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Only Text fields wrap and only if the column is narrower than the text in the field. When printing Gantt Charts or other timescaled charts you can adjust the width of the timescale to fit the page without changing the timescale units. The latter step is useful when a chart is just a little too wide to fit on a page.

To select two or more non-adjacent tasks, click on a task in the table area , hold down the Ctrl Key and click on another task in the chart. Continue holding the Ctrl key to select other tasks. This is especially useful for linking or unlinking tasks that are not on consecutive rows.

To change information for a number of tasks at once, highlight the desired tasks select non-adjacent tasks using the method described above and select the Task Information button. Enter the common information in one of the fields displayed in the "Multiple Task Information" dialog box. To remove a date constraint from a task, select the task or multiple tasks and select the Task Information button. This removes any date constraint in the task and allows it to be scheduled based on the dependencies rather than a date entered perhaps accidentally by a user.

If a task does not move reschedule based on a dependency, it may contain a "fixed" date of some kind. Use the Tasks with Fixed Dates Filter to view only those tasks in a plan that contain fixed dates. You can then determine if these tasks should have these types of fixed dates.

Use the previous tip to remove an unwanted constraint. If a task still does not move, it may contain a delay based on a previous Resource Level. Select whether or not to remove Leveling from the selected tasks or for the entire project. After applying a Filter in a Gantt chart press F3 to view all tasks again instead of applying the All Tasks filter. Press Alt-Home in the Gantt chart to position the chart on the start of the project.

If you have indented tasks to create Summary Tasks and Detail Tasks, click the little box with the minus sign to the left of the Summary Task name to quickly hide the detail tasks below it. Click the box with the plus sign to display the detail tasks that were hidden.

In the Gantt chart, you can create dependencies by clicking on the Gantt bar of a task and dragging to another Gantt bar to create a Finish-to-Start dependency between the two tasks. To quickly modify or delete a dependency, doubleclick on the dependency line between the two tasks to display the Task Dependency form be sure to place your cursor directly on the dependency line.

In any drop down list such as the list of Resource Names or the list of Filters you can press the first letter of the item you are looking for to quickly go that item. Use the Insert key on your keyboard to quickly insert rows and columns. In the Gantt chart, click on a row and press the Insert key to insert a blank row above the selected row. Click on a column header to highlight a column and press Insert to insert a column to the left of the selected column.

Then, click on the border of a box and drag the entire selection of boxes to a new location. In Project , and you must first select the Format menu, Layout and then Manual Box Positioning to enable the ability to move task boxes around. Purpose : The MSP calendar defines high level scheduling rules for tasks, meaning that you can define that Monday to Friday are working days and Saturday and Sunday are non-working days.

MSP will take care of these directives while scheduling tasks. A MSP calendar can be used to specify working days and time, non-working days and time, and general holidays. You can start by using one of the above base calendars for your project schedule.

In this tip I have talked only about Project Calendar. You should only tinker with the other types when you become more comfortable with MSP. Purpose : You have to plan before you start using a planning tool.

A planning tool like MSP can help you in your planning, but it cannot replace you. You have to supply the information list of tasks , so that the tool can do scheduling calculations for you. You should start by creating a detailed list of project tasks that you need to schedule. Otherwise, you will miss things that will cause troubles later. It is difficult to insert a new task in the middle of a running project because it can disturb the whole schedule.

If you do not know all the tasks at the beginning of a project, then you should list higher level tasks and decompose them later. See also the following tip. Purpose : Dates are automatically calculated by MSP if the task relationships are properly defined. You should not even think about the dates, duration estimates, or any other task attributes before creating a list of tasks.

You should first create the overall structure of project tasks and relationships among them before thinking about durations and dates. Purpose : A WBS divides and sub-divides a project into more manageable components. It reduces the risk and increases the predictability.

This goes along with the tip above. While creating the list, decompose the higher-level tasks into sub-tasks. Purpose : Only you, as a project manager, can define the working relationship between tasks. MSP will automatically calculate the task dates after you have properly defined the relationships. After creating a WBS and defining lowest level tasks, you should define network dependencies and relationships between tasks.

As you define the relationships, the dates of successor activities will be automatically calculated. You can refer to my other article on defining actual dates to understand the importance of these relationships. Purpose : Some tasks have client or environment-imposed date constrains. You should identify these date constraints and insert them in MSP, so that it can take care of date calculations.

You may want to have control over tasks dates for some of the tasks. You can manually schedule these tasks and make them independent of any other tasks. MSP puts a constraint on manually scheduled tasks as soon as you associate a date with them. You must make a note of these tasks and their constraints, as MSP will not change them automatically. Purpose : Summary tasks are automatically calculated by MSP. The calculations might not happen correctly if there are predecessor s in the summary tasks.

The dates and duration of a summary task is automatically calculated by MSP. You should add predecessors only to lowest level tasks. Purpose : A baseline sets up project standard. MSP measures project performance against the defined baseline. After defining the schedule, you should baseline it. This way you will have an original set of dates even if your project schedule changes.

You can refer to my other article on how to define project baseline to understand its importance. I wrote these tips for the new MSP user, but these are not essentially beginner tips. These tips can be implemented by anyone from newbie to experienced professional to create any new project. As they say, practice makes a makes perfect. Follow these tips and use them in your project regularly.

Very soon you will become expert in MSP. What type of difficulties have you faced while developing a MSP schedule? How did you overcome them? What other tips would you like to share with your fellow professionals? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Be sure to check out my recent webinar recording and transcript. Praveen Malik, PMP, has two-plus decades of experience as a project management instructor and consultant.

He regularly conducts project management workshops in India and abroad and shares his project management thinking in his blog, PM by PM. We recently covered printing in part 3 of our Mastering Microsoft Project Visualization course.

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