Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual

Project Tools for Change

As you start changing the schedule in search of steady workloads, shorter project duration, or lower cost, you can put a triumvirate of Project’s change-oriented features through their paces:

• Task Inspector shows the elements that make tasks start when they do or last as long as they do, so you get some hints about how to fix them. In many cases, the task- or assignment-editing commands you need (Reschedule Task and Team Planner if resources are overallocated) are ready for you, right in the Task Inspector pane.

• Change highlighting shades all the cells whose values change in response to an edit you make. You can then review these highlighted cells to see whether the changes you make produce the results you had in mind.

• Multilevel Undo lets you undo as many changes as you want. So if you zip through several edits only to find that another strategy is in order, you can undo the changes you made and try a different tack.

This section covers each feature in detail.

See Why Tasks Occur When They Do

Whether you’re trying to shorten a project schedule during planning or recover from delays during execution, a typical strategy is to make tasks start or end earlier. A schedule problem in one task often starts somewhere else in your project—in elements that control the task’s start date, like predecessors, calendars, or date constraints, to name a few. Task Inspector lists all the factors that affect the task you select, so you can decide what to do. Task Inspector can ...