- Setting Up a Project
- Setting Project Properties and Options
- Choosing a Project Start or Finish Date
- Setting Up Your Project's Calendars
Choosing a Project Start or Finish Date
Within Project 2013, you can schedule a project either from a specified start date forward to the projected finish date or you can schedule it from a specified finish date backward to a projected start date. Most projects are deadline driven, meaning that we know about when we need to have them finished. Because of this, it might seem intuitive for a newcomer to Project 2013 to schedule a project from the finish date. I urge you to resist the temptation to do this with your project. It seems like a great idea in theory, but scheduling a project back from the finish date should be done only by the most advanced of users because of the way it makes the scheduling features of Project react to changes. For the newcomer, all projects should be scheduled from the start date.
To set a start or finish date for your project, complete these steps:
- On the Project tab of the ribbon, in the Properties group, click Project Information.
- Click the Schedule from box, and then choose whether you want to schedule your project from the Project Start Date or the Project Finish Date. Again, I urge you to schedule your project from the Project Start Date.
Choose a project Start date or Finish date, as shown in Figure 3.6.
FIGURE 3.6. The Project Information dialog is where you set the Schedule From setting and several other project settings.
- Click OK to save the date you selected.