[whpalmer4]

Originally Posted by omnibob

I'm sure this is a standard 'RTM' question; I'm new to OP.

I created a task group (1.3.1.2.13) and three tasks within it. They're not connected to anything. I initially assigned a resource to them (me), but removed that and it makes no difference with the issue (see next). They don't show any dependencies in the Gantt chart.

Help: "By default, new tasks are scheduled as early as constraints allow. This means the task is placed at the very earliest time possible, taking into consideration start and end constraints, and dependencies on other tasks. Resource availability is not taken into consideration, so resources may end up overutilized."

This paragraph is the key to everything here. Those new tasks you added which don't have any resource assignments or dependencies could have started immediately at T=0, so that's when OmniPlan schedules them. The only reason they would be scheduled at some other time is if they had prerequisite dependencies from some other task, or one or more of the assigned resources couldn't be allocated to the task at T=0. When you start constructing a plan, just typing in task after task, the Gantt chart shows all of the bars mashed up against the left edge of the chart, because you haven't entered any data to tell it that all those tasks couldn't be accomplished simultaneously. Once you assign resources, dependencies, constraints and possibly explicit start dates, the Gantt chart starts looking a little more like you might expect.

1) Why is their start date set to the project's start date, Sep. 6 (which is in the past), and how can I have new tasks not have a past start date set?

I think I've seen requests in the past that there be an option to tell OP not to schedule newly entered tasks prior to the present time; as always, use Help->Send Feedback to get your vote in. But remember, those tasks it is scheduling in the past are tasks for which you haven't yet specified the relationship to the plan, or it wouldn't be possible to schedule them in the past.

If you use the Reschedule button, it should move your new tasks out to future start dates of your choosing, though it will assign them an explicit start date, which may not be what you want. If you make those tasks have dependencies on previous tasks (for example, a finish->start dependency will keep the new task from starting until the prerequisite has finished), you won't have to do anything special. Or, assign them to a new resource not previously available.

2) Why is the reset button not available for use on these tasks?

The reset button you are looking at is for resetting the scheduling policy for those tasks back to the default of "As early as possible", which is where it is now, so the button is grayed out. If you had set the task to have a specific start date/time by dragging the bar on the Gantt chart, for example, the policy would change to "On specific date" and OP would schedule the task to start at that point regardless of whether or not the resource(s) were available. With "As early as possible", OP schedules it for the earliest time at which all the requested resources are available, constraints are met, prerequisites completed, etc.

It took me a while to wrap my head around parts of OmniPlan; don't get discouraged if something doesn't make sense the first time around. Be sure to watch the video tutorials on the product page if you haven't done so.