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Creating Tasks in Microsoft Project- Tutorial

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Creating Tasks in Microsoft Project: Video Lesson

            This video, titled “Creating Tasks,” shows the different ways of creating tasks in Microsoft Project. This video is from our complete Microsoft Project training, titled “Mastering Project Made Easy v.2013-2010.”

Creating Tasks in Microsoft Project: Overview

            In this blog post, we will examine creating tasks in Microsoft Project. After you have created your initial project file within Microsoft Project, you will need to enter the tasks that comprise the project. Simply put, you need to enter the actual work that needs to be done to complete the project. In Microsoft Project, you enter this work as tasks within the project file.

            First, switch the working view of the project file to the “Gantt Chart” view. Within this view, you will enter the individual tasks that comprise the work that needs to be accomplished into the table view at the left side of the screen. To enter a basic task when creating tasks in Microsoft Project, simply click into the first empty cell under the “Task Name” column in the table, and then type a name for the task. Then press the “Enter” key on your keyboard to set the task name and move down to the next cell in the task list.

            Notice that this method only enters the name of the task into the “Task Name” column. When creating tasks in Microsoft Project using this method, the program sets a default value for the “Duration,” “Start,” and “Finish” columns. You can click any cell shown in the list under those columns and then change the values directly in the cell. Be sure to press “Enter” on your keyboard to confirm your changes to the cell’s values.

Creating Tasks in Microsoft Project- Tutorial: A picture of the "Information," "Task Mode," "Task Name" and "Duration" columns shown within the Gantt Chart view of a project file in Microsoft Project 2013.

Creating Tasks in Microsoft Project- Tutorial: A picture of the “Information,” “Task Mode,” “Task Name” and “Duration” columns shown within the Gantt Chart view of a project file in Microsoft Project 2013.

            If you would prefer to enter all of the task details into a separate window at once as you are creating tasks in Microsoft Project, there is certainly a way to do this. To do this, simply click into the “Task Name” field of a blank cell in the task list, and then click the “Information” button in the “Properties” button group on the “Task” tab in the Ribbon. Doing this will display the “Task Information” dialog box, where you can input all task information that is available, before saving the task into the task list by clicking the “OK” button.

Creating Tasks in Microsoft Project: Instructions

  1. Switch the working view of the project file to the “Gantt Chart” view. Within this view, you will enter the individual tasks that comprise the work that needs to be accomplished into the table view at the left side of the screen.
  2. To enter a basic task, simply click into the first empty cell under the “Task Name” column in the table, and then type a name for the task.
  3. Then press the “Enter” key on your keyboard to set the task name and move down to the next cell in the task list.
  4. Notice that this method only enters the name of the task into the “Task Name” column. When you enter the names of tasks, the program sets a default value for the “Duration,” “Start,” and “Finish” columns.
  5. You can click any cell shown in the list under those columns and then change the values directly in the cell.
  6. Be sure to press “Enter” on your keyboard to confirm your changes to the cell’s values.
  7. To enter all of the task details into a separate window at once as you create the task, simply click into the “Task Name” field of a blank cell in the task list and then click the “Information” button in the “Properties” button group on the “Task” tab in the Ribbon to display the “Task Information” dialog box.
  8. Input all available task information.
  9. Save the task into the task list by clicking the “OK” button.
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