Custom Reports

[seaelegans]

Can someone tell me how I can show amount of time past task start date on a report? I tried to use Slipping Tasks, but I can't seem to show number of days overdue.

Thanks!

 

[PDQBach]

Please advise:

1. version
2. is this for a printed report or an "on screen" display.
3. what, exactly, you mean by "amount of time past start date". As two possibilities you could mean the number of days between Start and Today; or you could mean the number of days between Start and Actual Start.

 

[PDQBach]

<slapping forehead>
Doh!

3. ... you could mean the number of days between Start and Today; or you could mean the number of days between BASELINE Start and Actual Start.

 

[seaelegans]

Thank you for replying!

I mean number of days between Baseline Start and Today. I'm in the very elementary stages of grasping Project, so bear with me.

Do you also know how to customize a printed report to only show a specific date range? My project is at least 5 years long, and the only way I've been able to print specific dates is to preview and pick the pages (seems pretty archaic.)

 

[PDQBach]

Still need to know version. Once I have that, I'll answer everything in my reply to that message.

 

[seaelegans]

I have Project 2003. I was hoping I can have a column next to the task that shows difference between Baseline Start and Today -or- have the date difference print in the Gantt chart, next to the missed task.

Thanks in advance.

 

[PDQBach]

To make the calculation work:
1. Baseline the project
Tools | Tracking | Save baseline
Click on the "Save baseline" radio button
Click on OK.

2. Add a column. (You wanted it to the right of Task Name.)
Click on the column header of the column immediately to the right of Task Name. (This will select the entire column)
Press the <Ins> key
In the popup
In the field name select "Number1"
Click on OK

3. Add the calculation
RightMouseButton on the column header of Number1 to select the entire column and open a popup menu
Click on Customize fields
in the popup click on the Formula button
in the popup paste the following formula
DateDiff("D",[Baseline Start],[Start])

The Number1 column will now contain the number of days between the baseline start and the scheduled/actual start.

You can change the formula to:
ProjDateDiff([Baseline Start],[Start])/(60*8)

The 60 is the number of minutes in an hour (a worldwide constant). The 8 is the number of hours in a working day (which, depending on how you have Project configured, could be 8 or 7 or 7.5 or ... whatever you used).

Note: projdatediff uses working days in the project calendar; datediff uses days. Generally, Saturday and Sunday aren't working days so you will get different results depending on whether the difference between baseline start and scheduled/actual start includes a weekend.

(I know you still have the date printing problem, just tried a few things but didn't get the results I was expecting. Maybe tomorrow night.)