Custom Calendar for Tasks

[Ryan]

Hi All,

I have a task that can only be done on the 1st or 3rd Tuesday of every month
and I need to set up a custom calendar or something to limit it to this.
Here's a generic version of my tasks.

Task 1 - planning.
Task 2 - commission meeting (this is the task that only happens on the 1st
or 3rd tuesday)
Task 3 - construction.

So if planning (Task 1) goes past the 1st tuesday of the month, then task 2
needs to be pushed back to the 3rd tuesday of the month. Is there any way
to do this?

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[Ryan]

I think I figured it out. Go to tools->change working time, click New and
use the calendar view to grey out everything but the 1st and 3rd tuesday of
a month. Sorry to waste space in this newsgroup if this is the solution

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Ryan --

You could defnitely create a custom calendar to be used for this purpose,
but it would be a bit of work to do so. Here's how to do it:

1. Click Tools - Change Working Time
2. Click the New button
3. Name the new calendar Tuesday Meetings or something like that
4. Click the OK button
5. Select column header for M, hold the Control key, and then select the W,
Th, and F column headers
6. Select the Nonworking time option
7. Select the second Tuesday of the current month, hold the Control key,
and select the fourth Tuesday as well
8. If there is a fifth Tuesday, press the Control key and select it as well
9. Click the Nonworking time option
10. Repeat steps 7-9 for each month in your calendar as far into the future
as you can stand to do so
11. Click the OK button

Once you have created the Tuesday Meetings calendar, you can apply it to the
Commission Meeting task by completing the following steps:

1. Double-click the Commission Meeting task
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Set the Calendar value to the Tuesday Meetings calendar
4. Select the "Scheduling ignores resource calendars" option
5. Click OK

Completing the above steps will schedule the Commission Meeting task on the
next available first or third Tuesday of the month. Hope this helps.

 

[Ryan]

Thanks Dale. Not looking forward to having to go through all the months
manually but it's something that has to be done.

Ryan

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Ryan,

No doubt you've found out by now that when you select the column heading
letters (W,Th, F) it coveres every month in the calendar , - you don't have
to do each month seperately.


Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Ryan]

Hi Mike,

I do have to do each month seperately because it only occurs on the 1st and
3rd Tuesday of each month (so I have to manually grey out the 2nd, 4th, and
sometimes 5th Tuesday for each month). I am glad I can easily take out all
Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays though by using the column
headers. Otherwise it would really be a pain!

Ryan

 

[Mike Glen]

Duh! My brain isn't working this afternoon!

Mike

Hi Mike,

I do have to do each month seperately because it only occurs on the
1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month (so I have to manually grey out the
2nd, 4th, and sometimes 5th Tuesday for each month). I am glad I can
easily take out all Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays
though by using the column headers. Otherwise it would really be a
pain!

Ryan

 

[Brian Stebbins]

I don't mean to dissagree with what everyone else has said in thier
replies... their way will work fine. However, there's another way to do
what you want. Why not create a recurring task?? You may have to do 2, one
fore the 1rst tuesday of each month, and another for the 3rd tuesday of each
month... but it's MUCH quicker to set 2 tasks for this, than to manually
gray things out per month.

To set up a recurring task click the insert menu and go to recurring task...
then check the monthly bubble, and set the rest of your options.

Let me know if this might work for you, hope it works out for you though!!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

Reread the original post. The user wants to reschedule the task to the
third Tuesday of the month if the predecessor task slips past the first
Tuesday of the month. A recurring task would not be able to handle this
situation. The task calendar would work perfectly. Thanks for an alternate
idea, though.

 

[Brian Stebbins]

Dale is right once again... lol. You were right I DID misunderstand his
origional message. My apologies... I just thought my way would be simpler
for what I THOUGHT the problem was. Thanks for the prompt correction though
Dale!!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Brian --

Thank you for your kind comments. You are a true gentleman!