One of the most useful functions of MS Project is the ability to display the entire project in the Gantt Chart view (View, Zoom, Entire Project, OK).  If you find that you use this function often, you many want to create a “ZEP” button (Zoom Entire Project) to reduce the number of clicks from four to one.

First you will need to create a macro:
• On the menu bar select Tools
• Select Marcos
• Click Record New Macro…
• Macro name: ZEP
• Click OK
• Hold the Alt key and press in order the following keys: V, Z, and E
• On the menu bar select Tools
• Select Marcos
• Click Stop Recorder

Next create a ZEP button on the Formatting tool bar:
• On the menu bar select Tools
• Select Customize
• Click Toolbars…
• In the Commands tab, click Rearrange Commands…
• Click the Toolsbar: radio button and select Formatting in the pull down list
• Click Add
• In the Categories list, select All Macros
• In the Commands list, select ZEP and click OK
• Close all the dialog boxes.

If you want to get fancy, you can create a graphic for the ZEP button.  I created a zepplin for my version of MS Project.  (Must be my penchant for the 1960’s rock band Lead Zepplin) 

Determining where a resource in a project plan is over allocated (scheduled for more work than available) in a project or across multiple projects is a difficult without project management software. 

Fortunately, MS Project can easily identify over-allocated resources, when each resource is over-allocated, and how much each resource is over-allocated.

First display the resource allocation view. This view will display an upper pane (resources) and a lower pane (tasks):

• On the menu bar select View
• Select More Views…
• Click Resource Allocation
• Click Apply

To find the over-allocations:

• Press the ALT + F5 keys.
• Notice that the upper pane shows the first resource that is over-allocated and that the lower pane show which tasks the resource is over-allocated and the dates
• Continue to press Alt + F5 keys until you identify all the over-allocated tasks.

Once you have reached the end of all the over-allocations, you will need to reset the function to repeat the search. To reset the “find over-allocation” function:

• Click the Details column heading.
• Press the ALT + Home keys.
• You can now start the process again.

During the MS Project Conference, January 17-19, in Seattle, Washington, conference attendees were privy to the new features and functions that will be included in the Microsoft Enterprise Project Management (EPM) Solution 2007 release.

Excitement bounded through the general session and the detail demonstrations in the individual breakout sessions. This release is not just an upgrade but a significant development of enhanced functionality and additional features in both Project desktop and Project Server. The list of changes is too numerous to detail in this article, but here are a few of the things to expect in Project desktop (Project Professional / Standard)

• Multi-Level Undo - Microsoft has removed the single undo constraint in Project to be consistent with other Microsoft applications.
• Change Highlighting - any change made to a task will highlight the downstream tasks that are changed or impacted by the upstream task. This will help beginners understand MS Project by revealing the impact of the scheduling engine. Also will highlight all changes from macros and extensions.
• Cell Background Formatting - Project will now allow the user to control the background formatting of cells. This will help users identify tasks of interest. Cell background formatting works in all tables and can be controlled manually, with filters, and via macros.
• Enhanced Reporting - includes custom reporting via Excel and Visio, view enhancements, budget tracking, and visual reports.
• Budgeting - MS Project will have the capability to now have separate budgets for human resources (work), materials, and costs.
• Deliverables - MS Project allows a project manager to define the deliverables for any given task.

Other enhancements include improved performance, unlimited custom fields, and a preview feature prior to accepting task updates.

Well you asked for it and Microsoft is listening. The 2006 Microsoft Project Conference was held in rainy Seattle. However, the rain was not limited to the sky. Microsoft was raining down a flood of new features in the much anticipated Office 12 release of Project Professional and Server.

The conference was packed with content ranging from management techniques, Project Professional tips and tricks, to the star attraction, demonstrations of the Office 12 Project, which will be released as Project 2007.

After the information flood waters receded, the essential improvements to Project are:

• Tighter integration with Sharepoint and Infopath providing improved project collaboration and simplifying process automation from project conception through closing. This integration includes leveraging the new workflow engine in Sharepoint and providing a home for maintenance items that are just too small for the formality of a full project.
• Want to get to your project data? Add Sharepoint Portal and you get even closer to your data by using the embedded SQL 2005 report engine. This provides easy report creation, customization, organization and distribution in Sharepoint.
• For those of you that live in Outlook, Project is getting up close and personal. Tasks can now be displayed and managed along-side Outlook tasks. Another nice feature is the ability to view tasks in the Outlook calendar.
• Project Professional also gets some attention with many new enhancements. The two I like best are multi-level undo; and after changes are made, impacted tasks are highlighted. 

Project 2007 is filling the gaps in Project 2003 in a big way. With all these improvements raining down you better start building that Arc and loading up those projects two-by-two.

Troy Wheeler, Vice President of Technology, EPM2e, can be reached at 800-878-0385.

Project leaders often use constraints to denote a deadline. The problems with using a constraint for a deadline is that this limits the scheduling calculation on your project and your ability to resource level. A better method is to use a deadline marker. Deadlines in MS Project do not affect the project schedule.

To set a deadline:
• Double click the task for which you want to set a deadline.
• In the Task Information dialog box, select the Advanced tab.
• In the Deadline filed, enter or select the deadline date.
• Click OK

The deadline will be displayed as a green arrow on the Gantt Chart.

If a deadline date will be missed, an red caution indicator will display. You can also filter for tasks with deadlines to quickly view the status of your deadlines:

To filter for deadlines:
• On the menu bar select Project
• Select Filterfor…
• Select More Filters
• Select Tasks with Deadlines
• Click Apply