You may have noticed that as we entered tasks, Project filled in the duration as 1 day?. The reason for the question mark is because Project entered this information on its own; it guessed.

To change the duration of the task, click in the duration column for that task and type in the duration. You can use these abbreviations: m for minute, h for hour, d for day, w for week, mo for month, and y for year. So, let’s say the narrative will take 10 days.

Notice how the Gantt Chart (the calendar on the right) changes to reflect the new duration. Also notice that the task will take from January 3, 3006, to January 18, 2006. That’s 15 days, not 10 like we specified! But, Project has consulted our working times, noticed that there are 5 non-working days in that period, and lengthened the task duration as a result. If any other changes are made to the working time, Project will re-calculate all task durations.

You can also use the Start column to change when a task will start; then Project will move the task to that place on the Gantt chart.