7.5 hour day/37.5 hour week - Options versus Change working time conflict

[Lloyd Lewis]

I'm baffled. I have set the default values for working hours on the
Schedule tab of the Options window to be as follows:

Default start time: 8:00 am
Default end time: 4:30 pm
Hours per day: 7.5
Hours per week: 37.5

Yet when I open a new plan, the Change Working Time window reports:

use default:

From: 8:00 am to 12:00 pm
From: 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

As I enter task durations in days, it is obvious from the Gnatt chart
display that Project is using 8 hour days. I can't seem to find how to
correct this situation without a lot of brute force methods. Anyone know
how to ensure Project defaults to a 7.5 hour day so that these two windows
agree?

Lloyd

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Lloyd,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Please see FAQ Item: 5. Default Working Hours. FAQs, companion products and
other useful Project information can be seen at this web address:
http://www.mvps.org/project/

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

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Robert]

This is also a problem I banged my head against a wall
with, back when.......

When you use days, MSP uses the "change working time"
values (8-12/1-5)=8hrs. Only when you use hours is it that
MSP uses the data in options window.

I spent many hours trying to figure out how to create a
calender in MSP2K with your own standard working times,
instead of the default 8-12/1-5. I gave up with the idea
of a new caleneder with my own default times, and the only
way that I found to solve the problem is to give the whole
calender non-default working hours up to 4:30pm. Then, and
only then, will MSP calculate with the desired hours per
day.

Kind regards
Robert

 

[Steve House]

You've got it. The default hours of 0800-1200 and 1300-1700 are hard-coded
and can't be changed. All other calendars and work times will be
non-default times. You can create as many as you want and use the organizer
tool to copy them into the Global template file so they are accessable to
all your projects without having to reinvent the wheel each time. Note that
you MUST use the Change Working Time tool to change the times Project uses
for your scheduling - the Tools Options Calendar menu page sets conversion
factors for the duration entry units and the times where project will place
tasks when you manually enter dates in fields such as constraints without
also entering a time - it does not do anything to the calendars or working
hour placements.

 

[robert]

This is thankfully a feature that Microsoft took into
consideration when they made 2002 onwards....

 

[Lloyd Lewis]

All,

thanks for all your suggestions. This last comment "... made 2002 onwards"
caught my attention. I have confirmed I can upgrade to 2002 at no cost so
I'll take advantage of that solution. Thanks again.

 

[Steve House]

What do you mean? They explained what the default start and end time fields
on the Tools Options Calendar page actually are with 2002 but the
functionality is the same.