Project 2013 Introduction

Project 2013

Lesson 3 – Working with Tasks

As you enter tasks, Microsoft Project will enter default duration of one day if you do not enter the duration. A question mark ( ? ) follows the default duration to indicate that this is an estimated duration and may not be accurate. If you enter a number without a unit of duration, Microsoft Project will add “days” after the unit. You can specify duration by entering the letter m for minute, the letter h for hour, the letter d for day, the letter w for week, or the letters mo for month . In addition, if you are unsure of the duration, you can type a question mark ( ? ) after the duration to indicate that it is an estimate. When you enter duration, you should keep in mind that Microsoft Project schedules tasks to occur only on working days (Monday through Friday, by default). Durations of one week ( 1w ) equals five working days and a duration of seven days ( 7d ) equals one week of five business days, plus two business days in the following week. A seven day task would appear as nine days long on the Gantt chart because it includes two nonworking days (Saturday and Sunday, by default). In addition to weekend days, any other nonworking days, such as a holiday or vacation, are skipped when tasks are scheduled. You can also indicate elapsed time for a task. Elapsed time represents both the working and nonworking time between the start of a task and the end of the task. If you enter an elapsed duration, Microsoft Project enters a fixed duration for the task, scheduled through the nonworking days defined by the project calendar. You can indicate elapsed time by entering the letter e before the unit of duration, such as 2ed for two elapsed days. This feature is helpful for a task such as drying paint. If it takes 48 hours to dry, the elapsed time would be 2ed , which equals two days of 24 hours, compared with 2d , which equals two working days of eight hours or 16 hours total.

E NTERING T ASKS

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Discussion

Microsoft Project does not require that you have all the necessary information available when entering a task. You may choose to add only the task name, the task name and duration, or any combination of the task name and other associated information. You can enter tasks in the Gantt Chart view, which is the default view.

Project 2013 has two task modes: Manual and Automatic. If you select Manual, you can decide on the start date. If you use Automatic, Project assigned the Project start date as the start date for the task. Manual is the default setting.

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