Getting to Know Microsoft Project

Creating a New Project File

1.All you have to do to launch Project is choose Start?All Programs?Microsoft Office 2013?Project 2013. Click the Blank Project icon on the right side of the screen
2. To change your project’s start date, in the Project tab’s Properties section,
click Project Information.

3. In the Start Date box, select the starting date, such as 15/2/2015, and then
click OK.

• Your project typically doesn't start the same day you build your project schedule, so change the project’s start date to when you expect work to begin.

• Setting an accurate start date is important, since Project schedules new tasks to start as soon as possible initially, the project start date.

Creating a Task List

The foundation of any schedule is the work that needs to be done to achieve the project’s objectives and to deliver the desired results.
Before you can do anything else, you need a list of the tasks to perform, from beginning the project to sweeping
up the confetti at the end.
This section describes how to build a list of individual tasks.

Creating Work Tasks

1. Click the first cell in the Task Name column on the left side of the screen,type Research entry requirements, and then press Enter.

The icon in the Task Mode cell (a pushpin with a question mark next to it) indicates that more information is needed. (You’ll fill that in later.)

2. In the selected Task Name cell, type the next task’s name, and then press
Enter to add the following tasks:

• Line up team members
• Submit entry form
• Receive fundraising materials
• Fill out online team profile

Defining How Long Tasks Should Take

Estimating how long tasks should take can be the most difficult part of scheduling.

For now, you’ll simply fill in a few task duration in the test-drive project.

1. Click the Duration cell for the “Research entry requirements” task.

Manually scheduled tasks don’t need to have a duration initially. However, to complete your schedule, every task needs a duration.
Project sets the duration of Auto Scheduled tasks to one day unless you fill in a different value.

2. Enter the duration (the length of working time from start to finish) you think it will take to complete this task.

You can enter duration in minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), weeks (w), or months (mo).Type the number followed by the abbreviation for the unit you want to use.

3. Repeat step 2 for each task in your task list.

When you fill in a duration, you’ll see a task bar appear on the right side of the screen; its length represents the task’s duration.

Adding Milestones

Milestones are markers you can use to indicate progress in your project. They’re perfect for identifying crucial decisions that affect the project.

1. Click the blank Task Name cell below the “Fill out online team profile” task. Then, in the Task tab’s Insert section, click Milestone.

Project names the task <New Milestone> and puts “0 days” in the Duration cell. On the right side of the screen, the task bar symbol is a diamond.

2. In the Task Name cell, type Team signup complete.

Organizing Work

When all you have is a long list of tasks, you can lose sight of the project’s big picture.Organizing related tasks makes major portions of the project and the overall schedule
easier to grasp.Here’s how to organize a few related tasks under one summary task:

1. Drag over the Task Name cells of all the tasks you've added so far to select
them. Then in the Task tab’s Insert section, click Summary.

• Project inserts a new summary task above the selected tasks, named <New Summary Task>.
• The program indents the selected tasks to make them sub-tasks.
• The summary task is set to Auto Scheduled, which means Project calculates the values for the task from the earliest start date to the latest finish date of its sub-tasks.
• If you type a value in the summary task’s Duration cell, Project changes the task to Manually Scheduled mode.

2. Type a name for the summary task, like Sign up cycling team, and press Enter.

3. To create a summary task and sub-tasks at the same time, click anywhere in a blank row in the task list and then, in the Task tab’s Insert section, click Summary.

Project inserts a new summary task with one sub-task, named <New Summary Task> and <New Task>, respectively.

4. In the <New Summary Task> cell, type Raise money, and then press Enter.

In the <New Task> cell, type Send donation requests, and then press Enter.
Project selects the next cell in the Task Name column.

5. In the next two blank Task Name cells, add the following tasks:

• Send donation reminders
• Send thank-you messages for donations

Just like the “Send donation requests” task you created in the previous step,
these new tasks are sub-tasks of the “Raise money” summary task.