Microsoft Project offers a tremendous wealth of functionality. It is very robust and can handle all shapes and sizes of projects, from waterfall methods to agile methods and even a little bit of both in the same project schedule.
Because it is so robust, mastering it can seem a daunting process. This Cheat Sheet provides you with tips and tricks for doing what you do every day as a project manager.
How to create your schedule with Project
Project makes it easy to set your project schedule. In these ten easy steps, you will be on your way to project management success:
- Enter the project information, such as the project name and start date.
- Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS) to organize your work.
- Enter the tasks needed to create the WBS deliverables.
- Link your tasks to show dependencies and create a network diagram.
- Enter the resources who will work on your project, their cost/rate, and the time they have available.
- Estimate the effort or duration for each task.
- Assign resources to each task.
- Resolve any resource conflicts.
- Balance schedule, cost, resource, and performance constraints to meet stakeholder expectations.
- Set a baseline for your schedule.
12 Project shortcut keys
Project maximizes efficiency as you manage projects — but Project shortcuts can save you time at the keyboard. Here are some shortcut keys you’ll use all the time when building and working with a Project schedule.
| Keystroke | Result |
| Ctrl+N | Opens a new blank Project |
| Alt+Home | Moves to the beginning of the project |
| Alt+End | Moves the end of a project |
| Alt+Right Arrow | Moves the timeline to the right |
| Alt+Left Arrow | Moves the timeline to the left |
| Shift+F2 | Opens the Task Information dialog box |
| Ctrl+F | Opens the Find dialog box |
| Ctrl+Z | Undoes the previous action |
| Ctrl+P | Displays the Print preview in the Backstage |
| Ctrl+S | Saves the file |
| Alt+Shift+Hyphen (–) | Hides subtasks |
| Alt+Shift+Plus Sign (+) | Shows subtasks |
