Status Date 1 Year Out??

M

MarkC

This problem has occurred several times recently. On the other times I have
found a workaround but now I can't see what's wrong.

I am creating a demo project with a start in november 08 and finish in
January 09. So I started with project start and status date in November.
Completed the initial planning. Save a baseline and then went to tracking. I
went for linear update and change the november date to 2 months later (ie
Jan). All progressed fine until I noticed my current date gridline missing.
Damn - I've set the status date to Jan 2010 - doh!.

So I backed track and started again. I find in "project information" both
the status date and project start date are Nov 2009 despite the gant chart
shoing my first task and the status line being in Nov 2008.

This seems to be a bug but has anyonbe else noticed this? I am using
Standard 2003 SP3. Is there something I haven't set?

Cheers,
Mark
 
M

MarkC

I resolved the problem by changing the date format from ddmmm to dd-mmm-yyy.
Is this a known bug?
 
M

Mike Glen

Hi ,Mark,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)

You might like to see FAQ Item: 1 dealing with fiscal time.

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

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

Mike Glen
Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials
 
M

MarkC

Hi Julie,

I think you are partially right but my fiscal year was already January. Now
I have changed the date format to ddmmmyy I am not concerned with this
problem any more as I have much on my plate. However, I do believe there is a
bug here and for some reason it only works when the date format is ddmmm even
though you see it as ddmmmyy when you have selected the desired date. As my
small project crosses the fiscal year it's confused which year I mean. I am
not sure why. Anyway, I am happy to move on now and we can close this problem.

Cheers Julie and Mike,
Mark
 
E

EveC

Hello! MarkC, Mike and Julie :)

I have the same issue and will try to explain it in more details.
I don't think it is a bug, but may be it is... Lets create a project for the
test!
Enter only one task that last 4 days.

When I create a new project, I enter a task.I go to Project information and
put my start date to lets says March 5, 2010 for this example.

I look in my Gantt view, column Start and the Date format is set to
DD/MMMM/YYYY
So I see 05 March 2010. When I go back to Project information, to the Start
date box and clic (like if I would like to change it) It shows me a gray
sqare on March 5 2010. Everything is fine till then.

The bug is when I change my date format (Options / View) to a format without
the year lets say DD/MMMM Hours. In my Gantt view I can see 05 March 08:00
am. BUT when I go to Project information, Start date, because I don't see the
year, I want to verify by clicking on the calendar (as if I would like to
change it), it shows me the gray square in 2009! Panic mode, I go back to
options to change the format again, put it back with the year, and then it is
FINE! We are back to 2010 and in the project info too!

The confusion is still very annoying because if someone use my file and I
didn't format the date with the year, they will think that my project starts
in 2009 by lookink into Project information start date since the calendar
show the gray square in 2009 even if this is not true ;)

BUT I really think it may have been programmed this way! because if we don't
say to Ms-Project that we want to see the year, it is like if we were telling
him: The start DAY is important for me. If we ask a format with the year, we
are telling him: The start DAY and the start YEAR is important to me.

This could be convenient for certain type of reccuring projects. the only
thing I found buggy with this is why the calendar in project information
could not reflect the REAL date/year we choose?

Thanks!

Eve
 
J

JulieS

Hello Eve,

I've stepped through exactly what you describe and see exactly what
you describe! Very odd indeed!

I'm inclined to believe it was not programmed that way on purpose
but rather there is a flaw in the Project Information dialog box.
Sadly, I see the exact same thing in Project 2007.

Thanks for giving such detailed reproduction steps Eve!

Best regards,

Julie
 
E

EveC

Hi again!
Thanks again for this quick answer!
I guess this will be fix in a near future?

Eve
 
J

JulieS

Hello Eve,

I've no idea whether this is on the fix list -- we'll just have to
wait and see what happens I guess. Thanks again for your detailed
information.

Julie
 
E

EveC

You are very welcome :)

Do you know where I could check for the current Ms-Project fix list?
Or a way to advise developpers about this issue?
It would be great to make sure they are aware of it don't you think?

eve
 
J

JulieS

Hi Eve,

I've posted information about this issue to an area where folks from
within MS can more easily view it than here. The information about
what is included in any fix lists is not available -- until the fix
is released of course :)

Julie
 
M

MarkC

Hi Eve & Julie,

I can confer with Julie this is a bug. The date should always be the right
date whateverformat its in. When the date format doesnt display year its
defaulting to the current year which is wrong. I only stumbled on this as at
the end of the year you're planning next years work but defaults to the year
earlier.

At least I stumbled on the workaround too. Tell your users to display the
year.

Cheers,
Mark
 
J

JulieS

Hi MarkC,

Yes, I agree. I'd always have the date format set to show year to
avoid this issue as well as avoid any confusion with projects which
cross over the year.

Julie
 

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