Can I insert predecessor tasks as ranges in the Gantt Chart viewof MSProject 2003 pro?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a final milestone task of zero duration that is the successor
of set of tasks, let's say tasks 10, 11, ..., 50. Task "milestone" is
done when all task 10-50 are done (just an example). Can I somehow
state that the predecessors for "milestone" are tasks 10-50 or 10:50
rather than 10, 11, 12, ..., 48, 49, 50?

If I must enumerate the tasks with commas, let me ask a variant
question. Each of the tasks are identified with an integer. Is
there a way to state predecessors as tags, like 'doX', 'doY' and
'doZ'? And state the predessors that way, rather than long lists of
integers?

Thanks.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi A.C.,

For your dirst question, I could sy no, doesn't work, but there is an
alternative that I use a lot.
Insert the Successors column.
Enter the milestone's number in the first of the predecessor tasks (10 in
your example)
Select the cells 10-50 in the successors column
Ctrl+D

Second question.
You can see this list in Task information, Predecessors pad.
If you want to show it in a text field you will need a VBA macro:

Sub PredecList
dim Job as Task
dim Predec as task
dim Lis as string
for each job in activeproject.taks
if not job is nothing then
lis=""
for each predec in job.predecessortasks
if not len(lis)=0 then
lis=lis & ","
end if
lis=lis & predec.name
next predec
job.text1=predec
end if
next job
end sub

HTH
for eack

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Anonymous,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

No to both questions Are there no other successors to the 40 odd
tasks? Have they no other linkk? If they are in a chain, just link the
last to the milestone.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on )

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a final milestone task of zero duration that is the successor
of set of tasks, let's say tasks 10, 11, ..., 50. Task "milestone" is
done when all task 10-50 are done (just an example). Can I somehow
state that the predecessors for "milestone" are tasks 10-50 or 10:50
rather than 10, 11, 12, ..., 48, 49, 50?

If I must enumerate the tasks with commas, let me ask a variant
question. Each of the tasks are identified with an integer. Is
there a way to state predecessors as tags, like 'doX', 'doY' and
'doZ'? And state the predessors that way, rather than long lists of
integers?

Thanks.

Coward here. Very thoughtful responses, thank you.

Jan's "select a bunch of tasks" shortcut works for user input.

I have a variant of the question, but first some motivation.
I find talking about the tasks by integer id difficult (i.e.
"I'm two days late on task 2121" vs "I'm two days behind testing
the installation procedure"). So I'd still like to be able to
attach/associate a tag to a task. Let's suppose I dedicate a
custom text field for this, say "Text1". Is there a search function
that let's me find the task id for a given value of Text1?
So let's say id 2121 has a value of "test installation procedure" for
it's Text1 field. Can I search for that value?

Sorry to be stuck on this. But I want my tools to conform to
my thinking, not the other way around.

 

[John]

Coward here. Very thoughtful responses, thank you.

Jan's "select a bunch of tasks" shortcut works for user input.

I have a variant of the question, but first some motivation.
I find talking about the tasks by integer id difficult (i.e.
"I'm two days late on task 2121" vs "I'm two days behind testing
the installation procedure"). So I'd still like to be able to
attach/associate a tag to a task. Let's suppose I dedicate a
custom text field for this, say "Text1". Is there a search function
that let's me find the task id for a given value of Text1?
So let's say id 2121 has a value of "test installation procedure" for
it's Text1 field. Can I search for that value?

Sorry to be stuck on this. But I want my tools to conform to
my thinking, not the other way around.

Coward,
Maybe I'm missing something or maybe there's a previous post that is
more definitive. Why do you need Text1? The Task Name provides the
verbage associated with the Task ID. What's missing?

John
Project MVP

 

[Anonymous Coward]

Coward,
Maybe I'm missing something or maybe there's a previous post that is
more definitive. Why do you need Text1? The Task Name provides the
verbage associated with the Task ID. What's missing?

John
Project MVP

No, you're right. I did stray from the original question,
which was that I wanted to state predecessors of a task with
tags rather than integers. Busted!

The network diagram view might help, since the integers are
represented as links/arrows. But I can see the diagram becoming
unwieldy for many tasks.

Thanks.

 

[John]

No, you're right. I did stray from the original question,
which was that I wanted to state predecessors of a task with
tags rather than integers. Busted!

The network diagram view might help, since the integers are
represented as links/arrows. But I can see the diagram becoming
unwieldy for many tasks.

Thanks.

Coward,
Ok, if I follow what you want you would like to see a field that
contains the name (or list of names) of a task's predecessors. For
example, let's say Task 5 has Predecessors of Tasks 2 and 3. The Task
Name of 5 is "Build widget" and the names of Tasks 2 and 3 are "Design
electrical" and "Design mechanical". The Predecessor field shows: 2,3
and you would like a field that shows: "Design electrical, Design
mechanical". Is that the gist of it?

Assuming my understanding is correct, a custom field can be created to
show the Task Predecessors by name, however the custom field will only
be a representation, it will not be an active field. In other words, if
you add or remove Task Names in the field, the actual Predecessors will
not change.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

The Auto Filter function allows for "Contains" filtering
HTH