microsoft project, create "next week date".

Question

Hi!

I am desperately trying to find a trick to convert in Microsoft project the project "current date" to the first day of the next week week in order to customize the so called "tasks starting soon" filter to use in a report to automatically show next week focus, what ever day of the week the report is refreshed (that's why i cannot just add 7 days for example to the current date).

It appears to be possible by creating customs field and use them as arguments in the filter criteria.

Therefore I have been to trying to chase a not too complicated formula using "datepart", "date serial" and even "format" to:

1. transform the current date in into a week number with "datepart"
2. add 1 to this number
3. reformat as a date with "dateserial" and/or "format", and basically here I got lost.

Any idea? The best would be of course not to have to use customs fields...

Answer 1

YannJP,

Trevor is correct, the "tasks starting soon" filter doesn't exist in Project 2010 but was added with the release of Project 2013.

You basically have 3 choices to get what you want.

1. Use Dale's suggestion
2. Create a custom date field with the following formula and then create your own custom filter using that field.

date1=[Current Date]+(switch(Weekday([Current Date])=1,8,weekday([Current Date])=2,7,weekday([Current Date])=3,6,weekday([Current Date])=4,5,weekday([Current Date])=5,4,weekday([Current Date])=6,3,weekday([Current Date])=7,2))

3. Use VBA

John

Answer 2

thanks, I was looking into option 2 and a formula that works. What is yours doing?

Answer 3

YannJP --

You can actually temporarily set the Current Date value in Microsoft Project to any date you wish to simulate something in the software, such as what you are trying to do. Click the Project tab to display the Project ribbon. In the Properties section of the Project ribbon, click the Project Information button. In the upper right corner of the Project Information dialog, click the Current Date pick list and select the date you want to simulate. The next time you launch Microsoft Project, the Current Date value will be pulled from the system clock in your PC. Hope this helps.

Answer 4

Thanks for the reply Trevor.

I am using MSP2013 standard. There is a build-in filter called task starting soon which actually pulls by default the current date (by using the string ":?". The filter name would be more accurately be called tasks starting this week.

If MSP had a default parameter called "next week" I'd gladly use it. but since there is none I am truing to make it.

The purpose is to have to not call for the input dialog box.

this is the filter constitution

Answer 5

What's wrong with just using the built in date range filter?

There is no built-in "tasks starting soon" filter (at least not in my MSP2010).

In MSP2010 there is the full set of text reports that were in earlier versions but have been removed in later versions (don't know why).

One of those is the "tasks starting soon" report, and that (the default in the global template) just uses the date range filter.