Author: raywhite

Here, we’ll be showing how to display critical path tasks in Microsoft Project.  The critical path is the sequence of tasks that take the longest to reach the project goal.  The steps below can be used to display your project’s critical path.  Follow these, and you’ll know which tasks threaten the final completion date of the project.   Create tasks to display the critical path: Enter three tasks Make the second task twice as long (in duration) as the first task Link the first task to the last task Link the second task to the last task At this point, the tasks should look like this.  Both the first and second tasks link to the last one. Two tasks, links to final task   Group the tasks by critical path: Choose Project, Group By, Critical Or, choose ‘Critical’ from the ‘Group By’ dropdown in the toobar After choosing this menu item the tasks will be grouped differently.  All the tasks that are not in the critical path will be displayed first (in the in ‘Critical: No’ group).  All the tasks in the critical path will be in the second group (‘Critical: Yes’). Tasks grouped by ‘Critical’   Format the Gantt column: Right-click in the Gantt column Choose Gantt Chart Wizard Click Next Click the ‘Critical path’ option Click Finish Click Format It Click Edit Wizard After formatting the Gantt column, the task bars in the critical path will turn red. Critical path task bars are red   –ray

Ever wonder how to reduce your Microsoft Project file from thousands of tasks down to a manageable few hundred, without deleting any?  Have you tried filtering?  This post discusses the steps to filter tasks in Microsoft Project.

Filtering is the act of reducing the number of visible tasks so that you only see what you are interested in.  All the tasks will still exist in the MPP file, but you will only see tasks that correspond to your filter criteria.  Follow these steps to filter tasks in Microsoft Project.

Create some tasks to filter by:

1. Enter three tasks
2. Set the durations to 10 hours, 20 hours, and 0 hours
3. The results should look like the image below

 

 

 

Set up a new filter to show long tasks only:

1. Choose Project, Filtered, More Filters…
2. Click New
3. Enter the name “Long tasks” (without the quotes)
4. Click ‘Show in menu’
5. Click in the ‘Field Name’ column, and choose ‘Duration
6. Click in the ‘Test’ column and choose ‘is greater than’
7. Click in the ‘Values(s)’ column and enter 10
8. Click OK to save the new filter
9. Nothing should change in your view

 

Activate your task filter:

1. Choose Project, Filtered, Long Tasks (the new filter you created)
2. Your view should now look like this image (hiding all the short tasks)
3. Choose Project, Filtered, All Tasks to remove the filtering and show all tasks

 

 

 

–ray

Microsoft Project offers calendars that can be used to set the working hours for a project and the resources working on it.  In other words, you can set the base calendar for the project, and then override that with resource work times.  This post discusses how to set the working time in Microsoft Project.

The following steps will illustrate the effect that working time has on a task in a Microsoft Project file.

Set up a new task:

1. Enter a new task
2. Enter 8 hours for the Duration
3. Enter your Name as the Resource
4. You will notice that the task occupies one day  See below.

 

 

 

To change the base calendar for the project:

1. Choose Tools, Change Working Time
2. Choose “Standard (Project Calendar) from the dropdown
3. Hold down the control key and select all the working days of the month
4. Remove the 1:00 PM – 5:00 PM hours (to make half days)
5. Notice that the calendar has changed to show your new choices
6. Click OK, and notice that your task Gantt bar has gotten longer to accommodate the fewer hours per day.

 

 

To change the individual work hours for the resource:

1. Choose Tools, Change Working Time
2. Choose your name from the dropdown
3. Click on the second day of the task
4. Hold the control key down and select three days
5. Click the “Nonworking time” choice to signify a vacation
6. Click OK, and notice that the task has gotten every longer

 

 

–ray