New user needing help with a project..

[Cire88]

I am new to Microsoft Projects and got this product for a single project. I have MSP 2007 and do not know where to begin. I should buy a book but I was hoping someone could just point me in the right direction or show me a template close to what I want so I can reverse engineer it. I am good at entering data in excel but I would like them to do the same data in MSP and have the bars on the side to represent the data.

Attached is a single line in my MSP with all the information I’m trying to cram into it and it should give you a good idea on what I’m trying to achieve. I inputted all the data manually but would like it so all I have to do in input the SIGN ON time and the Lv. Gar. and Begin Rev would auto fill in and I enter End Rev. and Arr. Gar. and Sign Off would auto fill in. But MSP formula is different then Excel. I only need the Gantt chart bars to show the sign on and sign off time. All the other data is extra information. (Example of formula needed Sign on at 5:22 then Lv. Gar. is 5:32, I need a MSP formula to add 10 min to it.)

Bonus: Is it is possible to make each time points show on the Gantt chart with a different color bar that would be helpful but not required. (Example, Sign on to Lv. Gar. is pink: then: Lv. Gar. to Begin Rev. is blue. and so on and so on.) Also to calculate the Pay Hours from the Sign Off to the Sign Off.

Any help is appreciated; even a simple not possible in MSP will help me decide if I need a new method of achieving my goals.

Thank You,

 

[JulieInMaine]

From taking a quick look at your attached file, you are most certainly not start out on the right foot.

Project is not just Excel with a Gantt chart portion. It is designed to track activities (tasks). Each one of your Starts and Ends should likely be a task
So "Rev" should be a task with a start and end date/time.
It can be linked to the "Garage" task so when the garage task ends, the Rev task can start.

Again I don't really know what you are trying to track so I can't go much further down this specific path with you.

However, take a look at a series of free tutorials at:

http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23

I hope this helps.

Julie

 

[Cire88]

Thanks the tutorial website is great. I will learn a lot from it. Right now i just trying to input data and have that data represented with gantt bars. Not really trying to complete a task, I just want the time not date and time in the cells. After i get that figured out i like to make custom cells with a formula so all i have to do is input a sign on time and End Rev. time and the other cells will populate the data caculations for me.

 

[JulieInMaine]

The appearance of Start and Finish (and all dates) is controlled through Tools > Options, View tab.

If you have standard durations for each task, link the tasks using predecessors and successors, the setting the project start date (and time) should drive all other data.

Again, I'm not sure Project is best suited to what you need.

I'm glad you like Mike's tutorials.