Microsoft® Office Project 2007 All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

Chapter 2. Creating That First Task

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✓	Exploring the information you can enter about a task
✓	Using Gantt Chart view to enter task information
✓	Entering details in the Task Information dialog box
✓	Importing tasks from Outlook
✓	Importing tasks from Excel
✓	Linking to a task in another project

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Tasks are the essential building blocks of any project. They’re like the items on your old-fashioned to-do list for your project. When you create a task, you build in the What, When, Who, and Where information of your plan.

But tasks serve other roles. For example, resources work on a project when you assign them to tasks. The timing of tasks and the relationships between them form the overall schedule for your project. By tracking the activity on tasks, you can see the progress of your project over time.

You can create tasks in a few different ways: by typing information in the sheet area of Gantt Chart view (or any other view that displays information in columns) or by using the Task Information dialog box. You can also import tasks from Outlook or Excel. You can even use a hyperlink to create a task in your project that represents data in another project.

In this chapter, you find out all about the various ways to create tasks, entering task basics in the process.

Tackling Task Basics

Before you can start to build tasks, you have to identify the individual steps required to complete your project. When you know what steps you need to take to accomplish your ...