About Scheduling Tasks

In the Schedule step, you work in the Gantt chart to set start and finish dates for your tasks and refine your project plan. To make scheduling easy and quick, Project KickStart provides a starter schedule for new projects by setting today as the start date and assigning a one-day duration to each task. This creates a waterfall or cascade pattern, with one task following the other.

You work with the Gantt chart using the familiar Task Data view in the left pane or the graphical Chart view in the right pane. To adjust the schedule to fit your project, set the project start date in the toolbar, move and resize the taskbars in the Chart view, or change the start and finish dates or durations of individual tasks in the Task Data view.

Click the following illustration to see general tips for using the Gantt chart. See About the Gantt Chart for more details.

In the Schedule step, you can:

Change a start date for the project.
Set start and finish dates or durations for tasks.
Change the timescale of the schedule.
Change the working schedule to specify which days are nonworking days, such as weekends and holidays.
Fine-tune the organization of the phases, tasks, and subtasks.
Color-code tasks to identify assignments, critical deadlines, or other information at a glance.
Insert milestones to indicate events that mark a moment in time, such as the approval of a design.
Review and edit task details, including task name, assignments, notes, and attachments.
Hide or show task data columns in the left pane.
Export project data to other software applications.

Tip

To save time, you can reuse projects, such as one for a trade show, and create an updated schedule by changing the project start date in the Schedule step.