Can you put in just dates, not lengths?

[SheriTingle]

Hello and thanks for the help. I am using versions 2000 to 2003 for this type
of project. I need to simipy put in that a project task happens on a certain
date. No length involved. Every task will occur on a given day from 9 AM to
noon. For example I would have Task 1 on January 12 from 9-noon, then Task 2
on January 17 from 9-noon, then February 14 from 9-noon. I don't want to take
the time to figure out the length between tasks.

I know you can type in a specific date in the table view but I've heard that
can cause problems and it's always better to type in the duration and let
Project figure out the date.

Will I run into problems that anyone can foresee?

Thanks for the help! Happy 2006!

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Sheri,

See my response to your other post

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Sheri,

No, you will not run into troubles.
Just remember that when you enter a date that way Project generates a "Start
no earlier than" constraint, NOT a "Must start On" constraint so when you
would f.i. link the tasks the date you entered may move and that is what
people call "problems"

And yes, assigning dates to tasks yourself when using Project is like
driving a taxi yourself and let the driver in the back seat

HTH

 

[Jim Reid]

And for my two cents it sounds like you have a re-occuring task that takes
place very Monday from 9:00 - 12:00. You can put in a reoccuring task with
those parameters and I think that will give you what you want. It will not
move unless you put in dependencies since you will say it starts on Monday
and once a week on Monday for a duration of 3 hours. Sort of what we do with
scheduled project meeting where we schedule them for each week at the same
time for the same people for the same length of time.

Hope this helps.