Can I indicate a crucial end date across a range of concurrent pr.

[Phil@DOTARS]

I have a legislative end date that impacts upon a range of projects
(contained within a single project plan). Is there any way to mark this
crucial date across all the tasks in the project plan so that the date is
emphasised? Can I draw a line through the output so that the date is
emphasised?

 

[James G]

Hi Phil,

Yes you can emphasise a deadline date on a task. Double-click on the
relevant task or milestone e.g "Submit Proposal to Government", select
Advanced tab, Deadline, then input the required deadline date. Changing the
colour/shape of the deadline marker is very useful (I usually use red and a
solid diamond) owing to its immediate visbility.

HTH.

James.G

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Phil,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

If this applies to many tasks, I would insert a milestone as the last task,
with FS links to the last planned tasks, with your deadline date. You can
then use the drawing tools to draw a vertical line down the Gantt Chart at
the appropriate date. Make it a wide line coloured red and attach it to the
milestone task.

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
MS Project MVP

 

[James G]

Further to Mike's suggestion: I have attempted that previously....but the
problem is that you are quite limited on the length of a single line (using
P2000), thus in order to get the line all the way down the timescale, you
needed to join a number of lines....which turned out to be a right pain! When
initially drawing the line, on-screen, it seemed to allow you to draw to any
desired length. The single-length limitation only became apparent when you
wanted to print the Gantt Chart.

James.G

 

[Phil@DOTARS]

Thanks Mike/James,

I am using P2003 so it should be the latest version. I am having some
difficulties, as you suggested I might have, James, drawing a line down the
page - in fact, I am having difficulties finding the drawing tools at all! An
ideal solution would be to change the status of a single date, which I can do
within the limits of working or non-working days. But the Gantt chart option
will not then display a change of status colour, although the calendar view
will!

The other part of the issue is that although our legislation date is fast,
there are a number of other processes that will go beyond that date (which is
the 10 March 2005 BTW), so the whole project can't be shown to terminate at
the legislation date - there is, therefore, quite a messy series of precedent
lines leading to the milestone, with more tasks going further.

So far the line option is the best solution!

Phil S

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Phil,

The drawing tools are on a toolbar - right click a toolbar and select
Drawing

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

How about assigning a deadline of the legislative date to each task that
has to obey it. If the tasks are not all dependent in sequence it could be
that one task meets the deadline but the other is falling behind. A
deadline would allow you to monitor each that must hit the date
independently and give you an early warning if any of them are getting into
trouble.