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 really
• 00:16 configure for all new projects that you're working with moving forward.
• 00:20 You can decide whether these options that I recommend are good for you, but
• 00:25 for right now we're going to make sure that we have the same settings in
• 00:30 our Microsoft Project configuration.
• 00:32 So first and foremost, there's this little known feature called the Entry bar,
• 00:38 which is very similar to the Formula bar in Excel.
• 00:41 Editing text in a cell in a task for example is not quite that easy sometimes.
• 00:48 For example, here's this task called Research car models.
• 00:52 Let's say I want to say research car models at local dealers.
• 00:56 So I just start typing at local dealers, and
• 00:59 what it's done is it's overwritten that text.
• 01:02 I'm going to press the Undo key or Ctrl+Z.
• 01:07 If I press the F2 key, I go into an Edit mode,
• 01:10 where I can make changes to the text.
• 01:13 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 > Options, select the Display menu,
• 01:25 and then under Show these elements,
• 01:28 click the Entry bar checkbox, and click the OK 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,
• 01:41 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 or
• 01:50 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 that task is too long, I can press the x icon or
• 02:10 the Esc key on my keyboard, and that will remove the text.
• 02:15 So now you can edit the text down below here in the Gantt chart area, or
• 02:19 you can edit it at the top of the screen.
• 02:21 If you recall from a previous lesson,
• 02:24 we added some additional resources to our task and the duration changed.
• 02:29 We said that this Test drive cars at various dealers was going to
• 02:34 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 because you
• 02:50 just added more people to it.
• 02:52 So for example, if I have a task here that says install my new television,
• 02:57 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.
• 03:04 So we don't want Microsoft Project to calculate that duration for us.
• 03:08 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 is a Schedule options for
• 03:25 this project.
• 03:26 We're going to use this setting for all new projects, so
• 03:29 click the pick list and choose All New Projects.
• 03:34 We want to make sure that tasks are always auto scheduled, so choose that.
• 03:39 This will make sure that anytime we add a new task it will be auto scheduled.
• 03:43 But then here's the big one to prevent tasks from changing duration.
• 03:49 Set the default task type to Fixed Duration, and
• 03:53 then make sure that New Tasks are effort driven is deselected.
• 03:59 So deselect New Tasks are effort driven, and click the OK button.
• 04:03 Finally, a lot of people when they create a new project schedule what they do is
• 04:08 they create a new line at the top of their project that represents the start of
• 04:13 the project.
• 04:14 We don't need to do that,
• 04:16 there's actually what's called a project line level zero or a project summary task.
• 04:22 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.
• 04:33 Here you can see this is the name of the file I saved and
• 04:36 that displays at the top of the project.
• 04:39 It's also in bold and summarizes the project.
• 04:42 So it's saying, here's when the entire project starts and
• 04:45 here's where the entire project finishes.
• 04:48 We want this turned on by default for all new projects.
• 04:51 So click the File tab, click the Options menu,
• 04:57 click the Advanced menu.
• 05:00 And scroll until you find the section called Display options for this project.
• 05:07 We want this turned on for all new projects, so go ahead and
• 05:11 choose the pick list and choose All New Projects.
• 05:14 Then click the Show Project Summary Task check box, and click the OK button.
• 05:21 What you've seen are a number of settings that you can configure for
• 05:25 Microsoft Project.
• 05:26 I recommend you leave all of these options as they are while you begin to
• 05:31 use Microsoft Project.
• 05:32 As you become more advanced, you might want to change some of these options, and
• 05:36 that's okay, because they're going to suit your needs.
• 05:39 But for right now, this is a good way to get started.

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