printing microsoft project plan

[projectdude]

Hello

I was trying to print this project plan done in microsoft project, when i print it, it chops of the finish of the finish & predecessor columns.
it also decides to print october '06 to march '07, though i dont have any activities for that period.

can you guys tell me how to include the finish, predecessors columns and exclude the october '06 to march '07 columns.

 

[PDQBach]

Your question is somewhat ambiguous.

To eliminate October 2006 through March 2007 ... do you mean on the Gantt chart or do you mean tasks with those dates?

For the Gantt chart:
File | Print and in the lower left corner of the Print dialog box click on the "Dates" radio button and select the date range you want.

For tasks with those dates, click on Autofilter and then set an autofilter on the Start (Less than October 1, 2006).

As for the truncation issue ... there are two possibilities (once again, it isn't clear what your problem is). One is that the column isn't wide enough so go to the View and increase the width of the column to display the full set of data.

The other is that there are too many columns to display so Project displays them on adjoining pages. By playing with the columns you are displaying, the width of those columns and the scaling (File | Page Setup... on the Page tab) you should be successful.

 

[projectdude]

thanks for the reply

i have no tasks beyond october 2006, hence the gantt chart is blank, but when i print the printer prints form the start date of the project all the way upto march 2007(whereas the project ends october 2006)

when you mean playing with the columns, you mean sliding the slider so that more or less columns are displayed and likewise there is a decrease in the gantt chart area or an increase

 

[PDQBach]

There was probably at some a point a task that lasted until then. When it was corrected to the proper duration the "last date that something is in the schedule" never was corrected internally. I'm not sure of any easy way to fix the file so that it will work (try exporting it to an mpd -- Microsoft Project database -- file and then reimporting it). At least the approach that I gave you will print the desired information in the desired format.

On the second item ... close. That was part of it, the other was to change the width of the column by dragging the right margin of the column (up in the column header area) to the left or right to adjust the data display. The other part, as you wrote, was to move the vertical divider between the left and right portions of the display.

 

[projectdude]

thanks for the replies

is there no way i can delete all the tasks beyond say october 2006?

if in the pritn options, i chose the timescale, dates from (20/03/06) to (05/12/06) would this nullify the effect of all the "ghost" entries after 06/12/06


i did not understand what you meant by

On the second item ... close.

 

[PDQBach]

Does your schedule -- right now -- have any tasks that extend beyond October 2006?

If "yes" then you alone will have to decide if you want to keep them in the schedule or if you want to delete them.

If "no" then my experience is that Project has no easy way to adjust the internal controls that set up the date range when you print. I expect you're saying: but it should know when the start and finish dates are. You're right, it should but I have seen cases where it "remembers" a project finish date that is significantly after the Finish date of the latest Finishing task (note: not the *last* task in your schedule -- the last line -- but the task with the Finish date furthest into the future).

One thing that fixes up other problems is to
1. Start Project
2. Open the project file
3. File | Save As... and set the "Save as type" to mpd
4. Save the file
5. Exit Project
6. Start Project
7. Open the file you saved in step 3.
8. File | Save As... and make certain the type is mpp
9. Save the file
10. Exit Project.

This might work in this case ... but no guarantees.


As for "close" (as in "almost") I meant that you were correct that I wanted you to move the vertical divider separating the datasheet from the Gantt chart (which you mentioned) *and* I also wanted you to adjust specific column widths. My ambiguity - sorry!

Keep us posted on how things work out for you.