The Microsoft Project Quick Access Toolbar is a great tool that can help the project manager with repeated commands. This can be extremely useful particularly during schedule creation or going through the updating process.
There is normally more than one way to perform a feature command in Microsoft Project. Additionally, Microsoft recognizes that you may want quick access for commands that are repeated often. For this reason Microsoft has included a quick access toolbar, and the ability to add and remove commands from this toolbar. The Project Statistics dialog is an example of one scheduling feature command you will want quick access to in Microsoft Project.
This article describes how to modify the quick access toolbar in Microsoft Project so that you can quickly access your project information statistics.
We begin with a demonstration piping repair and improvement project, Figure 1.
Figure 1
This project schedule has its deliverables, tasks, and relationship logic defined. Additionally, material and labor resources are defined and assigned. Last the baseline is set and one weeks’ worth of work is progressed. This is a good time to display a summary of the project statistics: project start, finish, duration, work, and costs. To display statistics select the Project tab and Project Information feature, Figure 2.
Figure 2
In the project information dialog select Statistics, Figure 3.
Figure 3
Do this and up pops a dialog displaying project statistics summary data, Figure 4.
Figure 4
In our demonstration project the project statistics indicate a start date of January 5th and a baseline start of January 4th, resulting in a 1-day variance on the project start. The variance on the finish date is 1.5-days, so we are behind schedule after one week.
Looking closer we see baseline duration of 16-days and our current baseline of 16.5-days. This is all useful information about our project, and we will want to keep a close watch on current, baseline, actual, variance, and remaining values as we progress our schedule. The project statistic dialog is a good candidate for our quick access toolbar.
To add the project statistics feature to our quick access toolbar select the customize quick access toolbar drop down arrow on the far right of the quick access toolbar, Figure 5.
Figure 5
In the quick access toolbar drop down menu select More Commands… In the resulting project options dialog select Commands Not in the Ribbon, Figure 6.
Figure 6
Scroll down until you see Project Statistics and click the Add > > button, Figure 7.
Figure 7
Use the up and down arrows to adjust the Project Statistics position in the quick access toolbar, Figure 8.
Figure 8
Now project statistics is visible in the quick access toolbar, Figure 9.
Figure 9
Click it and up pops the project statistics dialog displaying summary information on the current status of our piping repair and improvement project, Figure 10.
Figure 10
Summary
The quick access toolbar in Microsoft Project is a simple feature that can be a real time saver. When you have repetitive procedures the quick access toolbar puts you one click away from the information or command you want. The quick access toolbar is also a demonstration that there normally are more than one way to access a feature in Microsoft Project.