Apr 19, 2016

Using Project can be tricky at times. Here are 10 of the tricks and hidden functions can save time and effort for users.

1. When a start date is changed, the constraints and deadlines within the project schedule don’t adjust to the new start date.

In Project 2010 use the Move Project button on the Project ribbon to change the start date. The option to adjust the deadlines is available. The ability to adjust deadlines isn’t available in the earlier versions of Project, but there’s a button called Adjust Dates located on the Analysis toolbar that lets you adjust the constraints to the new project start date. To remove constraints, double click on a task, click on the Advanced tab, and reset the Constraint type to As soon as possible.

2. When an alternate calendar is selected for the project calendar, the views will continue to display the Standard calendar.

To change the views to show the alternate calendar being used as the project calendar, expose a view (such as the Gantt Chart), double click one of the dates on the Gantt Chart, select non-working time, and change the calendar being shown. This change is unique per view and will need to be changed in all Gantt chart and Usage views used. You can also use this change to see a Gantt chart for an individual resource.

3. Here are four helpful keystrokes to remember:

• F3 will remove a filter.
• The Ins key will insert blank lines.
• The Del key will delete task lines.
• Deleting a Summary task will delete all detail tasks within the Summary task.

4. When time is a physical number of days and not working days, use elapsed time.

A 10-day duration entered “10d” will be scheduled on working days only. A task duration entered as “10 ed” will change to physical time and will include non-working time.

5. Change Working Time allows for changing and creating calendars.

Think of this function as a way of accessing the calendars that are available to be used within the project. The calendars aren’t active until they’re assigned to a resource, to the project, or to a task. They can be copied using the Organizer into the Global.mpt for use in other projects.

6. The percent complete you see on the Tracking Gantt and on the Tracking percentage buttons is percent duration complete.

There’s a second percent complete called percent work complete. When you mark a task 100 percent complete, it’s assumed that 100 percent of the work has been completed also and the Start and Finish dates will become Actual Start and Actual Finish for the task. Look at the Work table of the Gantt chart to see Work completed.

7. The best way to see everything that is going on when creating an assignment is to create an assignment from a split screen with the Gantt chart or Task Sheet above and the Task Form with the View Work or Resource Work.

This is also known as the Task Entry View. On the View Tab click on the Details tick box. The Task Form will appear and can be changed to show the Work, Cost, and Schedule information by right clicking in the large grey area to the right of the Current Form. Double click on the Resource Name to see the Resource data.

8. To alter a relationship type, add lead or lag time, and delete a relationship, double click on the link line between tasks.

You can also double click on the task name and go to the predecessors tab or look at the Split screen view.

9. When dragging tasks around to change location, always move tasks from the ID number on the left of the views.

10. The best view to see slippage between baseline vs. actual work is the Detail Gantt view.

For more information, take a look at New Horizons' Microsoft Project courses.