Training Course

Microsoft Project Essentials

PDF
Course Duration: 2 Days

Course Overview

This two day course is designed for individuals who will use Microsoft Project as a tool to assist them in managing projects. The topics in this course cover the critical skills necessary to create and modify a project plan file that contains tasks, resources, and resource assignments.

Course Objectives

    • Set up a new project using Microsoft Project
    • Enter tasks including the different durations involved
    • Build a schedule containing tasks and linked tasks
    • Add constraints and deadlines to a project
    • Manage lag and lead times
    • Add and assign resources and deal with resource over-allocation
    • Set up and assign calendars to resources and tasks
    • Use scheduling to control and manipulate multiple task types
    • Use resource / cost / time management, including manual contouring
    • Handle master projects, insert sub projects, linked or detached
    • Use Project Tracking methods
    • Customise The Project Environment. Customise project views, sheets, tables, forms and fields
    • Print standard reports and customise reports
    • Export reports to Excel and Visio

Prerequisites

    • Delegates should have a working knowledge of Windows or they should have completed the Introduction to Windows course. Delegates should feel at ease performing tasks such as arranging, sizing, switching between windows. Previous use of a mouse is assumed on this course.

Course Content

  • Overview of Microsoft Project

    Exploring views in Microsoft Project
    Tables, forms and charts
    Menus and toolbars
    Gantt chart and task entry views

  • Creating a New Plan

    How to start a project from scratch
    Setting a project finish date or a start date, which is best?
    Setting the default working times for the project
    Entering properties for the project

  • Adding Tasks to your plan

    Entering tasks into your project
    Using the change highlighting feature
    Adding task notes
    Editing, deleting and rearranging tasks
    Using outlining to create summary tasks
    When to use estimated durations for tasks

  • Linking Tasks

    Linking tasks using various different methods
    Understanding different link types and which one to use
    How to alter links between tasks
    Recurring tasks
    Splitting tasks

  • Sorting and filtering

    Sorting and filtering tasks into a specified order
    Using highlights to find specific tasks easily

  • Using Constraints Efficiently

    Lag and lead to control tasks
    Adding deadlines and constraints
    Understanding constraint types such as flexible (soft) and Inflexible (Hard) types
    Problems with placing constraints on tasks
    How to view tasks with constraints and what the symbols mean

  • Project Resources

    Adding resources to your project
    Using the correct resource type
    Assigning resources to tasks
    Assigning resources to work part time on tasks
    Dealing with a resource over-allocation
    Viewing Resource usage

  • Calendars and Time

    Setting up the standard calendar
    Changing the default working time and adding holidays
    Using calendars to control different working patterns
    Controlling tasks by assigning a task calendar
    Sharing your calendars with other projects

  • Costs

    Entering costs for resources
    Entering costs for tasks independent of resources
    Costs and summary tasks

  • Custom Tables

    Understanding custom fields
    Naming a custom field
    Creating a formula to calculate field values
    Calculating formula values for summary tasks
    Displaying field values graphically
    Formatting task bars based on custom field values

  • Formatting Gantt Charts

    Adding notes and lines to the gantt chart
    Alter how the working and non-working time is displayed
    Display a project summary bar

  • Tracking your Project

    Setting the baseline
    When or if you should clear the baseline
    The concepts involved when tracking a project
    Updating the tasks that went to plan
    Rescheduling tasks that are running late
    Entering actual task information
    Current date feature
    Viewing statistics for your project
    Comparing you project against what was planned
    Viewing how much tasks have slipped
    Tips on tracking a project

  • Planning Techniques

    Network Diagrams
    New shapes and outline symbols
    Viewing and understanding the critical path
    How to view slack time (float)
    Should tasks be dependent on resources or should they have the duration fixed?

