I want to set the tasks based on the start date and the end date. If I change either date I want the duration to change. What I see now is when I change one of the dates the duration stays fixed and the other date changes. How do I get the duration to float?

When you enter a start date, you are creating a Start No Earlier Than constraint. If you then enter a finish date, you are setting a Finish No Earlier than constraint and the Start No Earlier Than constraint is removed. If you chance the Start date again, the duration should drop or increase. However, if you change the Finish date, it will maintain the FNET constraint and keep the same duration.

Why are you manually entering start and finish dates for tasks? You should enter the Project start date, the duration (or work) for each task, and link the tasks. If you are going to enter all the dates, either use manually scheduled tasks (Project 2010 and later) or consider using Excel. Project's purpose is to calculate schedules.

I am not using Project as a scheduler but more to create a graphic display of non-linked events who's start and end dates may change. The duration of these events is the variable. So today I may enter one of these events to start today and end in two weeks and then tomorrow I may learn it will actually start next week and end in two months.

I had accomplished this using milestones and rolling them up to a summary task. When I changed the date of either milestone the summary would stretch or shrink. I was hoping to simplify things by doing this with just a task bar.

If you know both start and duration, change both and Project will calculate the Finish.

As you are not using Project as a scheduler, have you considered Excel? See:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...001034605.aspx and
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...010238253.aspx
for some nice looking charts that won't be quite as fiddly.

Thank Julie for all your help. I have learned a ton from your guidance. I can use Project by rolling up milestones. With your help I've created a template that I can easily adopt for my needs.

Excel may work but I'd need to tweak it as well and it would not be nearly as flexible.

Thanks again.

You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.