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Automatically start task on next working day

Anonymous
2012-02-02T15:59:16+00:00

I have a plan where the tasks need to begin on the next working day, regardless of when the previous task finishes.  Is there any way to do this automatically?  Currently I have to use time ending and mess with the duration... essentially doing it manually.

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John Project 49,705 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2012-02-02T21:24:45+00:00

Deb_446,

This question has been asked many times. One method is described in the following thread: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office\_2007-project/how-do-i-force-a-task-to-start-on-the-next-working/0150afb9-62f9-4c2c-89bc-d6e7e8df1289.

An alternate approach is to use VBA. Depending on how it is structured, it may or may not set a constraint of start-no-earlier-than. I think I wrote a macro for this some time back but I couldn't locate it in a quick search. If you want I can look further, or simply re-write it.

John

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  1. John Project 49,705 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2012-02-08T16:36:29+00:00

    Debi,

    I decided to take one last look back in my Project VBA macro archives and guess what, I found the macro in the Global of Project 2000. Herewith is the code to do what you want. It makes a few assumptions, (i.e. start of work day is the default 8:00 am and that the user has set flag1 to identify those tasks that must start at the beginning of  a work day), but otherwise it should do what you need.

    John

    'This macro ensures all selected tasks start at 8:00 am by shifting them as necessary

    '   to the next day. Tasks are selected by setting Flag1. Note: this procedure does

    '   leave a start-no-earlier-than constraint on all shifted tasks

    'written by John 10/27/04 10:00 am

    Dim t As Task

    Dim NxtDayStrt As Date

    Sub NextDayA()

    'cycle through each task

    For Each t In ActiveProject.Tasks

    'skip over blank lines

    If Not t Is Nothing Then

    'only look at Start time of non-summary tasks

    If t.Summary = False And t.Flag1 = True Then

    'modifiy Start time of all tasks that do not start first thing in morning

    If InStr(1, t.Start, "8:00:00 am") = 0 Then

    NxtDayStrt = Application.DateAdd(t.Start, "1d")

    t.Start = CDate(Mid(NxtDayStrt, 1, InStr(1, NxtDayStrt, " ")) & "8:00:00 am")

    End If

    End If

    End If

    Next t

    End Sub

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  2. Anonymous
    2012-11-26T18:59:34+00:00

    I have to agree with Deb - this seems like such an obvious function for a scheduling program to have I can't believe it requires a work-around to perform.  And I would bet there are just shy of a bajillion tasks that this would be useful for - in my case, it's for a competition where you can't have a competitor start a competition and then stop in the middle and start again the next day.  Brain surgery? (or pretty much any type of medical procedure)  I can think of all kinds of tasks related to agriculture, I'm sure there's no end to types of tasks that once started cannot stop just because it's 5pm.

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  3. Anonymous
    2012-02-07T16:35:09+00:00

    Hi,

    If the task-at-night tasks should not interfere with your WBS create a summary task at the end "Tasks At  Night", put the night tasks below it, and make the links to and from there.

    Greetings,

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  4. Anonymous
    2012-02-07T15:41:28+00:00

    Thank you very much for this lead!  If it's been asked many times, then there seems to be a common need.  Microsoft... how about stepping up to the plate on this one?  An easy method should be added to MS Project so a task can start on the following day!  It shouldn't be this hard! 

    I tried the task-at-night method.  It works but it junks up the WBS - not good for showing customers.  Am I doing something wrong?

    VBA might work, if you're able to find it.  Thank you!

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