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My work requires me to use Microsoft Project regularly. I am currently using Microsoft Project 2007 and I am satisfied with its functionality. But today, on internet I saw that Microsoft project 2012 is also available in the market. Can anybody tell me what’s new in Microsoft Project 2010 that will enhance my performance and will be useful?
Microsoft project 2010 has an update interface. The menus and toolbars that were present in previous versions have been replaced by the ribbon. The ribbon helps you to find the tools and commands required for efficient working that is quicker than the previous versions. The tabs and groups available in the ribbon are customizable according to the requirement of the user.
Project 2010 has a new function called ‘Backstage’. It is found in the File tab. It provides a graphical interface to manage the file’s functions as save, open or save as. The backstage also provides options for managing files on server or remote systems. It also provides options for managing projects on multiple systems that are remotely connected. The commands that were recently used can be now found more easily with a single right-click. Right clicking on a cell or a chart will generate a small list which includes list of recently used commands.
Microsoft Project 2010 includes ‘Team Planner’. Using this you can view the activities of team members, allocate tasks and resources to team members, switch or change tasks and so on. With Team Planner you can directly interact with the schedule. You can view assigned work, unassigned work or over assigned work. You can access details about progress of work, resources allocated to a specific work and other such details. A new feature by name ‘Timeline’ is introduced in Project 2010. It is useful to present the schedule and progress of work. It provides necessary details of work in a proper format.
Adding new columns has been made easy in MS Project 2010. A button is provided in chart view, clicking on which you can create a new column or insert an existing column. It provides other options for customization of columns too. To quickly access data in another part of chart which is out of work space, a zoom slider is provided.
A new feature of manual scheduling is also provided in Project 2010. In previous versions, the schedule was automatically decided as per date by Project. But in this version, scheduling emphasizes on task dependencies. Project 2010 asks project managers for details of tasks dependencies on other tasks and automatically schedules it. The dates can be then arranged manually by project managers.
In Project 2010, tasks can be marked as inactive while keeping them in schedule so that they can be activated in future if needed. It also provides more graphical representations of a project than available in previous versions that can be used to demonstrate working and progress of a project. The tasks wont be divided into sub-tasks and main tasks as in previous versions. Here a batch of all the tasks will be created and treated a one high level task.
Microsoft Project 2010 provides better collaboration with Microsoft SharePoint 2010. Using this function anyone can easily share the status of a project with other department or officials. The project details can be easily viewed throughout the organization. Another advantage of this collaboration is that the Project 2010 efficiently optimizes data imported from other Microsoft Office applications. By optimization, I mean the font size, outlines, column size, etc.
Microsoft Project 2010 is well compatible with files created in older version of Microsoft Project. Project file created in Project 2000 or 2003 can be opened in Project 2010 as well as file created in Project 2010 can be opened by older versions of Project. In other words, there is no need of a converter.