Task Start & Finish dates

[Antonio00]

Can anyone tell me how to unlock and change the task Start and Finish dates in the Task Information window or in Project/ Project Information? Thanks for any information in advance.

[The Recruiter]

Can you tell us what do you mean by "unlock"? Do you mean to say that those fields are greyed out for you? Which version of Project are you using? Is the file read only and are you by any chance using Project Server?

[Antonio00]

You are right, the fields are greyed out. After entering the initial start and finish dates, they are now greyed out, and I am not able to edit it. When I went through Project/ Project Information then it will not make any difference. Being a collaborative group, we are using individual MS Project 2007 software and not Project Server. Thanks

[Dr.pter]

I think that by default ms project will grey out either Project Start date or Finish date depending upon the scheduling option chosen. When you select Schedule from Project Start date in the Project Information dialog, then the finish date will be locked and vice versa if the schedule from Project Finish date is selected. But both dates at a given time are not greyed out.

[Benjamin]

Even I want to have the same set up you have, by having multiple users with Project 2003 installed on their desktop so that they can edit the schedule stored on the file server and not project server, and they can all edit the file when it is not in use by someone else, because then they will get read only access.

[anshusehgal]

You might have to tell Project what you mean by a day in Tools >> Options >> Calendar tab. In any case you can also check the FAQ links for "Default Working Hours" from this link - http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm#Def...orking%20Hours

[miles_hot]

When you talk about start and finish dates being greyed out are you talking about tasks or summary tasks/lines.

If you have put a bunch of tasks in and then grouped them under a summary task and then open the summary task information box (look to the title bar of the dialogue box) then the start and finish box will be greyed out as these are driven by the tasks under the summary line.

Similarly the project information box will be driven by the dates tasks happen. It is possible to change the project start date (assuming the project is being scheduled from project start) which will move all unstarted tasks however you can't change the finish date as this is driven by the task chains within the project plan.