Dale N said:
Whenever I enter a start date and then enter a finish date, the start date is
changed to the finish date and vice versa. I tried this on another machine
and it worked fine. I am unable to find the difference in settings, can
anyway help with this?
Thanks,
Dale
Dale,
First of all you should not be directly entering task start and finish
dates. It sets constraints on every task and defeats the purpose of
using Project in the first place. Instead what you should be doing is
the following:
1. Enter task names in action verb format (i.e. a task exists to do
something - part of a collection of actions toward an end goal)
2. Enter the estimated duration, that is, how long in working days
(hours, weeks, etc.) is the task expected to take
3. Link tasks in a logical sequence but only link tasks if they are
truly dependent on one another. Project will set the first task in the
link to start on the Project Start Date (Project/Project Information).
All other tasks will be scheduled by Project based on the estimated
durations and links. If a task truly starts independent of any other
task and it does not start on the Project Start date, then the scheduled
start date may be entered directly into the Start field
4. Assign resources that will actually work on the tasks. A resource
need not work full time on any task. Therefore the Work field (effort)
will not necessarily be equal to the Duration field.
To answer your basic question, the Start and Finish fields will act just
the way you describe if Tools/Options/Schedule tab is set for a Fixed
Duration task type and the Duration left is left at the default value of
1 day.
I suspect you are new to Project and perhaps could use some tutorial
guidance. You might want to take a look at fellow MVP, Mike Glen's
lessons and techniques for Project. You can get to Mike's site via a
link on our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/links.htm
Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP
