Microsoft Project For Dummies. Cynthia Snyder Dionisio

2-3: The result of choosing the File ⇒ Info command.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      FIGURE 2-4: The Project Information dialog box.

This list describes the settings within the Project Information dialog box:

       Start Date and Finish Date: For a project scheduled forward from the start date (see the next bullet), enter only the start date. Or if you schedule backward from the finish date, enter a finish date.

       Schedule From: You can choose to have tasks scheduled backward from the finish date or forward from the start date. Most folks move forward from the start date. Although you can schedule backward, use this feature only to schedule the work backward initially, by selecting the finish date and clicking the OK button. Immediately after doing so, return to this dialog box and revert to the (newly calculated) start date. If you don’t, you may encounter problems down the road if you eventually record progress. At that point, the end date will be fixed because you’ve backward-scheduled, and the start date will be fixed because you’ve recorded actuals, so the schedule will no longer be dynamic and won’t expand or contract.

       Current Date: By default, this setting matches the computer clock setting. However, you can change it so that it doesn’t match the computer clock setting. Changing this date is useful for looking at what-if scenarios or for tracking progress as of a certain date in the past or any date you choose.

       Status Date: You typically set the current date to track the progress on the project. When tracking, you usually want to see the status of the project as of the current moment, so you can ignore this setting. However, if you want to track as of the end of a fiscal period or another timeframe, change it to track the status of tasks as of any other date.

       Calendar: For now, assume you will use the Standard calendar. I describe calendars in Chapter 8.

       Priority: This field is useful if your organization has many projects and you create links among them. If you use a tool such as resource leveling (see Chapter 12 for more about this topic) to resolve conflicts, it can consider this project priority setting when calculating what to delay and what to keep on track.

      Entering the WBS

      The schedule should be set up the same way as the WBS. If you want to continue the outline numbering scheme from the WBS, Project automatically extends the outline numbering used for the WBS to the schedule tasks. You can do this in two ways:

      1 Select the column to the right of where you want to insert the new column. I select the Task Name column because I like to insert this column to the left of the that column.

      2 Select the Format tab.

      3 In the Columns group, click Insert Column.

      4 Select the Outline Number option.

      This option uses a separate column to track your WBS and task numbering. You can also enter the outline number directly into the task cell by following these steps:

      1 Click to open the Format tab.

      2 In the Show/Hide group, select the Outline Number check box.

      The first information to enter into the new project is the WBS. Follow these simple steps to enter the WBS in Gantt Chart view:

      1 In the Task Name column, click a blank cell.

      2 Type the name of the WBS element.Using the example of the Desert Rose Security, the first element is Perimeter.

      3 Press Enter to move to the next cell in the column and then type the WBS element name.

      4 Repeat Step 3 until you enter all WBS names.You can edit the text that you type by pressing the Delete or Backspace key to clear characters.

Figure 2-5 shows part of the screen display with the outline numbering after you enter the WBS outline and indent some of the tasks. You learn how to indent next.

      © John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

      FIGURE 2-5: Desert Rose Security WBS.

      Indenting and outdenting (a.k.a. promoting and demoting)

Outdenting and indenting are the functions you use to move tasks to higher or lower levels of detail in the WBS and the task list. In several software programs, these terms are promoting and demoting, respectively:

       Outdenting a task moves it up a level in the outline (literally shifting it to the left in the outline).

       Indenting a task moves it down a level in the outline (literally indenting the task to the right in the outline). Whenever you indent one or more tasks, the task above becomes the summary task. You can read more about summary tasks in Chapter 3.

      You use tools from the Schedule group on the Task tab of the Ribbon, shown in Figure 2-5, to outdent and indent tasks in a project outline. The Outdent Task tool has a left-facing arrow; the Indent Task tool has a right-facing arrow.

      To outdent or indent a task, follow these steps:

      1 Click a task to select it.

      2 Click the Indent Task or Outdent Task button, according to the action you want to take.When you indent a task, the task above it becomes a summary task. The summary task is in bold on the sheet. On the chart, a summary task has a bracket that stretches from the beginning of the earliest task to the end of the latest task.

      

You can build the outline even faster by indenting multiple tasks at a time. Drag to select multiple task IDs and then indent them. You can also use the standard Shift+click and Ctrl+click selection methods to select multiple tasks in a Project outline. Shift+click the task IDs to select contiguous tasks, and Ctrl+click the IDs to select discrete tasks.

      Entering tasks

      After the WBS information is entered, you can start entering tasks. You can create tasks in a couple different ways:

       Type information in the sheet area of the Gantt chart.

       Enter information in the Task Information dialog box.

      You can fill in the details of the task duration and start date when you enter the task, or later.

      Entering tasks in Gantt Chart view

      Many people who work on lengthy projects find that entering all task names in the sheet pane of Gantt Chart view is the quickest and easiest method. This method is the same one I used to enter the WBS information. You can simply enter a task name in the Task Name column, press the Enter or down-arrow key on the keyboard to move to the next blank row, enter another task, and so on.

      Entering tasks via the Task Information dialog box

      If dialog boxes provide the kind of centralized information form that fits the way you like to work, consider using the Task Information dialog box. This box has a series of tabs