PRJ2000: New Features in Microsoft Project 2000 (258461)

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What's New in Microsoft Project

New Scheduling Features

Microsoft Project 2000 allows you to set task priorities to any value between 1 and 1,000. You can also apply a priority to a project.

You can set calendars, including working time, for tasks. Task calendars allow you to create schedules that affect only selected tasks.

Master projects can calculate the latest finish date across all subprojects. This allows you to see one critical path across the master project.

In Microsoft Project 2000, you can contour a resource's availability. This feature is most useful in defining the available units over time for a resource group.

You can set a deadline date that allows Microsoft Project 2000 to alert you if a task is scheduled to finish after its deadline.

A task's duration may be entered as an estimated duration. Estimated durations allow you to quickly find tasks with durations that may not be firm, using the new Tasks With Estimated Durations filter.

Microsoft Project 2000 includes material resources. You can track consumable resources such as lumber or concrete and assign them to tasks.

Network Diagram Improvements

The Network Diagram view in Microsoft Project is new, and completely replaces the PERT Chart from previous versions. You can apply a filter to the Network Diagram.

In the Network Diagram view, you can use outlining symbols to hide or display the subtasks of a summary task in much the same way that you outline in the Gantt Chart view.

Microsoft Project 2000 gives you greater control over the number of fields per node, includes new node shapes, and gives more node formatting options. For example, you can specify up to 16 fields per node, you can change the row heights of the cells in the nodes, and you can place labels on cells and change fonts. You can even format individual nodes independent of their task types.

Features

In Microsoft Project 2000 you can group tasks and resources. Grouping allows you to view tasks or resources in groups that you define and to see rolled up totals for these groups.

You can specify your own work breakdown structure (WBS) numbering format. Additionally, Microsoft Project 2000 allows you to create multiple outline structures in custom fields so that you can sort and group your tasks according to these outline structures.

You can define custom outline codes in addition to defining custom WBS codes. Unlike WBS codes, custom outline codes, are completely user-defined and are not tied to the outline structure of your project. And you can create more than one set of codes for tasks or resources. This allows you to create an outline mask based, for example, on your company cost codes or on job codes. You can easily filter, sort, and group tasks or resources by the codes you've defined.

In Microsoft Project 2000 as in Microsoft Excel, you can edit cells in place as well as on the edit bar. To use in-cell editing, just click the cell you want to edit.

You can expand and collapse outline levels more efficiently. You can directly select the outline level to which you would like to display your tasks.

You can set individual rows to differing row heights by dragging the row line between tasks to the height that you want.

Microsoft Project offers the ability to independently set the use of the fiscal year for both your major and minor timescale.

Microsoft Project supports months as a unit of duration. Typing in "3mon" in the duration field is recognized as three months.

Like Microsoft Excel 2000, Microsoft Project 2000 supports multiple documents on the Microsoft Windows taskbar. Switch between active Microsoft Project files by pressing ALT+TAB.

Microsoft Project 2000 includes the improved hyperlink functionality found in other Office 2000 products. You can select a hyperlink from a list of previously viewed links and customize the hyperlink ScreenTip.

You can display multiple Gantt bars on a single task line or for the project as a whole.

You may add project-level fields to headers, footers, or legends on views or reports.

You can base a project on a template. Microsoft Project includes several detailed templates for different types of projects.

Microsoft Project includes an option allowing you to clear the baseline or an interim plan on a project.

Microsoft Project has more ToolTips. If you point to the timescale, it shows the date for a particular timescale unit. If you point to a cell where the column width is too narrow to completely display the full cell contents, the contents are shown in a ToolTip. And each column heading on sheet views has a ToolTip that provides access to in-depth information from the Fields reference.

Microsoft Project includes a new HTML-based Help system, with dynamic Help topics, an updated Project Map, and more reference information. To see the Project Map, on the Help menu, click Contents and Index.

Microsoft Project 2000 supports value lists for easier and more accurate data entry, user-defined formulas for doing calculations on custom data, and graphical indicators to represent data in a custom field.

You have the option to automatically save a project file every few minutes. You can customize the interval, and you may choose between saving only the active project or saving all open project files. You may also choose to be prompted before automatic saving occurs.

You can select a task by clicking its corresponding Gantt bar. This feature makes it easier to determine which task bar you have selected.

Microsoft Project 2000 allows you to specify the default directory where you will save your files. You can specify different directories for project files, user templates, and workgroup templates, or specify the default format when saving a project.

Fill handles make fill up or down operations easier, and they are included on the Gantt Chart view.

Workgroup Features

Microsoft Project, with Microsoft Project Central builds on the Web-based workgroup features available in Microsoft Project 98. Enhancements include personal Gantt charts, filtering, sorting, grouping, task delegation, reports and a reporting capability, the ability to work offline, set message rules, and many other features.

Administration and Programmability

Just like the Office 2000 applications, Microsoft Project uses the Microsoft Installer technology. Only the files you use are installed on your system. If a critical file is missing, the installer technology re-installs the missing piece. For more information, see the Readme files included with Microsoft Project.

Microsoft Project 2000 allows you to install a language pack so that your installed version of Microsoft Project can display its menus and dialog boxes in another language.

You can save to the Microsoft Project 98 MPP file format. This format allows you to easily exchange projects with users who have not upgraded to Microsoft Project 2000. When saving to this format, it is important to remember that Microsoft Project 98 does not include all the features found in Microsoft Project 2000, so some information may be lost when saving to this format. Microsoft Project 2000, however, will remind you of this by default when you save to the Project 98 file format.

Microsoft Project 2000 can read system policies and disable a feature based on the policy. For example, an administrator may apply a policy that fixes the Office Assistant as Logo. (Logo has the least amount of animations of all the Office Assistants and is the best choice for maximizing performance in a Windows Terminal Server environment.) Microsoft Project 2000 maintains this policy, which allows an administrator to control users' environments.

Microsoft Project 2000 maintains an administrator's full control to customize a user's environment.

New features like grouping, custom WBS, and custom outlines codes have new methods associated with them so that you can programmatically edit and apply them to your projects.

The Microsoft Project 2000 database schema has been improved considerably from Microsoft Project 98 to increase performance and make it easier and more intuitive to work with Microsoft Project data in a database. For more information, see the Readme files included with Microsoft Project.

OLE-DB is a specification for a set of data access interfaces that enables a multitude of data stores in an enterprise to work seamlessly together. Microsoft Project 2000 is an OLE-DB provider. This makes it possible for other applications to easily access Microsoft Project data as well as its scheduling capabilities, making it much easier to integrate project data in the enterprise. For more information, see the Readme files included with Microsoft Project.