MS boosts Project software appeal

Users and analysts say Microsoft has made some technical upgrades to Project 2007, which went into general release this week along with the rest of Office 2007, reports ComputerWorld.

Project is said to be the unsung member of the Microsoft Office suite. Despite a claimed installer-base of 20 million users worldwide, the project management software toils in the shadows, and wasn't included in any of Microsoft's eight official Office 2007 bundles.

The desktop version of Project 2007 adds features such as task-drivers and visual cell highlighting. These are designed to make it easier for users to spot changes to project schedules and tasks, according to Irwin Rodrigues, Microsoft business director, Project. The new release also lets users undo multiple changes to a schedule or plan, he says.

Open PR is inviting project managers to join the Project Management Learning Centre (PMLC) - a project management site.

The PMLC promotes the process of creating, developing, integrating, sharing and applying knowledge about project management and information, for the benefit of humanity and the profession.

"Through our global membership," says Open PR, "the PMLC will become a site for project management knowledge, jobs, discussion, articles, industry sites and a social network."

Project Insight version 6 includes issue-tracking, workflow, document routing and approvals, and a rapid task entry grid, reports Business Wire.

The new "task entry grid" allows project managers to enter tasks in their project schedules in a grid-like fashion, which emulates a desktop environment, making project-creation faster and effortless. Web 2.0 (Ajax) technology is used to enhance the application's performance.

Other software improvements include: on-demand training, drag and drop, shared custom reports, mass assignment of resources by company, group and department, elapsed days, delay days and 508 compliance.