Adding more detail to tasks
 
  Additional information can be added to tasks to describe them in greater detail.  The 'Administration' task needs to be broken down into a list of operations.  Instead of breaking these operations down into a discrete list of tasks, this list can be added in the form of a note.  To accomplish this:

Firstly, select the required task.
Then, click on the Task Notes button on the standard toolbar.
Next, click in the notes are of the dialog and enter the text you want, using the formatting buttons if appropriate.
Finally, use OK to confirm the entry and close the Task Information dialog.

You should now see a 'Notes' icon within the indicator column to the left of the entry table.  Placing your cursor over this icon displays information about the note's contents.

In addition to notes, further task information can also be provided in the form of a hyperlink to another document.  For example, the specifications for the trade show's booth are held in a Word file contained on the local PC.  To create this hyperlink:

Firstly, select the required task.
Then, choose Hyperlink from the Insert menu.
Next, select the relevant target document and confirm with OK.

You should now see a 'Hyperlink' icon within the indicator column to the left of the entry table.  Placing your cursor over this icon tells you about the hyperlink.  Clicking on the hyperlink will open the attached document.
 
Entering task durations
 
  Currently, all the tasks within the Trade Show project are scheduled to only take one day to complete.  It's highly unlikely that in any project this will be the case.  As such, duration values need to be given to the tasks so that a schedule can be created.  In later lessons you will assign resources to these tasks and hence schedule the actual work content for the project.  There are two basic ways that tasks can be given duration values:
  • Entering a cell value using the keyboard or a spin control.
  • Or dragging with a mouse cursor.

The simplest method is entering a cell value.  To do this:

Use the spin control to increase or decrease the duration value and confirm with an entry bar tick.
Or type a value directly within the cell.

Dragging a duration is a useful and more visual alternative.  This is how not to do it:

If you place the cursor at the beginning of a bar and start to drag right, you are indicating a percentage of completion for the task.  This is not a good idea.  You should undo this action immediately.
If the cursor is in the middle of the bar and you start to drag, you will be dragging the bar and constraining it to start on a new date.  Again, this is not the correct thing to do at this stage.  If you have already released the mouse, use the Undo button.  If the mouse button is still held down, you can drag the bar back to its original position (where the help box becomes emboldened).  At this point, you can release the mouse button, cancelling the dragging operation.

This is how to drag a duration value:

Just position the cursor at the right-hand end of the task bar and drag slowly to the right.  The help box will then display the chosen duration dependant upon the displayed timescale for the Gantt chart.  Once you are satisfied with the chosen duration, simply release the mouse button.

Note that you don't have to enter durations for summary tasks.  This is because a summary task gets its duration equivalent to the longest task (or path of tasks) beneath it.  Also note that if you enter duration values directly, the question mark duration suffix disappears.  This is because the task's duration isn't estimated any more, it is an entered value.  The question mark will however remain if a duration is dragged with the mouse.
 
 
Tasks and task calendars
 
  Once all the duration values for tasks have been entered, the task bars are displayed against the chart's timescale.  You can see that some tasks span weekends.  This is because all the tasks are currently scheduled by the project's base calendar to have working time Monday through Friday and non working time Saturday and Sunday.

The task 'Construct booth' needs to be able to work over a weekend if necessary.  As such, it needs to have a task calendar that contains an appropriate working time definition.  To apply a task calendar to this task:

Firstly, select the task.
Next, click on the Task Information button on the standard toolbar and then click on the Advanced tab.
From the 'Calendar' drop down, select a suitable calendar for this task.
Then use OK to close the dialog box, applying the calendar to the task.

You should now see a 'Task Calendar' icon within the indicator column to the left of the entry table.  Placing your cursor over this icon advises you how this task is scheduled.

Be careful in the use of task calendars.  Don't use them when there may be a conflict in the working time scheduled by the task's calendar and the calendar of any resources that have been assigned to the task.