields and entered the data in the tracking table. is this where I do all of the editing to the tasks when it comes to the dates and durations? is the entry table just for entering the tasks for the first time and adding any fields that do not pertain to dates and durations.

again
thanks for all of the help that you have given me on this.

3) when the boss and I were taking about this, he was talking about baselines being done on a monthly basis so thet we can track the progress from 1 month to another. since I am using the baseline fields to hold the estimate information, this will screw this all up , won't it? if he wants to baseline, how would we handle this?