Bulk changes to Working times

Hi Kevin

In principle it is possible to do this however before you make any changes you need to make a full back up of your files so that if you run into any problems you can revert to the original versions and start again. I also suggest you experiment with a small project that has only one or two tasks until you are happy with the steps you need to follow. Project 2003 only supports 1 undo and changes to the calendar aren't covered by undo at all.

The second thing to consider is that when a calendar's day is reduced Project carries any remaining work that falls on that day forward to the next day. So reducing a day from 10 to 8 hours means two hours from day one are now pushed forward to day 2. If all your days are reduced Project keeps on pushing remaining work forward ultimately delaying the end date of your Project.

Your next task will probably be to go through each task and correct their durations based on 8 hours per day rather than 10

I strongly suggest you try first on a project with one task to get a feel for how Project responds. I can offer a simple example which might help get you started.

Create a new blank project and create one task with a 5 day duration.

Go to the Tools menu and choose change working time. Select the columns for your working days and reduce each of their durations by one 2 hours.

Before you click on OK click on the options button

On the screen that appears set the default hours to reflect your new daily hours, set the weekly hours to the new weekly figure and modify the default start and finish times for tasks.

Click on OK (When you are happy with your tests you can click on set as default so that all your future projects are createed with the new calendar settings already applied)

Click on OK again and see what has happened to that five day task. You'll probably find the task bar has extended (as there is less room each day to do the task).

I hope this is helpful as a pointer to the things you will need to change. We can provide consultancy services if you require support whilst you work on applying the changes to your projects. Just let us know and we can supply further information.

Kind regards,

Andrew