That’s easy, right – just click the new project plan button! You can do that, but you’re missing out on setting a few things to help you manage your project. A project plan tracks all of the tasks, milestones, time, and resources for your project. You can make a project plan as simple or as complex as you wish for the project you have. There are several tasks you should do every time you create a new project plan to help you as you the project moves forward. Defining these settings first will save you time down the road as your project experiences the inevitable bumps. In this tutorial, we’ll explore how to create a new project plan in Microsoft Project 2007:

1. Open Microsoft Project. The initial screen usually opens to a new project plan, but we’ll close that one for illustrative purposes and show you how to create a plan from scratch. Click on the new project plan button on the toolbar at the top:
   
2. A new project plan has opened. The first thing you should do is to save your creation. Click on the File menu at the top and click Save As.
   
3. Navigate to the folder you want to save your project plan to, name it, and click Save.
   
4. Next, we’re going to set the Properties for the project plan. Click on the File menu and select Properties. The Filename Properties window opens. Enter in a project title, author, manager, and company. You can also enter a category, keywords, and comments if necessary. These attributes help you find the project file later if you need to search for it. You can also enter file revision details in here so you know which version you’re working on. When you’re finished, click OK.
   
5. Click on the View menu and select Turn On Project Guide.
   
6. The Tasks pane opens to the left of your task list. Click on the first entry, .
   
7. The Define the Project wizard opens. The first thing we’re going to set is the project start date. You set it here so that you do not hard code your tasks to a specific start date. Later, if your start date changes, it’s much easier to change it here than to start moving all of your tasks. Use the pull-down menu next to the estimated start date field to show a calendar. We’re going to change our project to start March 29, 2010. Click Continue to Step 2.
   
8. If you work with Project Server, you can decide here if you want to use it to collaborate with other members of your project. If you’re not sure, leave the No radio button selected. Click Continue to Step 3.
   
9. Click Save and Finish to complete the wizard.
10. Click the (Save) button to save the changes to your project.

You have now completed creating a new project plan in Microsoft Project 2007. You can now begin working on your project plan.