smart predesessor pasting

[EddieA]

I have a series of hundreds of summary groups that have the same number of
tasks and relationships within the group.
What I have is something like this:
The first task is done completly. (Prelimenary revision of a drawings)
The 2nd & 3rds tasks are miles tones set at start to finish with a lag of
5 days. (review & comment cycle for 2 companys).
Task no 4 starts when 2 & 3 are complete with a lag of 3 days.

I would like to be abel to copy & paste intelligently so that the
dependencies work out like the above. The same way Excel does when you cut
and past.

I would also like to have a work amount to be a give % of another. As in
the example above, the work hours for task 4 would need to be 25% of the work
hours for task 1.

I'm new to Project, but I am a pretty decent Excel user so this hinders me
having to repeat all of the data that is so similar in structure (only the
names is different)

Thanks Eddie A.

 

[John]

I have a series of hundreds of summary groups that have the same number of
tasks and relationships within the group.
What I have is something like this:
The first task is done completly. (Prelimenary revision of a drawings)
The 2nd & 3rds tasks are miles tones set at start to finish with a lag of
5 days. (review & comment cycle for 2 companys).
Task no 4 starts when 2 & 3 are complete with a lag of 3 days.

I would like to be abel to copy & paste intelligently so that the
dependencies work out like the above. The same way Excel does when you cut
and past.

I would also like to have a work amount to be a give % of another. As in
the example above, the work hours for task 4 would need to be 25% of the work
hours for task 1.

I'm new to Project, but I am a pretty decent Excel user so this hinders me
having to repeat all of the data that is so similar in structure (only the
names is different)

Thanks Eddie A.

Eddie,
There are probably several ways to do what you want. One simple,
although somewhat tedious, method is to do a step and repeat process.
First lay out your 4 tasks with their appropriate links and resource
loading. Then create a summary line for that group of tasks.

To step and repeat, first collapse the summary (hit the little box with
the minus sign next to the summary line name). Then select the summary
line (do the select at the extreme left so the whole row is selected)
and copy and paste it in repeating fashion until you have as many
summary groups as you need. You will probably have to collapse each
summary after it is pasted in order to avoid the next pasted summary
from being indented under the previous summary line, or go back and
outdent each one as necessary.

For a large number of summary groups, this process could be automated
with VBA but unless you have some experience with VBA, it might take
longer to write the code than to just slough through it.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[EddieA]

John,
Thanks for the help, I'll try what you suggested. Maybe they will have
this in the next version!

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Eddie,

Why not tell Microsoft via the Project Feedbak website here:
http://tinyurl.com/bl7r3.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[EddieA]

Glen,
Thanks for the link, I'll start bugging them!

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome, Eddie

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[John]

John,
Thanks for the help, I'll try what you suggested. Maybe they will have
this in the next version!

Eddie,
You're welcome.

John

 

[davegb]

Eddie,
There are probably several ways to do what you want. One simple,
although somewhat tedious, method is to do a step and repeat process.
First lay out your 4 tasks with their appropriate links and resource
loading. Then create a summary line for that group of tasks.

To step and repeat, first collapse the summary (hit the little box with
the minus sign next to the summary line name). Then select the summary
line (do the select at the extreme left so the whole row is selected)
and copy and paste it in repeating fashion until you have as many
summary groups as you need. You will probably have to collapse each
summary after it is pasted in order to avoid the next pasted summary
from being indented under the previous summary line, or go back and
outdent each one as necessary.

For a large number of summary groups, this process could be automated
with VBA but unless you have some experience with VBA, it might take
longer to write the code than to just slough through it.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

I always caution people about having multiple tasks with the same name.
It can lead to a great deal of confusion, both in the Network Diagram
and in a sorted or filtered Gantt. It can be hard to tell with "Review
Drawings" you're looking at if there are several of them. If you ask on
here, someone will have a VBA macro that puts the appropriate summary
task name, if they're unique, into the task name. So your tasks would
be "Preparation Review Drawings" and "Final Review Drawings", etc. Can
save a lot of headaches down the road.
Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Andy the Viking]

Eddie,

As regards setting the work on one task to be a percntage of another - that
is exactly what I've been asking a few threads below this. 'how do I set a
project task to be a percantge of other tasks'. I've had some very in-depth
and inciteful answers which seem to suggest (if I understand them) that you
can't do this automatically and that I need to adopt a different conceptual
approach. However if you find out differently please let me know.

Good luck.

 

[John]

Eddie,

As regards setting the work on one task to be a percntage of another - that
is exactly what I've been asking a few threads below this. 'how do I set a
project task to be a percantge of other tasks'. I've had some very in-depth
and inciteful answers which seem to suggest (if I understand them) that you
can't do this automatically and that I need to adopt a different conceptual
approach. However if you find out differently please let me know.

Good luck.

Eddie A

Andy,
You and Eddie are asking for slightly different things. Eddie simply
wanted to have the work of one task be a given percentage of another
task. That can be done manually (i.e. just assign it that way), perhaps
with a formula and a link, and certainly with VBA. In your case, I
understood your main thrust was to have some light shed on how best to
integrate management support into your overall plan. If you use the
Hammock Task approach that I mentioned in one of my responses for
management support, then you CAN set it up so that the Work of the
management task is proportional to the hours of the subtasks.

John
Project MVP