Create a Project from Scratch

Quick reference

• 00:03 In this lesson, we going to take a look at how we can create a project in Project for
• 00:09 the Web from scratch.
• 00:10 And the projects that we going to be working on is a kitchen renovation
• 00:14 project.
• 00:14 Now, just so you can follow along with me,
• 00:17 I've created an Excel spreadsheet which is the basic details of this project.
• 00:21 So you can see here in column A, we have our task names and
• 00:26 also our summary task names.
• 00:28 So at the top here, we have phase 1 planning, we then have a subheading, and
• 00:33 then we have our tasks.
• 00:34 And we're going to recreate this structure within Project for the Web.
• 00:38 You can also see that I've assigned priorities to all of these tasks and
• 00:42 who these tasks are assigned to.
• 00:44 Now, I will say, when it comes to assigning tasks, you're obviously not
• 00:48 going to have the same people set up in your system as I do here.
• 00:51 So you're not going to be able to assign Deb Ashby and Ben Lee to your tasks.
• 00:56 So what I would say is when you're working through this if you're following along
• 01:00 with me, you can either choose your own team members if you want to.
• 01:04 But if you don't want to bother them, because this is just a practice,
• 01:08 my recommendation is you assign all of the tasks to yourself.
• 01:11 So with that in mind, let's jump back across to Project for the Web.
• 01:15 Now, currently, I'm still in my employee onboarding project.
• 01:19 So I'm going to click on the Home icon to jump back to project home,
• 01:23 and I'm going to click the New project button.
• 01:25 So this time, we're not going to start with a template,
• 01:28 we're going to create a brand new blank project.
• 01:30 So we want to click this big old button at the top here.
• 01:33 And as you might expect, this is what we get,
• 01:36 a new project with absolutely nothing in it.
• 01:39 And this is what I mean, it's a little bit intimidating to start a project from
• 01:43 scratch, which is why you might want to use a template instead.
• 01:46 Now, a couple of things to point out when you first create a new blank project.
• 01:50 Notice at the top here, the title is untitled, so
• 01:53 every new project you create will be called untitled project.
• 01:57 So we're going to rename this to something more meaningful in a moment.
• 02:01 And then underneath that, we have the start and finish dates of the project.
• 02:04 So until you enter in start dates and then start adding tasks and durations,
• 02:09 the start and
• 02:10 finish dates at the top here are just going to be the current day's date.
• 02:14 So today is October the 23rd, which is why I have that as my start and
• 02:18 my finish date.
• 02:19 You'll see that this will update as we start adding tasks to our project.
• 02:23 We then have all of our different views, and
• 02:25 then underneath that is where we start adding our tasks.
• 02:28 Now, remember, I mentioned previously, that we have those default columns, so
• 02:32 Quick look, Assign to, and Duration.
• 02:34 Now, the first thing I'm going to do here is I'm going to rename my project and
• 02:38 I'm going to set the start date.
• 02:40 So let's click on Untitled project at the top to open that pane on the right-hand
• 02:44 side, and this is going to be a kitchen renovation project.
• 02:48 So we're just going to call it kitchen renovation.
• 02:51 I'm the project manager, that's absolutely fine.
• 02:53 And now, we have the start date.
• 02:56 Now, this project doesn't start today, it starts next year.
• 03:00 So let's say that this project starts on the 2nd of January,
• 03:05 2023, so right after New Year.
• 03:08 The finish day has now updated to the same day as the start date,
• 03:12 that will change once we start to add tasks.
• 03:14 The duration is currently zero days, again, because we have no tasks.
• 03:18 And right at the bottom, you can see we have the default work templates selected.
• 03:22 And this is a really important point to note when it comes to calendars.
• 03:26 If you're familiar with calendars in project,
• 03:29 you'll know that there is a standard default work calendar.
• 03:32 And that is based off of a working week of Monday to Friday, nine to five.
• 03:37 Now, in an application like Project Desktop,
• 03:40 you can set up multiple calendars.
• 03:42 So if you have people who work part-time or
• 03:45 maybe people who work specific days during the week.
• 03:48 Or maybe you have team members who work night shifts, they're not going to use
• 03:52 the standard project calendar, because their hours are different.
• 03:56 Now, in Project for the Web, we only have one calendar, and
• 04:00 that is the default work template which is Monday to Friday, nine to five.
• 04:05 So this is another really important point to consider when you're thinking about if
• 04:10 you want to use Project for the Web or if you want to use Project Desktop.
• 04:14 Now, in this situation, for this project, that is absolutely fine,
• 04:18 because everybody in my team works standard hours.
• 04:21 So let's close down this pane, and
• 04:23 I can see that the changes that I've made have now updated.
• 04:26 So my project has been renamed, and the start date has also updated.
• 04:30 If I go back to Project home,
• 04:32 I can see it sitting there at the top of the recent list.
• 04:36 And because this is one that we're going to be using all the time,
• 04:39 I'm going to mark that as a favorite.
• 04:41 So now, I have my blank project ready to add tasks.

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