Dragging Finish Date

[not you]

In a Gantt view of my project (MSP2000), when I try to drag the Finish
date of a task, the whole task moves instead of increasing the
Duration. This happens for any task I try to change.

If I create a new task, it behaves the same until I set the Constraint
Type to As Soon As Possible. The task Start date automatically
changes to the Project Start date. Only then I can drag the finish
date to extend the duration.

In a new project file, I can drag the Finish Date as per design.

Help?

Fred

 

[davegb]

In a Gantt view of my project (MSP2000), when I try to drag the Finish
date of a task, the whole task moves instead of increasing the
Duration. This happens for any task I try to change.

If I create a new task, it behaves the same until I set the Constraint
Type to As Soon As Possible. The task Start date automatically
changes to the Project Start date. Only then I can drag the finish
date to extend the duration.

In a new project file, I can drag the Finish Date as per design.

Help?

Fred

Since I never use this feature of Project, I'm not sure I remember how
it works. I believe it depends on where you grab the bar to drag it. I
think you have to grab it at the right end to extend the duration.

More importantly, it's not a good idea to schedule by clicking and
dragging, as attractive as it might be. It's too easy to think you've
scheduled what you want, then find out later you got something else
instead. Of course, you can drag and then check by going into the
dialog box or looking at an appropriate table, but it's just easier
just to enter what you want in the correct field.

Which doesn't mean that entering dates in fields in Project is a good
idea either. The best way to schedule is to create your list of tasks,
estimate and enter durations, then link everything together. Let the
software do what it does, which is to schedule the project
realistically, based on the tasks you enter, their durations, and the
links between them. That's how Project is intended to be used. You
might want to do some research here and elsewhere and learn a little
about Critical Path Method scheduling, and also look in this NG for
Schedule Continuity.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Fred,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #2 and its section on Manipulating Gantt Bars,
at this site: http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[not you]

Thanks for the advice. Actually I am trying to figure out whether
there is a bug in my Project file or if there is some kind of
constraint that limits the ability to modify the duration by dragging
the finish date of a task.

I definetely want to maintain my schedule continuity and am relying on
the software to adjust linked tasks when i manually adjust the end
date of the task in focus.

For me, dragging the end date of a task lets me visually see how it is
interconnected to other tasks and the impacts my changes are having to
the project.
Fred

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Fred,

If dragging out your finish date is being interfered with, it sounds like
future tasks have constraints applied. Try adding a column for the
Constraint Type field and changing them all to As Soon As Possible, which
means no constraints.

Mike Glen
Project MVP