You may assign a project task from the Resource page of the Project Task property sheet. You can show this page in one of two ways: Either select the task using the right mouse button and select Assign Resource… from the context menu or double click the project task to bring up the Project Task property sheet and select the Resources page.
The Resources page shows a list of people to whom this task has already been assigned. If the task has never been assigned to anyone then this list will be empty. To assign the task, press the Assign… button. The Choose Recipient dialog box is displayed.
The contents of the Available Recipients list will vary depending upon the configuration of your workgroup. If you have configured one or more remote workgroups, then you will see an entry for each remote workgroup in this list. By default, the local workgroup will be expanded to show a list of local users, user groups, contact groups and a contact address book from which you may select one or more contacts. To assign the task to one or more local users, select the relevant users and press the Add button. You may also select a user group in order to assign the task to a group of users, and you may select a contact group in order to assign the task to a group of contacts. To assign the task to a specific contact, double click on the 'Contacts' address book. Doing this will display a Contact Address Book dialog box from which you may select one or more contacts.
To assign the task to a remote user, expand the relevant remote workgroup entry to show the list of remote users in that workgroup. Select the relevant users and press the Add button.
To assign the task to a Microsoft Exchange user or to any MAPI recipient, firstly ensure that you are configured to use the MAPI Mail Service. Locate and double click on the MAPI Address Book in the Choose Recipient dialog box. The MAPI Address Book dialog box will appear letting you choose the relevant MAPI recipients. Pressing OK on the MAPI Address Book dialog box will return you to the Choose Recipient dialog box.
All selected recipients will appear below in the Selected Recipients window. You can deselect a recipient by selecting the relevant recipient from the bottom window and pressing the Remove button. When you have chosen the recipients to whom you wish to assign the task then press OK on the Choose Recipient dialog box. From the Resources page, select the appropriate weighting for each assigned user and press OK on the Project Task property sheet. OfficeTalk will automatically send out the task assignment mail messages and will subsequently manage any replies.
The weighting that you specify for each assigned user may be used to represent the relative amounts of work that each user will do on the task. For example, if the task is assigned to user A and user B and user A is expected to perform 80% of the work and user B is expected to perform the remaining 20%, then user A should be given a weighting of 80 and user B should be given a weighting of 20.