Master Calendar

[e@dcg]

Hi - looking at purchasing Project for a client that needs to not only look
at the project details per project, but needs to see the 'big picture' of all
of the projects. Can Project collapse the individual project Gantt charts
and show all of the projects on one Master Calendar?

 

[John]

Hi - looking at purchasing Project for a client that needs to not only look
at the project details per project, but needs to see the 'big picture' of all
of the projects. Can Project collapse the individual project Gantt charts
and show all of the projects on one Master Calendar?

e@dcg,
Well yes, but let's clarify what you mean by "master calendar". A master
project can be created from multiple individual projects using
Insert/Project. Normally this is consolidated master is displayed using
the Gantt Chart view. However, if the master is collapsed sufficiently,
I suppose you could show everything in the Calendar view but that view
is only usable, at least in my mind, for showing a very limited number
of tasks/milestones.

John
Project MVP

 

[e@dcg]

e@dcg,
Well yes, but let's clarify what you mean by "master calendar". A master
project can be created from multiple individual projects using
Insert/Project. Normally this is consolidated master is displayed using
the Gantt Chart view. However, if the master is collapsed sufficiently,
I suppose you could show everything in the Calendar view but that view
is only usable, at least in my mind, for showing a very limited number
of tasks/milestones.

John
Project MVP

Hi John -

Thanks for your thoughts - No, actually we have unrelated projects that I
wouldn't want to have displayed chronologically to help us see the demand on
company resources on a Master Calendar, to help manage demand. Can Project
do that?

e-

 

[John]

Hi John -

Thanks for your thoughts - No, actually we have unrelated projects that I
wouldn't want to have displayed chronologically to help us see the demand on
company resources on a Master Calendar, to help manage demand. Can Project
do that?

e-

d@dcg,
Could you rephrase what you are trying to say. These words in your
sentence really throw me for a loop - "No" and "wouldn't". They
basically make what you are asking unintelligible. And let me ask again,
what exactly do you mean by a "master calendar"?

John
Project MVP

 

[e@dcg]

d@dcg,
Could you rephrase what you are trying to say. These words in your
sentence really throw me for a loop - "No" and "wouldn't". They
basically make what you are asking unintelligible. And let me ask again,
what exactly do you mean by a "master calendar"?

John
Project MVP

Hi again John -
Sorry for any ambiguity. My client needs to track unrelated projects (so
they aren't subordinate to each other.) What I want for them is to be able
to look at a single calendar (a month at a glance; 3 months at a glance,
etc.) and see all of their various projects, collapsed to one line each, so
we can manage the demands on resources from the overview as well as for each
individual project.

Thanks again!
e=

 

[John]

:



Hi again John -
Sorry for any ambiguity. My client needs to track unrelated projects (so
they aren't subordinate to each other.) What I want for them is to be able
to look at a single calendar (a month at a glance; 3 months at a glance,
etc.) and see all of their various projects, collapsed to one line each, so
we can manage the demands on resources from the overview as well as for each
individual project.

Thanks again!
e=

d@dcg,
I think we're still on different pages with the definition of
"calendar". To me, a calendar is what you see in a typical calendar
hanging on a wall - a page with 28 to 31 "boxes" represented each day of
a given month. The only display in Project that looks like a calendar is
the Calendar view. In scheduling, a calendar display is probably the
least useful of any time related view, especially for projects of any
complexity.

However, by your somewhat expanded description, what you most likely
mean is a Gantt Chart display which shows horizontal time-based bars
graphically showing each task. You indicate that you have several
unrelated projects. You can consolidate those into one master file, (as
I stated in my first response), and the collapsed view will show only
the summary line for each complete separate project. Depending on what
you want to see with regard to data, various Project fields can be
displayed.

Since your base question was whether Project can do what you need, I
suggest you download the trial version and see how it works for you.
Then if you have more specific questions, post back.

John
Project MVP