Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Getting Around Project

The Project window is chockablock with panes and other parts that either display the information you want to see or help you work faster. Some features—like the ribbon, the main Project view, and the status bar—are always available, while others—like the Task Inspector pane—stay hidden until you need them. This section shows you all the components within the Project window and how to make them work for you.

Navigating the Ribbon and the Quick Access Toolbar

Project’s ribbon is like a cyber border collie, herding related features onto tabs to make them easier to find, as shown in Figure 3-1. As you plan and manage a project, you shift your focus from tasks to the resources who work on them to the big picture of the entire project, so the Task tab, Resource tab, and Project tab make perfect sense. You’ll also turn to a few other tabs as you work with your Project files and look at your projects in different ways. This section steps through the seven tabs that appear when you launch Project 2013 for the first time and explains how to use and customize the Quick Access toolbar. (See Turning Tabs On and Off to learn how to add other tabs to the ribbon or to create your own custom tabs.)

Figure 3-1. The ribbon tabs appear near the top of the Project window. Click the File tab, and Backstage view takes over. Click any other tab, like the Task tab shown here, and you see ...