How to show edays(emonths) as days(months) in gantt chart view

[cathy_ywf]

My boss wanted to present the gantt chart view in a grant application.
we used the elapsed duration, so it shows "28 edays"("emonths") in gantt
chart view for duration column, but she would like to have "28
days"("months") to show up in gantt chart view for presentation purpose.
Anyone has any idea how to do that? try to look at the functions in
customize field, but there is nothing like Replace function in VBA.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Cathy,

If I understand your question, you would like to keep the duration
as 28 elapsed days - so a task beginning on 11 May 2009 at 8:00 am
would end 8 June 2009 at 8:00 am or 28 24hour periods of time -- but
you would like a field to say "28 days"?

You cannot change the duration field -- you'll need to work with a
text field that you may choose to name "Duration" for display
purposes. You'll need to remember that you need to go to the true
duration field to make duration changes as you will not be able to
type in the text field

Add a spare text field (Text1 for example) and customize the field
(Tools > Customize, Fields) with the following formula:

[Duration]/1440 & " Days"

The duration field actually measures everything in minutes so we
need to divide by 1440 (60 minutes * 24 hours) to show the duration
in days, not in minutes.

For the 28 edays duration, the field will show 28 days
For a 1 emon duration, the field will show 30 days

I suggest changing all duration formats to the same measurement
unit -- I'd use days. Run the Format_Duration macro (Tools > Macro

Macros).

Now that I've told you how to do this -- I would approach with
caution. For users who are familiar with Project -- a "day" means a
working day and does not count nonworking time such as Saturday and
Sundays. Also be **very** careful assigning resources to durations
expressed in elapsed days. They will be scheduled to work 24 hours
a day -- 7 days per week.

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

 

[cathy_ywf]

Julie,
Your solutions works perfectly for me, you are really an expert!
At this stage, it's only for presentation purpose, and we didn't input
the resources and cost.
Thanks a lot!

Cathy

 

[JulieS]

Thanks for your kind words Cathy. I'm glad to know the formula
worked for you and thanks for the feedback.
Julie

 

[cathy_ywf]

Hi, Julie,
I was trying to add a summary task, now there is sth weird about that
calculation: After I add the summary task ,the duration of that summary
task will be automatically calculated as "days" rather than "edays"
even I used edays or emonths for all subtasks. Then it caused the
calculation of my customized field of Duration going wrong. For example,
if the original Duration of the summary task is 875 days, the new field
of Duration is automatically set as 0.333 days or sth. Do u have any
idea what's the problem?

Thanks.

Cathy

 

[JulieS]

Hi Cathy,

Summary tasks durations are calculated -- so they show the
definition in "working days" not the 24 hours days you see when
using elapsed duration. The formula divides by 1440 to account for
the 24 hour days and the summary task is calling a "day" only 8
hours. This is why you see such a low number of days at the summary
line.

So, we need to modify the formula to test to see whether the task is
a summary task and if so, just calculate the difference between the
summary task start and finish dates. Change the formula to:

IIf([Summary]=Yes,[Finish]-[Start] & " Days",[Duration]/1440 & "
Days")


In the customize fields dialog box, make sure you select the option
"Use formula" for group and summary rows.

I hope this helps.

Julie

 

[cathy_ywf]

It works very well for me. I really appreciate your help, Julie!
Can I ask if you can recommend any good book for advanced information
about MS project?
Thanks.

Cathy

 

[JulieS]

You are very welcome Cathy. Thanks for the feedback. As far as
books, I can recommend Dale Howard and Gary Chefetz's books on
Project. Both Dale and Gary are long time MVPs in MS Project. See
http://www.msprojectexperts.com/
for info on their books.

Julie

 

[cathy_ywf]

I will ask my manager to get that book, thanks, Julie.

Cathy

 

[JulieS]

You're welcome Cathy. Do drop by again should you have some more
questions.

Julie