This article is for people who use a screen reader program such as Windows Narrator, JAWS, or NVDA with Microsoft 365 products. This article is part of the Microsoft 365 screen reader support content set where you can find more accessibility information on our apps. For general help, visit Microsoft Support.
Use the Assignments view in Project for the web with your keyboard and a screen reader to efficiently check and review the resource allocation of your project within a given time span for each team member. We have tested it with Narrator in Microsoft Edge and JAWS and NVDA in Chrome, but it might work with other screen readers and web browsers as long as they follow common accessibility standards and techniques. You'll learn how to open the Assignments view, how to navigate within the assignments grid, how to group assignments, and more.
Notes:
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New Microsoft 365 features are released gradually to Microsoft 365 subscribers, so your app might not have these features yet. To learn how you can get new features faster, join the Office Insider program.
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To learn more about screen readers, go to How screen readers work with Microsoft 365.
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When you use Project for the web, we recommend that you use Microsoft Edge as your web browser. Because Project for the web runs in your web browser, the keyboard shortcuts are different from those in the desktop program. For example, you’ll use Ctrl+F6 instead of F6 for jumping in and out of the commands. Also, common shortcuts like F1 (Help) and Ctrl+O (Open) apply to the web browser – not Project for the web.
In this topic
Open and learn the layout of the Assignments view
Learn how to navigate to and open the Assignments view, how the view is arranged, and how to move within the view.
Open the Assignments view
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To open the Assignments view in any existing project, press the Tab key until you hear "More options, menu item," and then press Enter.
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Press the Down or Up arrow key or the SR key+Right or Left arrow key until you hear "Menu item, two of two, assignments," and then press Enter. You hear the name of the project, followed by "Assignments view."
Learn the layout of the Assignments view
When you open the Assignments view, the assignments table grid is initially rendered. The grid starts at the earliest assignment outline, also known as contour. If your schedule doesn't contain any assignments that have effort, the grid will be blank and won't render anything. The minimum value of a resource outline is zero, and the maximum value permitted is 9,999,999.
Unlike in the Grid view, you can't configure or customize the table columns in the Assignments view. The only available columns are the following:
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Assigned To which shows the name of the assignee
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Name which shows the name of the task
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Start which shows the start date of the task
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Finish which shows the end date of the task
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Effort which shows the required effort in hours of each assignee and task
You can group the assignments by resource or task. For instructions, refer to Group assignments. You can also use either the daily or weekly view to sort and review the task efforts. For instructions, refer to Switch between the daily and weekly views.
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To navigate to the assignments grid, press the Tab key until you hear: "Assignments grid view, enter table."
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To navigate within the grid, press the Tab key until you hear: "Expand slash collapse section." The focus is at the beginning of the first line in the grid, which is a summary line. Press the Tab key, Shift+Tab, or the arrow keys to move between the cells in the grid.
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To access the toolbar above the assignments grid, press the Tab key until you hear "More options, menu item," and then press the Tab key once more. The focus is on the last selected option in the toolbar. To browse the options on the toolbar, press the Down or Up arrow key or the SR key+Right or Left arrow key. You hear the name of the option. To select an option or expand the option menu, press Enter.
Group assignments
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In the Assignments view, press the Tab key until you hear "More options, menu item," and then press the Tab key once more. The focus is on the last selected option in the toolbar.
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Press the Down or Up arrow key or the SR key+Right or Left arrow key until you hear "Menu item, collapsed, four of five, has pop-up," followed by the currently selected grouping option. Press Enter to select.
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Press the Tab key or Shift+Tab until you hear the grouping option you want, and then press Enter.
Switch between the daily and weekly views
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In the Assignments view, press the Tab key until you hear "More options, menu item," and then press the Tab key once more. The focus is on the last selected option in the toolbar.
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Press the Down or Up arrow key or the SR key+Right or Left arrow key until you hear "Menu item, collapsed, five of five, has pop-up," followed by the currently selected view option, for example, "Daily." Press Enter to select.
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Press the Tab key or Shift+Tab until you hear the option you want, and then press Enter.
Move forward or backward in the grid calendar
To check future or past assignments on the grid calendar, you might need to move the calendar timeline forward or backward.
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In the Assignments view, press the Tab key until you hear "More options, menu item," and then press the Tab key once more. The focus is on the last selected option in the toolbar.
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Do one of the following:
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To move forward on the timeline, press the Down or Up arrow key or the SR key+Right or Left arrow key until you hear "Menu item, two of five, next," followed by the currently selected grouping option. Press Enter to select.
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To move backward on the timeline, press the Up or Left arrow key until you hear "Menu item, one of five, previous," followed by the currently selected grouping option. Press Enter to select.
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Update task effort assigned to resources
By default, when resources are assigned to a task in the schedule, their effort is linearly distributed to each resource, based upon that resource's working hours and the project's schedule mode. As a project manager, you can use the assignment grid to refine the effort estimates of each resource that's assigned to one or many tasks across the different time scales. Whether you can edit an outline for a specific day, depends on the resource's working days, as reflected in their calendar. If a cell is disabled for a given resource, that resource doesn't have working days during that period. For more info, refer to Manage your resource’s efforts with the new Assignments view.
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Move the focus to the cell you want to edit. If the cell is editable, you hear: "Use the Space or Enter key to enter edit mode."
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Press Spacebar or Enter, and then type in the value you want, and then press Enter. The focus moves to the cell below the edited cell.
See also
Use a screen reader to work with the timeline view in Project
Use a screen reader to work with the People view in Project
Manage your resource’s efforts with the new Assignments view
Keyboard shortcuts for Project
Technical support for customers with disabilities
Microsoft wants to provide the best possible experience for all our customers. If you have a disability or questions related to accessibility, please contact the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk for technical assistance. The Disability Answer Desk support team is trained in using many popular assistive technologies and can offer assistance in English, Spanish, French, and American Sign Language. Please go to the Microsoft Disability Answer Desk site to find out the contact details for your region.
If you are a government, commercial, or enterprise user, please contact the enterprise Disability Answer Desk.
