Find & Replace - Start Dates

[Jon]

Dear all

i have a Ms Project Plan set for a go live i ran a couple of weeks back. The
tasks and activities will remain identical for a future go live i have in a
few weeks. The timings (duration and start time) will also remain the same.
However the Start Dates will change by a few weeks so Fri 4th Aug 20:00 will
become Fri 25th Aug 20:00. I have to do this type of change in multiple tasks
in the project, is there an easy way to do a find and replace to ammend all
these dates? There are very few dependencies set on the plan.

Thanks In advance

Jon

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

On the analysis toolbar, run the Adjust_dates functioon
HTH

 

[Jon]

Thanks Jan

I have tried your solution however, when i click the adjust dates button i
am expecting it to prompt me with a dialog box where i enter the new start
date however this doesnt happen. In fact nothing happens. Have you any ideas?

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Never seen this.
You could check whether Tools, Macro, security is set to Low but that 's the
only guess I have.

 

[Jon]

Thanks again Jan

unfortunately that didnt work, ive tested it with someone elses project
where it works and unfortunately becuase of the lack of dependancies in the
Plan it has prooved not to solve the problem. I have now tried a different
approach which has its own challenges:-

I have added a field StartDate1 and the formula = Start Date + 56 (the
amount of time changed from 1 Go Live to the next). This has worked well and
StartDate1 now has the correct date and time range.

My next step was to copy the data from StartDate1 to Startdate field. This
however has come up with an additional problem, the following error message:-

"The resource is assigned outside the original dates for task...........The
duration of this fixed duration task will change to accommodate the resource
assignment"

And thus the dates dont copy accross identically......

do you know what the problem is and how to resolve it, Thanks for all your
help Jan
My next approach is to copy and paste the date and time from StartDate1

 

[Rob Schneider]

Thanks again Jan

unfortunately that didnt work, ive tested it with someone elses project
where it works and unfortunately becuase of the lack of dependancies in the
Plan it has prooved not to solve the problem. I have now tried a different
approach which has its own challenges:-

I have added a field StartDate1 and the formula = Start Date + 56 (the
amount of time changed from 1 Go Live to the next). This has worked well and
StartDate1 now has the correct date and time range.

My next step was to copy the data from StartDate1 to Startdate field. This
however has come up with an additional problem, the following error message:-

"The resource is assigned outside the original dates for task...........The
duration of this fixed duration task will change to accommodate the resource
assignment"

And thus the dates dont copy accross identically......

do you know what the problem is and how to resolve it, Thanks for all your
help Jan
My next approach is to copy and paste the date and time from StartDate1

I think what you've done is hard-set the start dates for the tasks,
rather than let Project compute those dates for you. Since you set the
dates, Project isn't going to adjust them since it doesn't know the
logic for how you made up those dates. You'll have to change them by
manually... (could do this is a VBA macro if you can definitively define
the rules around which dates change and which dates don't change).

Instead of using Project as something akin to a picture of what you
want, use it as it is intended to be used to have it compute the
schedule for you. Then when it doesn't give you the schedule you
expect, then change the plan or accept that what you want can't be done.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

The adjust dates macro (or addin) can handle (hard or soft) constraints.
That can't be the problem.
Maybe he has actual dates: that Adjust dates can't handle.
HTH

 

[Rob Schneider]

Ah, yes. That's probably it.

Hi,

The adjust dates macro (or addin) can handle (hard or soft) constraints.
That can't be the problem.
Maybe he has actual dates: that Adjust dates can't handle.
HTH