Drawing of Stakeholder map

Microsoft Project, Project planning, Templates and Advice

  • Concise, focused guide that cuts through the clutter
  • Step-by-step instructions for creating a project plan in under a day
  • Master essential skills like work breakdowns and task sequencing
  • Real-world troubleshooting for 20 common scheduling challenges
  • Rapidly get up to speed if you're new to Microsoft Project
  • Includes glossary, support resources, and sample plans
The cover of the book 'Essential Microsoft Project: The 20% You Need to Know'

How to guides to help you get the most of Microsoft Project

by | reviewed 10/08/2023
Need expert tutorials on Microsoft Project? Microsoft Project information for project managers. Includes tutorials, planning advice and templates.

How to analyze plans made using Microsoft Project

How to read a Microsoft Project Plan - A guide for project sponsors and project teams, which shows you how to read and analyze an Microsoft Project Plan.

Print a calendar of tasks for each member of your team using Microsoft Project

How to filter the calendar view in Microsoft Project by resource so that you can give each member of your team a calendar of their tasks for next week or month!

How to use Microsoft Project constraints

Constraints in Microsoft project can ruin your project plan. Read this guide to MS project constraints and learn how to use them correctly in your planning.

Common mistakes in using constraints

WARNING! Project Constraints have a valid part to play in project planning, but they can also be created by mistake with dangerous knock on effects. Read this guide to Microsoft Project constraints for project planners and project managers. What they are and how to use them and common mistakes.

How to create project constraints

How to create a constraint, start no earlier than, must start on, in Microsoft project. Guide to creating a constraint/fixing task dates in Microsoft Project.

How to count totals in Microsoft Project

By Ellen Lehnert, MVP, PMP, MCT - Microsoft Project & Microsoft Project Server. When managing project schedules Project Managers often need to produce a count of various tasks. For example: How many late tasks are in a schedule, how many critical tasks, how many milestones, etc. This is a step by step guide to counting these tasks.

Overview of Critical Path Analysis

Critical Path is one of the most useful tools used by Project Managers for project scheduling. In this guide to Critical Path Analysis, we explain this key analysis technique, give a definition and demonstrate it with examples.

Viewing the Critical Path - video tutorial

Learn how to view the Critical Path in less than 5 minutes. This short video explains how you can view the Critical Path in your Microsoft Project Plan.

How to create a custom field

How to create custom fields in Microsoft Project 2010. The quickest way to create a text custom field in two steps.

Customize the Ribbon in Microsoft Project

Learn how to customize the ribbon in Microsoft Project with our detailed step-by-step guide. Boost productivity by creating a personalized tab, adding new groups, and easily accessing your most-used functions. Perfect for managing intricate projects or handling routine tasks efficiently.

How to filter your Microsoft Project plan by certain tasks or resources

Filtering project plans is a powerful way to monitor project progress and troubleshoot issues. This is a guide to using filters or sorting your MS project plan.

How to create a custom filter in Microsoft Project

How to create custom filters in Microsoft Project. Filters enable you to focus on particular aspects of your project plan. This is useful aspect of planning with Microsoft Project.

How to Find Your Project Finish Date in Microsoft Project

Learn how to quickly find your project finish date in Microsoft Project with this easy step-by-step guide. Avoid scrolling through tasks and discover a faster method to streamline your project management workflow.

How to Highlight Tasks in Microsoft Project

How to Highlight certain tasks in Microsoft Project. In Microsoft Project you can highlight tasks based on certain criteria. This step by step guide shows you to apply built in filters to Microsoft Project using a plan built in Microsoft Project 2013 as an example. It also briefly covers creating custom Highlight filters.

Add any Holidays and non working time in the project calendar

Need to enter holidays in your Microsoft Project Plan? Read this step by step guide to entering non working time in your schedule. Microsoft project sets weekends as non working or down time by default.

How to enter UK holidays in Microsoft Project

Ever forgotten to include holidays in your Microsoft Project Plan? It is easy to forget to set holidays as non-working days in your Microsoft Project plan. This is embarrassing, and can badly impact your credibility within your business and with clients. Having a task complete on Christmas day is never likely to be a realistic expectation!

How to create Hyperlinks in Microsoft Project 2010

Learn how to link to a website, file or to another task within your plan. Hyperlinks are generally thought of as connections to a web page, but they can be used to connect to any kind of file e.g. Word or Excel. Microsoft Project allows you to create hyperlinks on tasks, resources and assignments.

15 helpful shortcuts in Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project has numerous keyboard shortcuts that can help improve productivity and ease of use. Here are 15 of the most useful ones. Also with download of the shortcuts on PPT.

Masamiki.com is gone - here are some alternatives

Masamiki.com was the website of Jack Dahlgren an Microsoft Project MVP. The site is under new ownership and the original content has disappeared. Here are some alternative websites.

How to import Outlook tasks into Microsoft Project 2010

Project tasks in Outlook can be imported into Microsoft Project 2010. This step by step tutorial and video shows you how to import outlook tasks into Microsoft Project.

Progress lines in Microsoft Project

Progress lines are a useful way of checking project task status at a glance. This how to guide explains progress lines, how to read them and how to use them.

Microsoft Project 2010 to pdf

Need to PDF your Microsoft Project plan? How to convert an Microsoft Project 2010 file to PDF. How to convert an .mpp file to PDF.

How to create a simple RAG status in Microsoft Project

Unlock the power of RAG status tracking in Microsoft Project with our comprehensive guide. Dive deep into setting visual indicators for task progress and download our example file with the custom field already set up. Optimize your project management today!

How to create a RAG or traffic light based on the Status Field in Microsoft Project

In this comprehensive guide, we'll walk you through setting up a RAG status field driven by the built-in task status field in Microsoft Project. You can also download a PowerPoint slide deck detailing each step, and a Microsoft Project plan with the custom RAG field already in place, so you can integrate it into your own projects.

How to resolve a common scheduling problem in Microsoft Project

How to resolve a common scheduling challenge in Microsoft Project. In this video we show a common scheduling scenario - how to deliver on time, but without overloading resources. This video runs through three options to resolve the issue.

Why you should avoid linking summary tasks

Drawing on PMI best practice this guide explains why Project Managers should avoid linking summary tasks in Microsoft Project. Describes what summary tasks are and explains the problems with linking between summary activities.

Guides to using the underused Timeline tool in Microsoft Project

The timeline feature is an underused and powerful tool in Microsoft Project. These how to guides cover everything you need to know to use the timeline.

Microsoft Project Timeline - How to show the Timeline

How to use the Timeline in Microsoft Project 2010. Learn how to view the timeline, add key tasks, remove tasks and copy timeline for sharing in a presentation or via email.

Microsoft Project – How to Use the Timeline Tool a step by step guide

Microsoft Project 2010 includes a handy snapshot of the entire project Timeline. Open up your project plan. Click the View Tab and look for Split View. Tick the Timeline check box.

Ten useful, but little known features in Microsoft Project

Microsoft Project is a powerful project management tool with a wealth of features. While many users are familiar with its basic functions, there are less well known features that can greatly enhance your experience and productivity.

Top Ten Microsoft project mistakes

Avoid the TOP 10 Microsoft Project mistakes. Microsoft Project is a powerful piece of software, but that power and complexity makes it very easy to create errors in your plan or reduce the accuracy of your planning. Learn to spot the top 10 signs that a Microsoft Project plan is not realistic.

Macro VBA code for Microsoft project

Macros to automate tasks in Microsoft Project. Microsoft Project Macros. VBA code examples for microsoft project. Some examples originally written by Jack Dahlgren.