Microsoft Project For Dummies. Cynthia Snyder Dionisio
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Help Ribbon tab, shown in Figure 1-11, lets you open a Help pane, provide feedback, and access training. It has a pane that highlights what’s new. The Help function in the Help Ribbon tab opens a pane on the right side of the window. You can enter keywords and you will get several explanations with hyperlinks. Find the topic that reflects what you are looking for and click the link. Information in the Help pane often comes with a graphic and step-by-step instructions you can follow.
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FIGURE 1-11: The Help Ribbon tab.
The Format Ribbon tab, shown in Figure 1-12, has commands that help you present your schedule, such as text styles, Gantt chart styles, and column settings. This image also shows a pushpin on the far right of the Ribbon. This pins the Ribbon to your display, keeping it open and visible. If your Ribbon is closed, click on any tab and look in the lower-right corner of the Ribbon to see the pushpin. Click on the pushpin to keep your Ribbon open.
The upward-facing arrow (^) on the far-right side of a Ribbon (as shown in Figure 1-10) hides the Ribbon. This gives you more real estate on your screen.
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FIGURE 1-12: The Format Ribbon tab.
Displaying more tools
If you don’t see the option you want, click More Commands near the bottom of the menu to display the Quick Access Toolbar category in the Project Options dialog box. This shows you a full list of commands you can add.
The nifty Timeline tool shows the entire scaled time span of the project. To show the Timeline, go to the View Ribbon tab (shown in Figure 1-10), locate the Split View group, and then click the check box that says Timeline. You can add tasks or milestones to the Timeline. You can also copy the Timeline and paste it into reports or other presentations. To hide the Timeline, uncheck the Timeline box. You can also work with the Timeline by right-clicking to insert tasks, copy the Timeline, change the font, or view detailed information. Figure 1-14 shows the Timeline with summary tasks and milestones.
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FIGURE 1-13: Customizing the Quick Access toolbar.
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FIGURE 1-14: The Timeline.
The status bar, shown in Figure 1-15, sits at the bottom of the project, to indicate whether your tasks are manually or automatically scheduled. (Read more on this topic in Chapter 2.) The status bar also lets you move quickly to some of the most popular views, such as Gantt, Task Usage, Team Planner, Resource Sheet, and Reports. You can also adjust the time scale from a high-level, time scaled view to a detailed time-scaled view with the View slider, on the far-right end of the status bar. I talk more about views in Chapter 6.
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FIGURE 1-15: The status bar.
Tell Me What You Want to Do
In previous versions of Microsoft Office, there was a Help function. That went away for a while, but now it is back as a Ribbon tab. Both the Help button on the Help Ribbon tab and the Tell Me What You Want to Do feature, found next to the Format tab, can provide assistance.
Chapter 2
Starting the Project
IN THIS CHAPTER
Congratulations — you’re the proud project manager of a new project! Before you do anything, you need to understand the scope of the project. You must clearly specify what’s in and out of scope, milestones, the budget, and completion criteria.
Planning a project isn’t as easy as opening a file in Project and entering all the activities you have to complete. Before you can begin to plan, you need to understand the purpose of the project and the high-level information about the project such as project’s objectives and the intended outcomes.
Therefore, before you enter the first task into Project, you create the project charter (described a little later in this chapter) to initiate the project and develop the work breakdown structure (WBS) to organize project deliverables. Then you can start organizing the project and entering tasks into Project.
This chapter describes how to move from imagining a concept to planning a project so you know how to enter and work with tasks and how to save the new project.
Creating the Project Charter
Having a high-level understanding of a project is critical to project success. The project charter is a document that formally authorizes or recognizes a project; it contains high-level information about the project. The project charter is frequently developed by the project manager, with the project sponsor. The charter functions as an agreement about the purpose