Changing Date format by task

Question

Hi,

I understand that there is a global date format change for the entire project file.  However, what I want to do is this within the same project file:-

• select a date display format, which include hours, for tasks that needs to be completed on hourly basis.  ie. display format DD/MM/YY HH:MM for the start and end date columns.
• select a date display format, which does not include hours, for tasks that require days for completion.

An example, is preparation for a IT activity is planned in days, whereas once the IT activity is triggered, the task is planned in hours.  All this is shown in the same project file.

Appreciate any feedback - positive or negative.

Thanks & Rgds.

Answer 1

Apart from "it can't be done", it is probably best not to do it. I would just set the global format to HH:mm and accept it for all of the tasks because the only downside is that some tasks have more information than needed. Every start and finish will have a date and time so why not display them both?

Answer 2

A couple of thoughts:

The duration and/or the work field may be easier for stakeholders to understand than start and end dates.

You can also vary the date format per table (part of a view).  So you could create an IT view filtered to show just tasks assigned to IT and in the table definition use the long format.

You cannot however, show just date for some tasks and date/time for others.

Answer 3

You can use custom field formulas for this purpose:

Text1 field's formula (rename to Start, if you want):

iif( [%Complete] = 0, Format( [Start], "dd/mm/yy" ), Format( [Start], "dd/mm/yy hh:mm" ) )

Text2 field's formula (rename to Finish, if you want):

iif( [%Complete] = 0, Format( [Finish], "dd/mm/yy" ), Format( [Finish], "dd/mm/yy  hh:mm" ) )