I don't understand.  If you entered the actual work values, MSP should use those instead of the duration.  

TTFN

Good point-  The file I am working with was originally established as an effort drive file-- That created a problem for me in that it altered the duration of my schedule based on resource loading-- I then turned ED off, but am still having some problems.  I will start over with a scratch file

By default, task types are set to Fixed Units and when you simply assign a resource, by default they are assigned at 100%.  So with these two variables in place, say you set up a task with 5 day duration and assign a resource.  The tool automatically calculates the Work for that task to be 40 hours.
Given the scenario that you described, here is what I would recommend:  I'm making the assumption that you have some tasks with more than one resource assigned.

-From Gantt Chart, Insert 2 columns, Effort Driven and Type
-Change the Effort Driven to No for all tasks
-Change Type to Fixed Duration for all tasks
-Now got to the Task Usage View (if only one resource is assigned per task, you can stay in the Gantt Chart view)
-Insert the Column Work
-You can now modify the Work for each resource per task to align with the effort that will actually be required to complete the task

With Type being set to Fixed Duration, when you modify the Work variable, your durations will remain the same.

Hope this helps!

J Black
www.pmconnection.com

Not sure this will help, but when I had a similar problem, I found an answer by searching this forum: e-duration. When I set the duration to edays (elapsed days) and checked "estimated", I was able to spread the work over the expected number of days to complete the task, but it appears the duration will still vary (not fixed) according to the completion date I enter when that task is done. You just type "edays" in the duration field where msproject wants to put "days".