What is Elapsed Duration? Microsoft Project offers an unusual scheduling option known as Elapsed Duration. In the Duration column for any task, you can enter a Duration value two different ways: You can enter the Duration value as a regular time value, such as 5 Days. You can enter a Duration value as an Elapsed [...]
Background Information A few weeks ago, I created a Tips and Tricks video on creating and using personal templates in Microsoft Project. The step that is required for using personal templates is not obvious, so that I thought I would write a blog post article about this process. Saving a Personal Project Template You can [...]
What is a Very Large Project? One of the challenges of managing a very large project in Microsoft Project is the amount of time it takes for the software to recalculate the project. What constitutes a very large project, you may ask? Generally speaking, a very large project meets one or more of the following [...]
Many years ago, in Microsoft Project for DOS, the only way to set task dependencies was to manually type task ID numbers into either the Predecessors or Successors column for each task in the project. In the Windows versions of Microsoft Project, however, we have also had the option to link tasks by selecting two [...]
Background Information While you perform resource planning in your projects by adding resources to your project team in the Resource Sheet view, you may need to enter basic and custom cost information for those resources. At a minimum, your organization may require you to enter resource cost rates in the Standard Rate and Overtime Rate [...]
Background I was recently reading the latest posts in the Project Standard and Professional user forum, when I found a recent reply to a question that was originally posted in March 2011. I was greatly amused that anyone would reply to a post that was so old and that was marked as answered so long [...]
During the week of October 26, Microsoft added some major new functionality to Project for the web. The new Export to Excel feature exports every column of data from the project, including both default and custom columns, into the resulting Microsoft Excel workbook. I really like how this functionality works, as the resulting Excel workbook [...]
For the past couple of weeks, I have been busy creating training content for the new Project for the Web application. Beyond the usual keyboard shortcuts like Control + C to copy an item to the Clipboard, I have uncovered a number of additional keyboard shortcuts in the software. Most of these keyboard shortcuts apply [...]
Background Because Project for the Web is still such a new application, with new functionality being added to it every month Microsoft, there is currently no default method for creating and using templates. This includes both personal templates that you create and use, along with organizational templates that someone creates for everyone to use in [...]
Background Information During the Planning stage of a project, it is appropriate to delete unneeded tasks from the project. After you have saved a baseline for your project, however, it is a very bad practice to delete unneeded tasks. This is because deleting a baselined task also deletes the baseline information about the task, which [...]
