Microsoft Project allows you to plan, monitor and schedule your resources to manage your projects effectively. This tutorial shows you how to change the standard working hours in Microsoft Project 2007.

If you want to learn more about Microsoft Project, check out our 2 day Microsoft Project Training in for a comprehensive introduction.  We also provide  Project Management Training and PRINCE2 Training to provide you with excellent project management skills.

Changing the Working Hours

In Microsoft Project, the default project calendar, called the Standard calendar, defines the standard working hours for all projects. The default working hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, with an hour starting at noon for lunch.

Summer sun floods the warm room and dust motes dance in my blurring vision. The lunchtime ‘pie and a pint’ sit comfortably in my stomach and the final straw is the hypnotic buzzing noise encouraging my heavy eyelids to close and calling me to the comfort of the Land of Nod. Suddenly, sanity returns, my eyelids jerk open and my head snaps upright.

As I look around me, I see an almost universal appraisal of the lecturer in the form of drooping heads and, in at least two cases, total oblivion. And we all have an examination in this topic in just a few weeks!

The great shame of this all is that the guy at the front of the room is a world expert in his subject … but he’s the source of the buzzing. He’s written several renowned textbooks on the subject … we’re all well aware of this because it is almost a prerequisite of passing the course that every student buys them all. Surprisingly, this is not resented by my fellows because sitting for hours poring over the dry text is preferable to listening the esteemed professor reciting, almost word for word, what is on the page.

You could come and be entertained at Silicon Beach Training in Brighton on our Train the Trainer course, we practise what we preach.

Summer sun floods the warm room and dust motes dance in my blurring vision. The lunchtime ‘pie and a pint’ sit comfortably in my stomach and the final straw is the hypnotic buzzing noise encouraging my heavy eyelids to close and calling me to the comfort of the Land of Nod. Suddenly, sanity returns, my eyelids jerk open and my head snaps upright.

As I look around me, I see an almost universal appraisal of the lecturer in the form of drooping heads and, in at least two cases, total oblivion. And we all have an examination in this topic in just a few weeks!

The great shame of this all is that the guy at the front of the room is a world expert in his subject … but he’s the source of the buzzing. He’s written several renowned textbooks on the subject … we’re all well aware of this because it is almost a prerequisite of passing the course that every student buys them all. Surprisingly, this is not resented by my fellows because sitting for hours poring over the dry text is preferable to listening the esteemed professor reciting, almost word for word, what is on the page.

You could come and be entertained at Silicon Beach Training in Brighton on our Train the Trainer course, we practise what we preach.

Among all the other scandals of recent weeks came the revelation that Lloyds PPI complaints handlers were being trained to purposely reject valid claims. An audio recording of an in-company trainer was seized upon by The Times as evidence that the banking group had been engaging in less than ethical practices. The trainer told trainees to flat out deny or refuse claims, as most customers would give up trying to claim after an initial rejection.

Lloyds place the blame on the firm Deloitte who handled the whole program and another firm, Momenta, who was responsible for the hiring and training of the employees dealing with claims.

It shows that just as good training can have an immediate and lasting positive effect on businesses, bad training can have a severely negative one - something we emphasise on our Train the Trainer Course.

So how can businesses and individuals make sure they're getting the best possible training?

The Trainer's Responsibility

Much of the responsibility for quality training falls at the feet of the trainer; after all they're the ones delivering the training! Not only do they need to fully understand the needs of the client, they must find a way to communicate their message in an engaging and memorable way.

They also have a duty to not misinform. In the Lloyds case, it would appear that the trainer either gave false information to delegates or at the very least recommended methods that were in no way best practice.

In this post, our Sales trainer Emmet guides you through the differences between sales and marketing.

A question I am often asked is which functions are sales functions and which are marketing functions; the reason being that there seems to be so much overlap.

It's not as simple as this sign makes out!

The answer to this question is not clear cut and it's not easy.

You can learn about about the role of sales with ourSales and Customer Service Training.

Big and Small Organisations

In larger organisations there is often a separate marketing department; (theoretically) they do the marketing bits and the sales department does the sales bits!

In smaller organisations there is often no separate marketing department, it's all just ‘sales' although in this case the sales team will perform many marketing functions.

Either way, there is a distinct difference between marketing and sales, whether or not there's a physical divide between the two.

In this post, our Sales trainer Emmet guides you through the differences between sales and marketing.

A question I am often asked is which functions are sales functions and which are marketing functions; the reason being that there seems to be so much overlap.

It's not as simple as this sign makes out!

The answer to this question is not clear cut and it's not easy.

You can learn about about the role of sales with ourSales and Customer Service Training.

Big and Small Organisations

In larger organisations there is often a separate marketing department; (theoretically) they do the marketing bits and the sales department does the sales bits!

In smaller organisations there is often no separate marketing department, it's all just ‘sales' although in this case the sales team will perform many marketing functions.

Either way, there is a distinct difference between marketing and sales, whether or not there's a physical divide between the two.

When finishing a course, it is imperative that you finish on a positive note. Not only will this instil greater confidence in your learners but will give you a boost with regard to being able to see the effectiveness of your training.

You want your learners to leave feeling energised, positive and full of ideas of how they are going to implement everything they have learned.

You can learn more about ending on a high note on ourTrain the Trainer Course.

This means you need to leave enough time at the end of the course to really pull everything together and commit everyone to saying what they are going to do next!