Set Baseline dialog box

Use the Set Baseline dialog box to set a baseline plan or interim plan for the entire project or selected tasks. Interim plans set only date information. You can set baseline data for:

• Tasks (start and finish dates, duration, work, cost, timephased work, and timephased cost)

• Resources (work, cost, timephased work, and timephased cost)

• Assignments (start and finish dates, work, cost, timephased work, and timephased cost)

Dialog box location

On the Tools menu, point to Tracking, and then click Set Baseline.

Details

Set baseline section

Set baseline     When you click Set baseline, you can specify the baseline you want to set. You can set up to 11 different baselines. Baseline information is stored in the Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, Baseline Work, Baseline Duration, and Baseline Cost fields.

Baseline fields

Baseline     Click to set the current project to this baseline.

Baseline1-10     Click any of these custom baseline fields to set the current project to the selected baseline.

Set interim plan section

Set interim plan     Click to copy data from any existing baseline or interim plan into another interim plan. An interim plan is a set of task start and finish dates that you can set at certain stages of the project. You can compare an interim plan with the baseline plan or current plan to monitor project progress or slippage. You can up to 11 interim plans. Microsoft Office Project copies the Start and Finish fields or Baseline and Baseline1-Baseline10 fields selected in the Copy box into the Start and Finish fields or Baseline and Baseline1-10 fields selected in the Into box.

Copy     Click the pair of start and finish fields whose contents you want to copy into your interim plan.

Fields to copy from

Start/Finish     Click these fields if you want the interim plan to record the current scheduled start and finish dates.

Baseline1-10     Click one of these sets of fields if you want the interim plan to record the specified custom baseline dates.

Start1-10/Finish1-10     Click any of these ten custom fields if you want the interim plan to record the contents of a pair of custom start and finish dates. These fields could contain the contents of an interim plan you previously set.

Into     Click the pair of custom start and finish fields you want the original information to be copied into for your interim plan.

Fields to copy into

Baseline1-10     Click one of these sets of fields if you want the contents of the copied fields to replace the current contents of the specified custom baseline field.

Start1-10/Finish1-10     Click one of these ten custom fields to contain the contents of the copied start and finish dates.

For section

Select the set of tasks you want to use to create the baseline or interim plan. In general, to create a baseline plan, click Entire project. Click Selected tasks to set the information for selected tasks in a baseline or interim plan.

Entire project     Select to set the baseline or interim plan information for all tasks in the project. This option is selected by default.

Selected tasks     Select to set the baseline or interim plan information for only the currently selected tasks. If you select this option, you have further choices as to whether and how to roll up baseline information in summary tasks.

Roll up baselines section

Roll up baselines     Use this section when you're saving baseline or interim plan information for selected tasks. You can specify whether changes to the selected tasks are rolled up to baseline summary tasks.

To all summary tasks     Select to specify that changes to the selected tasks are reflected on all baseline ancestor summary tasks.

From subtasks into selected summary task(s)     Select to specify that changes to immediate subtasks are reflected on the selected baseline summary task.

Set as Default button

Uses the current settings in this dialog box for the active project as the default settings for all new projects.

Note: 

• The start and finish dates for tasks are updated as you adjust and track your project. By creating a baseline plan, you can compare the most current information (stored in the start and finish fields), with the baseline information (stored in the baseline fields).

• Use interim plans to set snapshots of your project so that you can later compare them with either the current schedule, a baseline plan, or another interim plan.

• To view a baseline plan after you have set it, display the Tracking Gantt view with the Tracking or Variance table applied. To view more than one baseline plan, display the Multiple Baselines Gantt view.

• To view an interim plan after you have set it, with a sheet view displayed, on the Insert menu, click Column. In the Column Definition dialog box, add the custom interim plan fields to your table. For example, if you created an interim plan using the Start1 and Finish1 fields, add these fields to your table.