PRJ98: Task Splits Unexpectedly When You Enter Actual Work (173320)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Project 98 for Windows
This article was previously published under Q173320

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Project 98, if you enter Actual Work that is less than the duration of the task, in either the Task Usage or the Resource Usage views, the work will be distributed across the task's scheduled duration for that time period. The task will then appear as a split task in Gantt Chart view.

For example, if you have a task whose duration is one day, and you enter Actual Work of one hour, the one hour is distributed across the entire day and the seven hours of remaining work will be moved to the second day. If you then add one hour of Actual Work on the second day, the actual Work will be distributed across the seven scheduled hours and six hours will be moved to the third day. When you switch to Gantt Chart view, the task bar shows multiple split segments.

CAUSE

Timephased Actual work is distributed across the scheduled duration in that time period instead of across the whole time period.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, re-enter Work for each time period in Task Usage view. The Actual Work will be distributed across the time period. To do this quickly, follow these steps:

  1. Select all of the work values you want to reenter.
  2. On the Edit menu, click Copy.
  3. On the Edit menu, click Paste.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the versions of Microsoft Project listed above.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:10/17/2002
Keywords:kbbug kbusage KB173320
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.