Configure Project Options

Quick reference

• 00:04 So far we've been working with a simple project schedule.
• 00:07 Moving forward, we're going to work with something a little bit more detailed.
• 00:12 But before we do that, there's some project options that you should
• 00:15 really configure for all new projects that you're working with moving forward.
• 00:21 You can decide whether these options that I recommend are good for you.
• 00:25 But right now we're going to make sure that we have
• 00:28 the same settings in our Microsoft project configuration.
• 00:33 So first and foremost there's this little known feature called the entry bar
• 00:37 which is very similar to the formula bar in Excel.
• 00:42 Editing text in a cell in a task for example, Is not quite that easy sometimes.
• 00:49 For example, here is this task called research car models.
• 00:52 Let's say I wanna say research car models at local dealers.
• 00:56 So I just start typing at local dealers, and
• 01:00 what it's done is its overwritten that text.
• 01:02 I'm gonna press the undo key or control Z.
• 01:07 If I press the F2 key, I go into an edit mode where I can make changes to the text.
• 01:14 Well, why don't I just get this bar at the top, like Excel?
• 01:17 Let's go ahead and do that right now.
• 01:19 Click the File tab.
• 01:21 Click Options.
• 01:23 Select the Display menu and then under Show these elements,
• 01:28 Click the entry bar check box, and click the okay button.
• 01:34 Now, there's an entry bar at the top of the page.
• 01:37 So, if I come back here now to research car models,
• 01:40 I can now just come over here and say, at local dealers.
• 01:46 If I want to accept this change, I can press the Enter key.
• 01:50 Or this checkbox icon, I'll just press Enter.
• 01:57 If I start typing more text I could say and Surrounding areas.
• 02:06 And I say, oh that task is too long.
• 02:08 I can press the X icon, or the Escape key on my keyboard,
• 02:12 and that will remove the text.
• 02:15 So now you can edit the text down below here, in the Gantt chart area.
• 02:19 Or you can edit it at the top of the screen.
• 02:22 If you recall from a previous lesson,
• 02:25 we added some additional resources to our task.
• 02:27 And the duration changed.
• 02:29 We said that this test drive cars at various dealers,
• 02:32 was going to take five days.
• 02:35 But by adding two resources, the duration is now two and a half days.
• 02:40 In reality you typically want to estimate the duration of your project,
• 02:45 and not have Microsoft Project recalculate that duration
• 02:49 because you just added more people to it.
• 02:52 So for example, if I have a task here that says install my new television.
• 02:59 If I add five people to it, it's not going to take less time.
• 03:02 It's actually probably going to take more time, so
• 03:04 we don't want Microsoft Project to calculate that duration for us.
• 03:09 So, let's go click on the File tab and click on the Options menu.
• 03:16 And now, let's click the Schedule Menu.
• 03:20 And you'll see in the middle of the screen there's a schedule options for
• 03:25 this project.
• 03:27 We're going to use the setting for all new projects, so
• 03:30 click the check box, I'm sorry the pick list and choose all new projects.
• 03:36 We wanna make sure that tasks are always auto scheduled, so choose that.
• 03:41 This will make sure that anytime we add a new task it'll be auto-scheduled, but
• 03:46 then here's the big one to prevent task from changing duration.
• 03:51 Set the default task type to fixed duration, and
• 03:55 then make sure that new task or effort driven Is deselected.
• 04:00 So deselect new tasks are effort driven, and click the okay button.
• 04:05 Finally, a lot of people,
• 04:07 when they create a new project schedule, what they do is they create
• 04:11 a new line at the top of their project that represents the start of the project.
• 04:16 We don't need to to that.
• 04:18 This actually what's called a project line level zero.
• 04:22 Or a project summary task.
• 04:23 You can see that if you have the Gantt chart selected and you click the format
• 04:27 tab, locate the show hide section and click the project summary task checkbox.
• 04:35 Here you can see this is the name of the file I saved.
• 04:38 And that displays at the top of the project.
• 04:41 It's also in bold and summarizes the project.
• 04:44 So it's saying here's when the entire project starts and
• 04:47 here's where the entire project finishes.
• 04:49 We want this turned on by default for all new projects.
• 04:52 So click the File tab, click the Options menu,
• 05:00 Click the Advanced menu and scroll until you find
• 05:05 the section called display options for this project.
• 05:11 We want this turned on for all new projects.
• 05:13 Go ahead and choose the pick list.
• 05:15 And choose all new projects.
• 05:17 Then click the show project summary task check box and click the OK button.
• 05:27 What you've seen are a number of settings that you can configure from
• 05:30 Microsoft Project.
• 05:31 I recommend you leave all of these options
• 05:34 as they are while you begin to use Microsoft Project.
• 05:38 As you become more advanced, you might want to change some of these options, and
• 05:42 that's okay because they're going to suit your needs.
• 05:44 But for right now this is a good way to get started.

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