issues with Microsoft Project

Hi everyone.  I am new to Planning Planet and have having some issues with MS Project 2016.  If somone could respond to these issues I wouild approciate it.

1.  I can open two projects at the same time but cannot drag them to different screens.  If I save and close one, both will close.  If I try to copy a header from one two the other, I have to close page setup from the first before I can open it on the second.  I do not have this issue with any other Microsoft products.

2.  Gridlines one the sheet rows don't work right.  It will look one way on the screen and another when I print.  For example, the gantt rows have 4 dashed and one solid line which repeats.  I set the sheet rows identically, chosing both automatic and black for colors, and I get very light - almost invisible lines.  Each time I try to fix it, I get something different.  I have done a "quick repair" and it doesn't help.

3.  This one is really annoying: If my boss asks me to add several days to a task, Microsoft underlines the finish date of the next task in red and doesn't change anything below the task I changed.  I have to delete the predecessor of the next task and re-enter it.  Once I do, this makes the end date of the next task wrong.  So I have to manually delete and re-enter each predecessor all the way to the end.

I hope that this isn't too much to put into a single post.  Thanks to anyone who responds to any of these issues.

Microsoft Project
A
Alexandre Faulx-Briole 👤 Member for 23 years 4 months
· Permalink

Hello Andy and Tom,

I suggest that you change the default scheduling option to "Auto Scheduled" in the "Options" screen, "Schedule" tab; this way, you will not have to change it for each new project at the bottom of the screen.

I fully agree with Tom, the "Manually Scheduled" option is stupid, for two reasons: a) it is the default option when you have just installed the software, b) it is so useless and bizarre that Microsoft did not explain why it was implemented before twelve months after MS Project 2010 was on the market. Only MS Project possess such an option.

Good luck, Alexandre

T
Tom Boyle 👤 Member for 19 years 6 months
· Permalink

Hi Andy,

Welcome to PP!  I don't have MSP 2016, but the questions you raise seem typical for previous versions; I'll give it a shot, presuming you are not a long-time user of MSP suddenly encountering unexpected behavior in the 2016 version.

  1. Unlike recent versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Project does not allow multiple sessions of the program to be opened at the same time.  You can arrange multiple windows within an overall "Microsoft Project" window, but they can't go off on their own like in the rest of Office.  You may save and close one project file while leaving others open - but if you click the red x you are indeed closing the whole application/session.  (Each file has its own "x" to close, but it doesn't turn red.)
  2. MSP is notoriously tricky about appearances and formatting - such things are not its strong point.  I can't diagnose the problems you are having, but I would suggest that print-preview is the only way to guess what the finished print will look like.  Formatting is typically the result of applying many styles and then adding exceptions to those styles - with exceptions to exceptions piling up.  Any time you try to affect the appearance of the table or a bar, you may be applying an exception with unintended consequences....  
  3. It looks like you are another victim of the ugly "Manually Scheduled" task mode.  I would suggest you ensure that all tasks are set to "Auto Schedule" such that their start and finish dates are driven by logic and durations.  Also ensure that all new tasks are set to "Auto Scheduled."  The default setting (typically shown at the bottom of the lower pane) is "Manually Scheduled," and you'll need to change this whenever creating a new project.  If you insist on using "Manually Scheduled" tasks anyway, then you can automate your current process by selecting all the tasks and then clicking the "Respect Links" button on the Schedule group of the Task ribbon.  This is not the way professional planners use MSP, however.  If you persist then I may have to withdraw the "Welcome to PP" above.

Good luck, tom

 

 

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