It is possible you may find that a project might exist with multiple names, such as “Website” and “Website (david@myco.com)”. Why is this happening, and how can you get them all grouped properly again?

The reason multiple project names appear is that multiple people in your team created new projects with the same name, roughly at the same time, before either one of you started assigning tasks to one another.

Consider the following (using fictitious names here):

• Assume David creates a task in a project named PERSONAL, and syncs.
• Assume you also create a task and put it into a project named PERSONAL, and sync.

At this point, Chirp doesn't really think these two projects are related. Neither of you have assigned a task to each other, so Chirp simply treats this as two projects with the same name, but that aren't aren't synchronized between these two users. Which is what it *should* do. After all -- you don't want everybody everywhere to see tasks in your Personal project just because they also happen to have a project named "Personal."

• Now assume that David creates another task assigned to you as the Assignee, and puts it into his project named PERSONAL, and syncs.

When you next sync, you will receive this task assignment. But in this case, Chirp can't assume that your project named PERSONAL and his project named PERSONAL are the same project. It does not - and should not - merge all the tasks into one project named PERSONAL. Instead, Chirp shows the label for the project *David* created as PERSONAL(david@myco.com) to distinguish it from the one you created.

This is the state people find themselves in when they ask us why they have two projects of the same name. Sometimes people don't realize the two project names are different because their Task Tab (in the main window) is too narrow, and is obscuring the portion of the project name with the qualifier (e.g. (david@myco.com)).

It can get even more confusing if each project happens to have a task name with precisely the same name. Chirp (again, rightly) treats these as different tasks. But in this instance, if our David user adds a Status Update to the task in PERSONAL(david@myco.com), and you look at the instance of that task in (your) PERSONAL project, you may not see his update.

How do I resolve this?

If you want to have all the tasks in the same project name (e.g. combine the tasks into one project), do the following. (Assume the example & people above, and that you are going to merge the tasks into the project YOU created):

• You move tasks you have assigned out of David's project into yours by doing this in your copy of Chirp:
  • Select David's project PERSONAL(david@...) in the main Chirp window
  • Click the column heading for "Assignor" to sort by assignor name
  • If there are any tasks in this project where you are the assignor:
  • Double-click the task to open it
  • Change the Project name shown in that task to PERSONAL (without the "david@" suffix)
  • Click Save and Close
  • Repeat until all tasks where you are assignor have been changed
  • Make sure you have assigned David at least one task in YOUR project named PERSONAL (e.g. without the "david@" suffix). This will make sure he is "in" your PERSONAL project team.
  • Click the Sync toolbar button.
• David moves tasks he assigned in his PERSONAL project into yours by doing this in his copy of Chirp:
  • Start by clicking the Sync toolbar button, to be sure he has received the assignment to your WEBSITE project
  • David - in his copy of Chirp - selects HIS project PERSONAL (no suffix)
  • Sort the Task Table by Assignor
  • For each task in this table where David is the assignor:
  • Double-click the task to open it
  • Change the Project name shown in that task to your PERSONAL(you@myco.com) project
  • Click Save and Close
  • Repeat until all tasks where he, David, is assignor have been changed
  • Sync
• If any tasks remain in David's PERSONAL project, these were probably assigned by other persons, and the assignors of *those* tasks will need to do the same thing that David just did.

Once all the tasks are all changed over to be in the one PERSONAL project, the instances with a suffix should disappear from your Project list.

The key here is to not start projects independently; have one person start a project, and add others (by assigning tasks) before they start their own.

(TinyURL for this article: http://tinyurl.com/yf592x )