Currently, Microsoft Project does not offer a built-in feature to automatically include public holidays in your project plans. This means that when you create a new project, public holidays are not automatically accounted for in your schedule, which could affect your project timelines and resource planning.

However, there is a workaround that allows you to manually add public holidays to your project plans. You can do this by modifying the global.mpt template. The global.mpt template is a global template file that serves as a base for all new projects created in Microsoft Project. By adding public holidays to this template, you ensure that these holidays are included in all new projects you create.

Here are the steps to add public holidays to the global.mpt template:

1. Open Microsoft Project: Start by opening Microsoft Project on your computer.
2. Access the global.mpt Template: Go to the File menu, select Options, and then choose Schedule.
3. Modify the Calendar: In the Schedule options, click on Change Working Time. This will open the calendar settings.
4. Add Public Holidays: In the calendar settings, select the Standard calendar (or the calendar you are using) and then manually add the public holidays by marking them as non-working days.
5. Save Changes: After adding the holidays, save the changes to the global.mpt template.

By following these steps, you will have a customised global.mpt template that includes public holidays, ensuring that all new projects you create will automatically account for these non-working days.

Check out the Australian holidays by state, you’ll only need to set this up once every couple of years!

Watch the video below to see how to add holidays to ALL future projects… and also check out our guide how to set up Microsoft Project.