Adding task witout adding any times!

[Mats Forslund]

Hi! How do I add a task without adding any time at all? Would like to add
tasks that I haven't planned yet...maybe set them as TBA (To Be Announced).
But still add them so I do not forget them in the end (when I have the dates
for them).
But when you add a task (default) it sets todays date, and I can only change
the date, not remove it. How can I leave the date (start, end and duration)
fields blank?

I would also like to use this feature to create kind of "heading/title" in
the amongst the tasks.

HELP!!

Best regards,
Mats Forslund

 

[JackD]

You can not leave the date blank. Where would it show up?
You could set the duration to 0 and set the date where ever you think it is
convenient (now, last year, whenever you think you are going to have an idea
of when they will be....)
Beyond that don't worry about it.

To categorize them use one of the custom fields (text, flag, outline ...)
and use grouping or filtering to hide/show/organize them.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Your question shows you need to rethink how you're using Project as you are
violating one of the most fundamental principals behind any scheduling
software application. You should NOT ever be telling Project the dates the
you're planning ANY of your tasks for - it's basic reason for living is to
tell YOU the dates when you CAN schedule the tasks. You input the date you
can start the first task, the estimated length of time you think it will
take to do each one, the relationships between the tasks that are dictated
by the process logic (ie, you can't put up the roof until you've built the
walls to hold it), and when the required resources needed to do the tasks
are available to work and and in exchange Project calculates the optimum
schedule and outputs it for you. Yes, you can enter dates in the start and
finish columns but that ability is there to allow you to handle the special
circumstances where tasks need to have constraints applied and you should
not be routinely supplying that information for any except the few
circumstances where a constraint is required. And that is why you can't
have a task shown as "TBA." You input the new task and Project figures out
where it should be placed given the information it has about it so far and
it is telling you when you should tentatively be planning to do it. As you
supply more information, it refines that estimate until at last you have a
workable schedule to communicate to the people who will do the work. In a
nutshell, YOU don't plan the tasks - Project plans them for you! That's
what you (or your employer) paid all that good money it costs to buy it to
have it do for you. Let it do its job.