List of Figures

Chapter 1: Getting Started with Project

Work with views, page 18. Work with reports, page 24. Set the project start date, page 29. Modify the project calendar, page 30.

Chapter 2: Creating a Task List

Create a task list, page 37. Create summary tasks, page 46. Link tasks to create dependencies, page 49. Add notes and hyperlinks to the Web, page 53.

Chapter 3: Setting Up Resources

Create a list of resources, page 61. Change a resource’s capacity to perform work, page 63. Enter resource cost rates, page 68. Change a resource’s working time, page 70.

Chapter 4: Assigning Resources to Tasks

Assign work resource to tasks, page 79. Control how effort-driven scheduling affects task durations, page 84. Assign material resources to tasks, page 90. Assign cost resource to tasks, page 92.

Chapter 5: Formatting and Printing Your Plan

Format categories of Gantt bars with the Gantt Chart Wizard, page 102. Create a custom formatted Gantt Chart view, page 104. Apply direct formatting, page 111. Customize and print reports to communicate details about the project plan, page 112.

Chapter 6: Tracking Progress on Tasks

Set a baseline to take a “snapshot” of the current schedule for future comparison, page 123. Set progress on tasks through a specific date, page 125. Enter percent complete on specific tasks, page 127. Record a task’s actual duration, page 129.

Chapter 7: Fine-Tuning Task Details

Change how tasks are related to each other, page 140. Apply constraints to control when tasks can be scheduled, page 142. View the project’s critical path and identify slack, page 148. Change a task’s duration, work, or assignments units and control how Project handles the change, page 157.

Chapter 8: Fine-Tuning Resource and Assignment Details

Change resource availability over time, page 176. Control when a resource starts work on an assignment, page 178. Contour resource assignments manually or with built-in contour patterns, page 180. Assign material resources to tasks using variable consumption rates, page 186.

Chapter 9: Fine-Tuning the Project Plan

View work assignments per day or other time period, page 193. Edit resource assignments to manually resolve overallocations, page 199. Use resource leveling to resolve resource overallocation problems throughout a project plan, page 205. Check a project’s cost and duration statistics, page 212.

Chapter 10: Organizing and Formatting Project Details

Sort task or resource data, page 219. Group tasks or resources and show summary or “roll-up” values per grouping, page 226. Create custom filters to show just the data you want to see, page 227. Create your own view with the table, group and filter definitions you want, page 231.

Chapter 11: Printing Project Information

Customize page layout and printing options for views and reports, page 242. Customize the legend and other parts of views and reports, page 251. See how your output will appear across pages, page 250.

Chapter 12: Sharing Project Information with Other Programs

Create snapshots of Project views to paste into other applications, page 262. Export information from Project into common formats used by data-crunching applications, page 271. Use the Copy Picture to Office Wizard to create new Office documents that include key Project status values and an image of the project plan, page 275. Create a visual report to represent schedule details in Excel or Visio, page 279.

Chapter 13: Tracking Progress on Tasks and Assignments

Update a baseline prior to tracking actual work, page 287. Enter actual work for tasks and assignments, page 291. Enter timephased actual work for tasks and assignments, page 298. Interrupt work on the project to restart after the date you specify, page 303.

Chapter 14: Viewing and Reporting Project Status

Compare actual progress against the baseline plan, page 312. Use different tables and sorting to view cost variance, page 318. Customize a field with a formula and graphical indicators, page 325. Use the customized field to create a stoplight view that illustrates cost variance, page 328.

Chapter 15: Getting Your Project Back on Track

Resolve missed deadlines by shortening task durations, page 333. Reduce resource costs by reducing their assignments on tasks, page 339. Replace resources assigned to tasks in a project plan, page 341. Compress the duration of tasks by assigning overtime work, page 344.

Chapter 16: Applying Advanced Formatting

Change the formatting of different types of bars in the Gantt Chart view, page 355. Use gridlines to make your Gantt Chart views easier to read, page 357. Create new box styles in the Network Diagram view, page 360. Change the formatting of other types of views, such as the Calendar view, page 362.

Chapter 17: Customizing Project

Work with the global template and Organizer to share customized elements between project plans, page 370. Record a VBA macro to perform an often-repeated sequence of actions, page 374. Edit VBA macro code in the Visual Basic Editor, page 377. Create a custom toolbar, page 382.

Chapter 18: Measuring Performance with Earned Value Analysis

Set the status date and view earned value schedule indicators to evaluate past schedule performance and forecast future performance, page 392. See earned value cost indicators to compare the project’s performance to the baseline plan, page 394. View Earned Value data charted in Excel, page 400.

Chapter 19: Consolidating Projects and Resources

Share resources from a central resource pool across several project plans, page 409. Change a resource’s working time in one location, and see it updated across project plans, page 414. Create a consolidated project plan for a bird’s-eye view all activities across multiple projects, page 428. Link tasks across different project plans, page 431.

Chapter 20: Planning Work with Project Server

Capture an organization’s best practices and standards in enterprise templates, page 440. Build a team for a project from an enterprise resource pool, page 444.

Chapter 21: Tracking Work with Project Server

Record progress on assignments in the Tasks Center in Project Web Access, page 452. Use the Outlook Integration add-in to record progress on assignments from within Outlook, page 455. Use a “stoplight” view to convey the status of all projects under way in the organization, page 459.

Chapter 22: Managing Risks, Issues, and Documents with Project Server

Create a new risk and associate it with a project plan, page 464. Create an issue for a project plan and assign it to someone for resolution, page 467. Set up alerts to notify you via e-mail when a document, risk and issue you are interested in changes for any reason, page 470.