Microsoft Project : Task Details Form

For easy editing and scrutinizing, it is always helpful to have an in-depth insight of any given task. One easy way to have this is to use the Task Details Form. Here's how to make it appear :

Step 1 : Double click on the 'split-view' tab
--------> (below the scroll down arrow @bottom right corner)
Step 2 : Click on the 'Previous' or 'Next' button to the required task
Step 3 : Go to View->More Views->Task Details Form

Primavera v6 : Driving Activity

In the default activity details view, driving activity are not indicated. To make P6 show which predecessor or successor is driving that activity, simply customize it.

Step 1 : Right click on the predecessor column

Step 2 : Choose customize predecessor column

Step 3 : Go to 'General' -> Double click 'Driving'

Step 4 : Click 'OK'

A thick will be shown to indicate driving activity. This process can also be repeated for successor column.

Microsoft Project 07 : Driving Activity

MS-Project users whom would normally deal with multiple predecessors and successors of an activity will surely appreciate the new feature in MS-Project 07. Being able to get an insight of what really driving an activity will tremendously shorten troubleshooting process. Here's how to enable it.

Step1 : Go to Project ->Task Drivers

Step2 : Click on any task

Primavera v3.1 : Edit Activity ID

For most of us season P3 users, this next tips could be considered a cliche. But for the rest of them, I really hope this could gentle their learning curve.

I could still remember those early days when I started to use P3. Things were really confusing and not being able to edit my Activity ID almost made me gave up. But of course before that happened, I would have found a way to solve it. Here goes.

Step 1 : Find the P3.ini file in the Windows folder

Step 2 : Open it and go to [Options] section

Step 3 : Look for ExclForActIDEdit string

Step 4 : Change the value from 1 to 0 and save the file

Step 5 : Restart P3

And of course there is always another simple and boring way of doing this.

Bonus Step : Tick the 'Exclusive' box before you open any project.

Primavera v6 : Hint Help

There's a slick feature in P6 where the user can set to show a 'Hint Help'. But this only apply to the column at the table area. Here's how to enable this feature.

Step 1 : Click the Display/Layout Options bar

Step 2 : Choose Hint Help

After doing this, try to move your mouse over any column.

Primavera v3.1 : Auto Schedule

The thing that I always like about Microsoft Project is how the activity bar is instantaneously schedule right after you assigned a predecessor. And I thought to myself wouldn't it be cool if P3 could also have this feature instead of repetitively pressing the F9. Well guess what, there is an option to auto schedule.

Step 1 : Go to Tools -> Schedule -> Option

Step 2 : Click on the Schedule Automatically button

Microsoft Project : Format Bars Quickly

I'm sure everybody has had the exhausting experience of having to format each and every individual bar activity to differentiate group works or trade. Well today as the first ever tips for this blog, I will show you exactly how to do that in few simple clicks.

Step 1 : Press ctrl and select all the bar you want to format

Step 2 : Go to Format -> Bar

Step 3 : Customize the bar

And there you have it. All the necessary bars formated the way it should be.