Reset the constraint if the task should begin no earlier than the project's start date. Select the task, click Task Information, and then click the Advanced tab. In the Constraint type box, click As Soon As Possible.

1. On the Tools menu, click Change Working Time.
2. In the For box, click Standard (Project Calendar). For all days including those showing edited working hours, note the earliest start and latest finish times in the From and To boxes.
3. Figure out the total working hours for the day. For example, the default settings are from 8:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M. and from 1:00 P.M. to 5:00 P.M., for a total of 8 working hours.
4. Click Cancel to close the Change Working Time dialog box.
5. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Calendar tab.
6. In the Hours per day box, type or select the total number of working hours per day from the project calendar. Note that this setting is only used to define how long a day is when entering durations, for example, what is meant when you enter a duration of 3 days.

1. On the View menu, click Resource Sheet.
2. Select the resource assigned to the task.
3. Click Resource Information, and then click the Working Time tab.
4. In the Base calendar box, click Standard.
5. During the time the task is scheduled, check the calendar for edited working hours that may affect the total number of hours worked per day. Make sure that the calendar settings are appropriate for the resource.
6. If there's a mistake in the resource calendar, and you want to reset the resource calendar to the default number of working hours per day, select the date, multiple dates, day of the week, or all working days, and under Set selected date(s) to, click Use default. To select a day of the week, click the abbreviation for the day, such as M to select all Mondays.

Review the task calendar and make sure it's set the way you need. The working and nonworking times in the task calendar control how the task is scheduled.

1. Click the task, and then click Task Information.
2. Click the Advanced tab.
3. Review the Calendar box to find the name of the task calendar.
4. Close the Task Information dialog box.
5. To review or change the working and nonworking time for the task calendar, on the Tools menu, click Change Working Time.
6. In the For box, select the name of the calendar that you saw is attached to the task.
7. Review the working times and nonworking times and make sure they are what's required by the task. Make any necessary adjustments.
   • To change one day of the week for the entire calendar (for example, to have work on Fridays end at 4:00 P.M.), click the abbreviation for that day at the top of the calendar.
   • To change all the working days (for example, to have every working day begin at 9:00 A.M.), hold down SHIFT, and then click the abbreviations for the first and last day you want to change.
8. Click Use default, Nonworking time, or Nondefault working time.

   If you click Nondefault working time, type the times you want work to start in the From boxes and the times you want work to end in the To boxes.

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Calendar tab.
2. To change the default start or end time for scheduled tasks, change the time in the Default start time and Default end time boxes.
3. If you want to change how many hours Microsoft Office Project 2003 schedules for 1 day, enter it in the Hours per day box.

   For example, if you want Project to schedule 6 hours when you enter a 1-day duration, enter 6 in the Hours per day box.

4. If you want to change how many hours Project schedules for 1 week, enter it in the Hours per week box.

   For example, if you want Project to schedule 30 hours when you enter a 1-week duration, enter 30 in the Hours per week box.

5. If you want to change how many days Project schedules for 1 month, enter it in the Days per month box.

   For example, if you want Project to schedule 24 days when you enter a 1-month duration, enter 24 in the Days per month box.

Determine whether you want to retain Gantt bar rounding to full days. You can turn off the setting if you find it's more of a hindrance than a help.

1. On the View menu, click Gantt Chart.
2. On the Format menu, click Layout.
3. Clear the Round bars to whole days check box.

If you want to enter specific start and finish dates for a task, enter the task's start and finish dates and Project recalculates the duration. Be aware that entering the start and finish dates sets a date constraint (constraint: A restriction set on the start or finish date of a task. You can specify that a task must start on or finish no later than a particular date. Constraints can be flexible [not tied to a specific date] or inflexible [tied to a specific date].) on the task, which limits the flexibility of your schedule (schedule: The timing and sequence of tasks within a project. A schedule consists mainly of tasks, task dependencies, durations, constraints, and time-oriented project information.). If you enter a start date and then enter a finish date, a Finish No Earlier Than (FNET) constraint is set. Or if you enter a finish date and then enter a start date, a Start No Earlier Than (SNET) constraint is set.

If you want a task to start or finish on a certain date but want to retain the flexibility of the schedule while being alerted if a task will not start or finish on time, you can enter a deadline (deadline: A target date indicating when you want a task to be completed. If the deadline date passes and the task is not completed, Project displays an indicator.) date for the task. Deadlines do not constrain tasks nor do they affect constraints. As the schedule is updated, an indicator (indicators: Small icons representing information for a task or resource that are displayed in the Indicators field. The Indicators field is located to the right of the ID field and appears in a number of tables.) appears if a task is pushed beyond its deadline.

Save a baseline now. On the Tools menu, point to Tracking, and then click Save Baseline. Even though you have already started your project, the baseline values will be valid for later tasks that have not yet started.

Find a backup of the project as it was just before you started tracking progress. Open that project file, save a baseline, and then enter tracking information to catch you up to date.

Examine the task constraints for all your tasks, and change ASAP to ALAP wherever appropriate.

1. On the View menu, click Gantt Chart.
2. Click the field (field: A location in a sheet, form, or chart that contains a specific kind of information about a task, resource, or assignment. For example, in a sheet, each column is a field. In a form, a field is a named box or a place in a column.) to the right of where you want to insert the new field. For example, click the Task Name field to insert the field immediately to the left of the task's name.
3. On the Insert menu, click Column.
4. In the Field name box, click Constraint Type, and then click Best Fit.
5. To identify any tasks that have ASAP constraints and, if appropriate, change them to ALAP constraints, click AutoFilter .
6. Click the AutoFilter arrow in the Constraint Type field heading, and then click As Soon As Possible.
7. Click the arrow in the Constraint Type field of the first task displayed, and then click As Late As Possible.
8. Point to the lower-right corner of the field. When the pointer changes to a plus sign, drag down to set the fields for all the tasks to As Late As Possible.