PRJ98: Edits in Database to Remaining or Actual Duration Omitted (191988)

CAUSE

This problem occurs because, if a task has resources assigned, Microsoft Project 98 calculates values for task Actual Duration and task Remaining Duration based on resource assignment values, instead of displaying the values entered in the database. If a task does not have resources assigned, Microsoft Project 98 will update edits to these fields correctly.

Note that task Actual Duration and task Remaining Duration retain the edited values when you view the project in the database.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods for tasks that have resources assigned:

Method 1

Edit the values for task Actual Duration and task Remaining Duration directly in Microsoft Project 98.

Method 2

To modify task Actual Duration and task Remaining Duration values in a database, edit the task Duration and/or task StopDate fields instead of the task ActualDuration and task RemainingDuration fields. This will force correct recalculation of task Actual Duration and Remaining Duration when you reopen the project in Microsoft Project 98.

For example, for a 5-day task that starts 8/24/98, with Actual Duration of two days and Remaining Duration of three days, in Microsoft Access, you would see:

   ActualDuration   RemainingDuration   Duration      StopDate

        9600             14400            24000    8/25/98 5:00:00 PM

To change Actual Duration to four days and Remaining Duration to six days, you would edit only Duration and StopDate, as follows:

   ActualDuration   RemainingDuration   Duration      StopDate
        9600             14400            48000    8/27/98 5:00:00 PM

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about working with Microsoft Project 98 databases, see the Database.wri file in the Microsoft Project 98 program directory. This file can also be found in the Office subdirectory of the Microsoft Project 98 installation CD-ROM.