  • Printing Charts and the Calendar

    Create headers and footers using the project properties
    Add project-level fields to headers, footers or legends
    The options for printing legends
    Print setting for the different views

  • Reports

    How to use the standard reports
    How to print a report of the costs over time
    Exporting your reports to Excel or Visio

  • Master or Consolidated Projects

    Master projects (Consolidating)
    Creating master projects
    Master / sub project properties
    Mixing master / sub project tasks

Included with this course

    • Lunch and refreshments when training is delivered at our training venues
    • Comprehensive course materials and exercises
    • Telephone and Email Support

 

Public Scheduled Course Dates

Prices per delegate. All prices exclude VAT.
23 Jul - 24 Jul 2025
Virtual
£585
03 Sep - 04 Sep 2025
Virtual
£585
28 Oct - 29 Oct 2025
Durham
£685
10 Dec - 11 Dec 2025
Virtual
£585

Private Training

Private course
Flexible date and location
From £1690 +VAT for up to 8 delegates

  • Public Dates

    Prices per delegate. All prices exclude VAT.
    23 Jul - 24 Jul 2025
    Virtual
    £585
    03 Sep - 04 Sep 2025
    Virtual
    £585
    28 Oct - 29 Oct 2025
    Durham
    £685
    10 Dec - 11 Dec 2025
    Virtual
    £585

    Private Courses

    Private course
    Flexible date and location
    From £1690 +VAT for up to 8 delegates
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    0191 377 8377
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  • Microsoft Project Essentials Course Options
    Public Scheduled
    Public Scheduled
    Fixed course content, fixed date, fixed location, fixed length, multiple organisations - All you need to do is choose which course you would like to attend and contact us to book!
    Private
    Private
    Flexible course content, flexible training date(s), flexible location(s), variable course length, private to your organisation - Courses can be held at one of our training venues or at another location convenient to you. Training can be set over a number of days or weeks to allow for practice time between training sessions.
    Bespoke
    Bespoke
    Bespoke private training can be based on an existing course or a number of lessons taken from several courses, we can also write bespoke courses for you based on your in-house systems or development program.
    Virtual
    Virtual
    These courses can be attended from anywhere.
  • Virtual Training

 

Course Reviews
Following this training what are you going to do differently Create more accurate project plans.

M.C. Taylormade Timber, Microsoft Project Essentials

Great course, well presented, training facilities are excellent.

M.C. Taylormade Timber, Microsoft Project Essentials

Very good, patient presentation. [The trainer] was very knowledgeable and very helpful

B.O. ESH Group, Microsoft Project Essentials

All teachings were valuable. I appreciated that I was able to ask questions and use examples specific to my job.

G.H. Spincraft ETG, Microsoft Project Essentials

I will definitely be saving a baseline now and using it to track my project.

G.H. Spincraft ETG, Microsoft Project Essentials

The course was very informative

S.M. Esh Construction, Microsoft Project Essentials

Which part of the course did you find particularly valuable The instructor was a great communicator, went at a good pace for all to follow. Covered some good content and I feel I've learned some great new skills to bring to the job.

L.A. Tekmar, Microsoft Project Essentials

Great couple of days

L.A. Tekmar, Microsoft Project Essentials

Following this training what are you going to do differently I made a lot of notes based on the useful tips [the trainer] shared, it will certainly assist with improving sharing schedules with clients, especially where client driven delays are experienced.

L.A. Tekmar, Microsoft Project Essentials

Following this training what are you going to do differently Ensure we all use MS Project for live project programming so that I can use it to create an overall programme. I will then use the project overview for reporting.

A.R. Adler & Allan, Microsoft Project Essentials

Would thoroughly recommend this course. I feel much more confident to now use MS Project for the benefit of my company.

A.R. Adler & Allan, Microsoft Project Essentials

Very good course

B.S. Adler and Allan ltd, Microsoft Project Essentials

I was a complete beginner, but able to keep up with all the coursework so have experienced a lot of content. I will be using project going forward to manage my timelines so the overall understanding has helped.

S.C. Lansinoh, Microsoft Project Essentials

Any other comments or recommendations Thanks to Rob for spending the time to patiently take us through the course

S.C. Lansinoh, Microsoft Project Essentials

All parts of the course were useful

J. ESH Construction, Microsoft Project Essentials

Overall a well structured and well presented course which was very informative

J. ESH Construction, Microsoft Project Essentials

I can now use Project to generate reports for weekly meetings, presentations etc. More generally confident in my use of Project.

