How to enter and show start date that began in the past?

[mamabear]

My project started 9/15/2004. But when I enter the project start date in the
Project Information dialog box, MS Project shows the start date as 4/16/2007
on the Gantt chart. How do I get it to show the actual start date of
9/15/2004 on the Gantt chart? Thanks.

 

[DavidC]

Do you have any tasks that start back in 2004? If there are no tasks
starting earlier than 16th April 07, then the Gantt chart will only show
tasks starting after that date. Else I have checked by starting a new
project with a start date in 2004 and it definately set back to that start
date.

Regards

DavidC

 

[mamabear]

Thanks for the info. I will try resetting the task dates when I get back to
work tomorrow.

 

[Steve House]

Does the file you're starting with already have tasks in it? If so, do
those tasks have actual progress posted against them (ie, your new project
file is a copy of a previous project that has had work performed on it)? Or
alternately, you're editing an existing file that was originally starting
4/16/2007 and you had manually entered your task's start dates (something
you should NEVER do except in certain special cases)? Look in the indicator
column on the left of the Gantt chart entry table - do you have a lot of
little calendar icons with a little blue dot on them there? When you try to
enter a task start date you actually are setting a Start No Earlier Than
constraint and no later changes to the project start date will move them any
earlier than the original input task start.