Custom Filter by Summary Levels?

[Joe]

Can you create a filter based on specific levels? For example, I have a plan
with 2 main summary sections called Design and Code. Then within those
sections I have many sub sections. Can I create a filter based off Code and
One of the sub sections within one filter? I understand how to use the
filter, but can’t figure out what field to test against. I was looking for
the different Levels.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Joe,

I am not sure I fully understand your question but the outline (indent)
information about a task is stored in the field [Outline Level]. You should
be able to create a filter testing for those values.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[JackD]

I'd use one of the outline code fields. You can use it to identify which
tasks are in the Design section and which are in the Code section. The good
thing about this approach is that you can always
filter/sort/group/report/export based on the value you set for each task,
regardless of how the file is currently structured or sorted.

 

[Joe]

Thanks All,

I see the Outline Level and this is half of what I am looing for, but there
could be a task at Outline Level 4 in two diferent sections, which won't
help.

I don't see any values in the Outline Code 1..2..3.. fields, should there be
something in here? Do I need to laod it manually?

Joe

 

[JackD]

I think that the outline level is likely to not be a good way of telling
which task is which. Anything that has to do with structure or format (like
using red text for some tasks) as a way of classifying tasks has a high
chance of breaking.

Outline Codes are a place where you can store additional information about a
task. You will need to enter the data manually (but you can just enter it in
one cell and then select a larger range of cells below it and use CTRL+D to
fill them with the same value. The advantage of this is that no matter where
the task may be in a particular view, it always retains that same value so
any filters or sorting or grouping will behave the way you want.

Imagine that a summary section is a box which contains a bunch of blocks.
These blocks are tasks. You know a task in the "Code" box is a "code" task.
This works fine as long as you keep them in separate boxes. But then someone
comes in and dumps them on the floor. (this is equivalent of sorting by some
other criteria). Now you are lost. You can never put the blocks back in the
box. An outline code is like a tag on that block. If you have that tag, you
can easily re-sort the blocks, no matter how they are mixed up. You can also
do things like grouping (try it - you find it on the Project menu) and
sorting. These sorts of things are impossible without having this sort of
tag on the block. You are not limited to outline codes. You can use text
fields, flag fields or whatever else makes sense to you.

 

[Joe]

Thanks Jack. Before reading your reply, I was going to just use the WBS
field, which works pretty good, except when you mentioned if things get out
of order, the WBS will not help me, but the 'tags' will always be there as
you just said.

Thanks for you help.

Joe