C.S. Seymour Civil Engineering, Microsoft Project Essentials

Which part of the course did you find particularly valuable The ability to have questions answered during the course. Cost allocation process very useful as most people don't know this is possible

A.F. DeepOcean 1 UK Ltd, Microsoft Project Essentials

Very useful training for the role out of our project cost control and resource planning initiatives.

S.H. DeepOcean, Microsoft Project Essentials

Which part of the course did you find particularly valuable It was all new skills for me, so I found the whole course valuable.

D.W. Deepocean, Microsoft Project Essentials

Are there any aspects of the course which you feel require improvement No, I feel that the pace was good and the way that the training was setup with a ';lecture'; period followed by a ';practical'; period is a good way of learning.

D.W. Deepocean, Microsoft Project Essentials

The whole thing was an excellent introduction to scheduling

M.H. DeepOcean, Microsoft Project Essentials

Please select the words that best describe your learning experience Good to learn the right way to do things and also what project is capable of doing.

L.P. Aesica Pharmaceuticals Ltd, Microsoft Project Essentials

Following this training what are you going to do differently This course has given me the skills needed to use microsoft projects in my workplace from having no knowledge of how to use it

J.S. High Force Research, Microsoft Project Essentials

Which part of the course did you find particularly valuable Understanding the capabilities and structures of a project

M.H. Teesside Gas and Liquids, Microsoft Project Essentials

Following this training what are you going to do differently Use software more efficiently

P.M. Teesside Gas and Liquids, Microsoft Project Essentials

Which part of the course did you find particularly valuable Allocating resources to tasks. Linking tasks and balancing workload

P.M. Teesside Gas and Liquids, Microsoft Project Essentials

What other courses would you like to attend Would strongly recommend this to fellow colleagues in my current company

J.C. Tekmar, Microsoft Project Essentials

Which part of the course did you find particularly valuable Learning how to set up various working calendars to interlink with a project and creating visuals for reporting on the project.

F.W. Nissan, Microsoft Project Essentials

Excellent training course!

F.W. Nissan, Microsoft Project Essentials

What were the most useful aspects of the course Set up and reporting

C.W. Sunderland City Council, Microsoft Project Essentials

Really enjoyed the training and the session

S.T. Innogy Business Services, Microsoft Project Essentials

Thank you very much very helpful training. Great environment and lovely lunch.

S. DTV CRC, Microsoft Project Essentials

Its a good overview of the whole programme

G.V. Direct Rail Services, Microsoft Project Essentials

Good use of time, well paced delivery

C.F. Stockton on Tees Borough Council, Microsoft Project Essentials

Clear, easy to follow and was delivered at the right pace. Excellent overall would book through this company again

C.F. Barnardo&39;s, Microsoft Project Essentials

Went away with a good understanding of the software as I have never used it before

T.O. Cyclife Groupe EDF, Microsoft Project Essentials

 

Public Scheduled Courses

Prices per delegate. All prices exclude VAT.
23 Jul - 24 Jul 2025
Virtual
£585
03 Sep - 04 Sep 2025
Virtual
£585
28 Oct - 29 Oct 2025
Durham
£685
10 Dec - 11 Dec 2025
Virtual
£585

Private Courses

Flexible dates, location and content. All prices exclude VAT.

 

Please contact us to discuss your Microsoft Project Essentials course, we have many solutions available to ensure you receive the best training possible.
Your Microsoft Project course can be delivered online or in-person.  You can choose your learning path and delivery style.  Learn in-person or online with our virtual classrooms.  Your course can be delivered online, at your office or at one of our training venues, it's your choice. Small course sizes. Course materials included. Flexible Microsoft Project Essentials course content. Expert trainers and tried & tested training methods. Many course materials available online using your personal training account.  You can master Microsoft Project, please contact us to book a place or request a quote for your Microsoft Project Essentials course.
Microsoft Project is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation Microsoft Project Essentials training courses in North East England including Newcastle, Washington and Durham. Microsoft Project training Newcastle. Microsoft Project courses in Durham.
IT Training Solutions Ltd
Oakville, 14 Durham Road West, Bowburn, Durham, DH6 5AU
0191 377 8377
ittrainingsolutions.co.uk
Printed:7/11/2025 6:26:03 AM