Formatting Task Rows in Gantt Reports

[Derek Dowle]

I am using Microsoft Project 2003

I have a ‘Tracking Gantt’ which has only 4 tasks that span over a five year
period.

To ensure that the report will print on one page of A4 landscape the Scaling
on the Page tab of the Page Setup dialog is set to 1 page wide by 1 tall.

When Print Preview is selected or the Gantt chart printed the height of each
task row doubles in size with the task text and the task bars only using the
top half of each row.

When viewing the Tracking Gantt the text and task bars fit snugly into each
task row.

Is it possible to format the reports to reduce the depth of task rows so
that the reports are the same as the view?

Many thanks in anticipation.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Derek,

It sounds as though with only 4 tasks, the scaling has increased the
height of the rows to fill the one page tall. I suggest zooming out
of the Gantt chart view to try to fit the bars on 1 page wide. Turn
off the scaling and see if you have better luck.


I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Derek Dowle]

Hello Julie

Yes it worked thankyou.

By zooming out and removing the scaling the depth of the task rows shrinks
to match the view.

This has solved one problem, but created another. I need the bottom tier of
the timescale to show months; i.e. J, F, M, etc. When I zoom out this tier
automatically changes to quarters. Change the tier back to months and the
report automatically zooms back in the depth of the task rows expand. Can I
zoom out and retain the months in the bottom tier.

When creating the Gantt view I formatted both the baseline and task bars to
show start dates and end dates at the ends of these bars. Unfortunately
Project shows both dates at the same vertical position on the view. So the
date for the task may overlap that for the base line and vice versa. This
problem repeats on the report. To overcome the problem I have attached text
boxes to the ends of each bar to contain the dates. Rather tedious, but it
works. Is there a way to get around this problem?

 

[JulieS]

Hi Derek,

My comments are inline.

Hello Julie

Yes it worked thankyou.

[Julie] You're welcome Derek. Glad to have helped and thanks for
the feedback.

By zooming out and removing the scaling the depth of the task rows
shrinks
to match the view.

This has solved one problem, but created another. I need the
bottom tier of
the timescale to show months; i.e. J, F, M, etc. When I zoom out
this tier
automatically changes to quarters. Change the tier back to
months and the
report automatically zooms back in the depth of the task rows
expand. Can I
zoom out and retain the months in the bottom tier.

[Julie] You most likely can't show each month if the scaling needs
to be set to Quarters to fit everything. However, try Format >
Timescale once you have the correct zoom set and change the bottom
tier labels to show months count 3 and set the label as desired.

When creating the Gantt view I formatted both the baseline and
task bars to
show start dates and end dates at the ends of these bars.
Unfortunately
Project shows both dates at the same vertical position on the
view. So the
date for the task may overlap that for the base line and vice
versa. This
problem repeats on the report. To overcome the problem I have
attached text
boxes to the ends of each bar to contain the dates. Rather
tedious, but it
works. Is there a way to get around this problem?

[Julie] Most likely not. If the baseline start/finish equals the
task start/finish the dates will overlap each other. Through Format

Bar Styles try experimenting with setting the baseline bars to row

2 to create more space between the bars -- but you may not like that
look either. I'd suggest just sticking with the current dates and
not working about the baseline dates as much.