Project Management

Article
08/11/2016

Applies to: Office 365

Microsoft Project Professional 2013 and Project Pro for Office 365 help organizations plan projects and collaborate with others from virtually anywhere. Stay organized and keep your projects on track with the only project management system designed to seamlessly work with other Microsoft applications and cloud services.

Microsoft Fluent user interface, the ribbon

Increase productivity with the ribbon, a tab interface to quickly find and use Project features and controls. Learn more about the Ribbon.

Contextual right-click menus

Right click on any item in a project view (such as a column title) to get instant access to what you can do with that item.

Online help

Project Help is only a click away using Office.com or Getting Started Guides directly in Project (Click File > New). Watch these videos to make the switch to Project 2013.

Zoom controls

Use zoom controls on the status bar to quickly change the timeline perspective of your project schedules.

Backstage™

Click File to use features in the Backstage, such as printing, sharing, or save as new project.

Project templates

You can save lots of time creating a project by using a past project as a template. Learn more about creating a new project from another project or template.

Start experience

Instead of dropping you into a blank project, Project 2013 presents a one-stop center for starting your project. You can use customer templates or a built-in guide to get you started in four easy steps.

Custom fields

In addition to the fields that are included with Project, you can also customize your own fields to meet the needs of your organization.

Enhanced copy and paste across Microsoft Office applications

Collaborate on schedule development by copying and pasting schedule details between Microsoft Office applications. Learn more about copying and pasting from Word into Project.

Automatic scheduling

Indicate tasks (mode) to be scheduled automatically by using the Project scheduling engine. Learn more about how Project schedules tasks.

User-controlled/Manual scheduling

Indicate tasks (mode) to be scheduled manually. Learn more about how Project schedules tasks.

Top down summary tasks

Create a resource assignment on a summary task. Learn more about top-down planning.

Placeholder text in Project Fields

You can add text to a field that doesn’t match the fields data type as a placeholder. Learn more about top-down planning.

Active/Inactive Tasks

When you inactivate a task it stays in the project plan, but does not affect: resource availability, the project schedule, or how other tasks are scheduled. Learn more about inactivating a task.

Multiple level undo

Perform what-if analysis and fully understand the effect of changes by reversing and reapplying a whole set of operations, including views, data, and option changes.

Budget planning

Budget planning allows you to compare current progress against a baseline that you set at the start of a project. Learn more about earned value analysis.

Manage non-working time

Add vacation, holidays, medical leave, and other non-working time into your project schedule. Learn more about adding holidays and vacation days to your project.

Gantt chart, calendar, and task sheet views

Create vivid, colorful Gantt charts and customizable Gantt chart styles.

Network diagram view

View tasks on a network showing boxes, links, and nodes. Learn more about creating a network diagram.

Deadlines

Mark major goals of your project with a milestone. Learn more about adding milestones.

Formulas and graphical indicators

Add a picture to a column to indicate the progress of a schedule. Learn more about adding indicators.

Group and sort Project data

Apply multiple grouping rows to a project plan. Learn more about grouping tasks or resources.

Filtering

Ability to filter project plans by any value in the plan. Learn more about creating a custom filter.

Auto-complete

Get suggestions for task or resource names as you type.

Add columns

Add a column to your view. Learn more about how to hide and unhide a column.

Text wrap

Wrap task or resource names so they flow on a second line. Learn more about wrapping text by changing row height.

Change highlighting

Highlight how tasks connect to other tasks by viewing a task path. Lean more about highlighting how tasks link to other tasks.

Baseline rollup

Baseline data can roll up or be summarized in a summary row. Learn more about setting and saving a baseline.

Master projects on SharePoint

Master projects can be added to a SharePoint site to roll-up other projects.

Cross-project Critical Path

Create, edit, and delete a dependency relationship with a task in another project.

Calendar date extended to 2149

Project tasks can now use calendar dates up to 2149.

Work, generic, and material resources

Add resources to your project, including work resources like people, generic resources like carpenters, and material resources like computers and cement. Learn more about adding people to your project.

Cost resources

Manage the costs on your project.

Team resources

Add resources to your project, including work resources like people, generic resources like carpenters, and materials resources like computers and cement. Learn more about adding people to your project.

Team Planner

Use a view that shows people and their assignments.

Resource sheet and usage views

Create vivid, colorful Gantt charts and customizable Gantt chart styles.

Resource leveling

Distribute the work on your project by leveling resources. Learn more about level resource assignments.

Resource substitution

Replace generic resources like carpenters with real people. Learn more about adding people to your project.

Timeline View

Build and customize the timeline view to visualize schedule details and communicate with stakeholders.

Reports

With Project 2013, you can create crisp, colorful, professional reports, without having to export your data to another program. Add pictures, charts, animations, links, and more—everything you need to clearly and effectively share project status info with stakeholders and team members. Learn more about creating a project report.

Compare project versions

Compare two versions of a project. A report is created that will show what changed, such as the addition of new tasks.

Task inspector

View factors that affect the scheduling of a task, such as changed start date or error messages.

Update progress

Update the progress on a task to show percent complete.

Task Path Analysis

Trace how one task connects to other tasks by highlighting its task path throughout the project. Learn more about highlighting how tasks link to other tasks.

PDF and XPS output

Save a project file to a PDF or XPS file. Learn more about saving a project file as PDF.

Presence with Lync

Use messaging to communicate with the team members on your project. Learn more about IM chat in Project.

Create a Project site

If you are using Project Web App, you can share a project with others by creating a new project site in SharePoint, or synching with an existing site. The site will share your project’s tasks as a SharePoint task list. Learn more about syncing with SharePoint.

Task List Sync to SharePoint

After initially pairing your project with a SharePoint task list, you can continue to synchronize with the task list as you update your project. Predecessor relationships between tasks, milestones, and field mapping (including notes) are maintained during synchronization. Your team members don’t have to have Project Professional 2013 installed to access their tasks. Learn more about syncing with a SharePoint tasks list.

Publish Projects to Project Server or Project Online

Publish a project using Project Web App. Learn more about saving and publishing a project to Project Web App.

Save a Project MPP file to SharePoint

Save a project to a SharePoint document library to share with team members who don’t have Project Server. Learn more about syncing with a SharePoint tasks list.

Click-to-Run

Quickly install Project Pro for Office 365 over the Internet, internal networks, local file systems, or from offline media to make sure that you’re up-to-date with the most recent version of Project desktop app. Lean more about Click-to-Run.

Project On Demand

Project Pro for Office 365 can instantly stream the most up-to-date version of Project desktop app to different PCs when you’re on the go.

Office Store

Need an app to help you with Project. Find new apps for Project in the Office Store. Learn more about Apps for Project 2013.