When you create a project template, you can specify the method to be used for copying dates from the project template to a new project created from the template.
The four techniques for setting dates in a new project are:
The last three of the options are based on the notion of a work day and involve a technique known as date shifting. For the purposes of date shifting, a working day is defined as any day other than Saturday, Sunday, or any holiday specified on the Holidays page.
Back to TopThe simplest method of copying dates from a project template to a new project is to copy them, as they exist in the project template, directly to the new project. In this case, for example, an event that occurs on Friday, September 3, 2004 in the project template would be copied to an event that occurs on Friday, September 3, 2004 in the new project.
It may not be desirable to copy the literal dates from the calendar items in the project template. In many circumstances the dates should be shifted to be relevant to the new project.
This date shifting option is appropriate for situations in which the number of working days from the start of the project is the important aspect of a date. If it is important to specify that a particular event occur, for example, on the fourth working day of the project, then this option should be chosen.
When this option is assigned to the project template, the user selects a project start day when creating the project. When calendar items are copied from the project template into the new project, the date of the copied items will be set relative to the project start day, considering the relative position of the original item to the template base date.
For example: A project template uses the Specify project start day option and has a base date of Friday, September 3, 2004. (For this example, assume that no days other than Saturdays and Sundays are holidays.) Suppose the project template contains three events, one dated Friday, September 3, 2004, (the first working day of the project template), the second one dated Monday, September 6, 2004, (the second working day of the project template), and the third one dated Thursday, September 9, 2004, (the fifth working day of the project template).
Suppose now a new project is created from this project template, and a project start day of Tuesday November 2, 2004, is specified. In this case the first event will be copied to an event dated Tuesday, November 2 (the first working day of the new project), the second event will be copied to an event dated Wednesday, November 3 (the second working day of the new project) and the third event will be copied to an event dated Monday, November 8 (the fifth working day of the new project).
This date shifting option is appropriate for situations in which the number of weeks from the start of the project and the day of the week are the important aspects of a date. For example, if it is important to specify that a particular event occurs on Tuesday of the fourth week of the project, then this option should be chosen.
When a project template uses this method of date shifting, the project template is assigned a base week instead of a base date. Also, when a new project is created based on the project template, the user specifies a project start week. To avoid ambiguity, project template base weeks and project start weeks are always described using the phrase "the week of Monday ...". Also, for the purpose of date-shifting, we consider a week to be the seven day period from Monday through Sunday. For example, the "week of Monday August 30, 2004" refers to the seven day period from Monday August 30, 2004 through Sunday September 5, 2004.
Let us modify the previous example. Keeping the three events the same, suppose the project template uses the "Specify project start week: preserve day of the week" date shifting technique. Suppose the base week of the project template is the week of Monday August 30, 2004. Suppose now a new project is created from this project template and the project start week is specified as being the week of Monday, January 3, 2005. In this case, the first event, which occurred on the Friday of the first week in the project template, will be copied to an event dated Friday, January 7 (the Friday of the first week of the project), the second event, which occurred on the Monday of the second week in the project template, will be copied to an event dated Monday, January 10 (the Monday of the second week of the project) and the third event, which occurred on the Thursday of the second week in the project template, will be copied to an event dated Thursday, January 13 (the Thursday of the second week of the project).
This option is appropriate for situations in which the number of months from the start of the project and the working day of the month are the important aspects of a date. For example, if it is important to specify that a particular event must occur on the third working day of the first month of the project, and that another event must occur on the second-to-last working day of the first month of the project, then this option should be chosen.
When a project template uses this method of date shifting, the project template is assigned a base month. Also, when a new project is created based on the project template, the user specifies a project start month.
Again, let us modify the example. Keeping the three events the same, suppose the project template uses the Specify Project start month: preserve working day of the month date shifting technique. Suppose the base month of the project template is the month of September, 2004. Now suppose a new project is created from this project template and the project start month is specified as being April 2005. In this case the first event, which occurred on the third working day of the first month in the project template, will be copied to an event dated Tuesday, April 5 (the third working day of the first month of the project), the second event, which occurred on the fourth working day of the first month in the project template, will be copied to an event dated Wednesday, April 6 (the fourth working day of the first month of the project) and the third event, which occurred on the seventh working day of the first month in the project template, will be copied to an event dated Monday, April 11 (the seventh working day of the first month of the project).
To continue with this example, suppose the project template also has an event dated Wednesday, October 27, 2004. In this case the event date is considered to be the third-to-last working day of the second month of the project template. Consequently, the event will be copied to an event in the new project dated Friday, May 27, 2005, because that is the third-to-last working day of the second month of the project.
If a date occurs within the first twelve working days of a month, its position relative to the start of the month is considered, otherwise its position relative to the end of the month is considered.