Can I format individual Gantt bar to distinguish nonwork time?

[Eric M. of DNRP King Co.]

Hi - I would like to be able to display for just one Gantt bar task the bar
distinguishing work periods and nonwork periods (associated with a separate
calendar that has nonwork time). In my case, I have a "construction window"
that allows work periods only four months of every year, with a calendar I
created reflecting that. I'm thinking it'd be great if a longer task could
show something like what is displayed with a split task, or better yet a
narrower "necking" part of the Gantt bar for nonwork time (as is done in
competing software products).

What I really want ultimately is to show what happens when a task that
takes, say, 6 work months is applied to the calendar that only allows the
same four months of worktime every year. Right now the Gantt bar just shows
the entire year-plus period. I know I can display the nonwork time with the
Timescale format menu, but this just shades the entire Gantt bar display
area, which is not what I want, as other tasks will occur during that time.
Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Eric,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

The Gantt chart will only show tasks. I suppose you could create a number
of tasks with must Start and Finish dates for each period. You could then
roll them up to a summary and hide the bars. Would that do?

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
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Eric M. of DNRP King Co.]

Hi Mike, thanks for your attempt, but that really won't do. I do need to
show individual tasks. I'm not sure what you mean by "The Gantt chart will
only show tasks" - that's what it's supposed to do, I wasn't trying to do
anything else. Essentially I want to have a task displayed that spans
non-work periods (in this case lasting several months) but displaying the bar
format in a way that distinguishes the work period from the nonwork period.
(As I said, something akin to how a split bar shows time where no work
happened.) This should be a simple matter of applying the task calendar and
then creating a format that displays in a way that distinguishes the work vs.
nonwork part of the task. The Project shading option for nonwork time that
you can apply to the Gantt chart as a whole isn't what I want, as it will
suggest other regularly scheduled tasks are occurring during nonwork periods.
I suspect Project just doesn't have the capablility to handle this, but was
hoping otherwise. (Seems like a common seasonal construction situation
though.)

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Eric,

What I was trying to indicate was that there is no way to show anything else
but tasks! Ther's no way to have a task automaticall reflecting the
calendar. You could enter a long task and split it manually where the work
begins and unsplit at the beginning of the next non-working period - in
opposition to a work task.

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

 

[torlet]

Hi Eric,
I have been struggling with the same kind of problem and hopefully
found a work around. My issue is a wet season preventing work on some
specific tasks. I can attach a specific calendar to the task but it is
not displayed on the specific bar. It is making communication
difficult.
My solution: Create a flag to identify if the task is sensitive to
that season:

Tools>Customize>Field> Type: Flag and create a flag looking like

[Task Calendar]="Seasonal Calendar" (The same Calendar you select in
the advance tab of the task)

Then the tricky part is to display one bar (or several if the task
spans over several seasons) over the normal task bar.
I use for that the specific variables Star1-10 and Finish1-10.
Start1 is the start of the first rainy season, Finish1 its end, ....
To create those formulaes, the path is the same:

Tools>Customize>Field Type Start and Finsish

The formulaes look like:
iif(#01/05/2008#>[Start],#01/05/2008#,[Start]) for the start date of
the period influenced by the rain in the specific task
iif(#31/10/2008#>[Finish],#31/10/2008#,[Finish]) for the finish date
of the period influenced by the rain in the specific task

etc etc : create a start and finish for every season. You have ten
slots available.
For each of the rainy seasons, you then have to create a specific bar
that goes over the task bar:

Format>Bar Styles

Show for tasks -> select the flag created above: only the tasks
sensitive to the season will be affected
Start: field calculated above for teh respective season. Finish :
field calculated above for teh respective season

You format the bar to have a nice combined effect and you have what
you were looking for.

Hope this helps. I have seen some posting with the same concern and
haven't found yet any other acceptable solution.

Kind Regards