Sort tasks by order?

H

Hoff

I'd like to create some facsimile of sorting tasks by the order in which
they will occur (without resorting to prefixes in the titles). When I
first create tasks, they are listed in the order I enter them. As soon
as I sort them in any way by clicking on a column heading I can never go
back to that first order.

Is there a way to sort the tasks in a project by dragging them, or
retaining some sort of "custom" order?

Thanks for any info.
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

I'd like to create some facsimile of sorting tasks by the order in which
they will occur (without resorting to prefixes in the titles). When I
first create tasks, they are listed in the order I enter them. As soon
as I sort them in any way by clicking on a column heading I can never go
back to that first order.
Click to expand...

What happens if you make the due date of every task "No due date", and then
click on the Due Date column? I think they may end up in the order you want.

--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
H

Hoff

Paul Berkowitz said:
What happens if you make the due date of every task "No due date", and then
click on the Due Date column? I think they may end up in the order you want.
Click to expand...

Well, it does a strange dance that I do not understand. Here's what I
did, and what it did:

1) In the project window (either overview or schedule tabs) I created 6
tasks with "No due date", titled a, b, c, 1, 2, 3.

2) I click the "Title" column to sort by title. The tasks resort to
1,2,3,a,b,c or c,b,a,3,2,1 (as expected).

3) I click on the "Due Date" column to sort by due date. The tasks
resort to a,b,1,3,2,c or c,2,3,1,b,a. I have no idea what this sort
order comes from.

This somewhat randomized sorting order is used if I sort by any column
in which I have not entered any data (status, priority, categories,
etc.).

Also, I've found no way to re-order the tasks, other than by re-naming
them, and that's rather cumbersome. Let's say I enter tasks 1 through
10, then I remember another task which should happen after 5. If I
rename, I either enter "5.5" (or something like it) or I enter a new "6"
and have to rename tasks 6 through 10.

So there is no other way to keep track of the order of tasks, or to
"nest" them? I don't expect a huge amount of control over dependancies
and such, a la Project, but it seems like even the most basic project
management software should be able to track tasks by order.

Even the basic functionality is really useful - it's great to keep
mail/contacts/tasks/files etc. together for a project. I suppose I can
just use OmniOutliner or some other outline software (even excel or
word) to plan a project. It would just be so nice if I could do that
right in the project center window - drag to re-order or nest, something
like that.

Thanks for any insight available on this.
 
P

Paul Berkowitz

3) I click on the "Due Date" column to sort by due date. The tasks
resort to a,b,1,3,2,c or c,2,3,1,b,a. I have no idea what this sort
order comes from.
Click to expand...

Too bad. No idea either.
Also, I've found no way to re-order the tasks, other than by re-naming
them, and that's rather cumbersome. Let's say I enter tasks 1 through
10, then I remember another task which should happen after 5. If I
rename, I either enter "5.5" (or something like it) or I enter a new "6"
and have to rename tasks 6 through 10.

So there is no other way to keep track of the order of tasks,
Click to expand...

I see two other workarounds:

You could give artificial Due Dates to them in the order of creation - just
assign each one a due date a day or so later than the previous one, if you
don't need real due dates for individual tasks. Then sort them by Due Date.

Or make Notes instead of tasks. Notes have a Creation Date column.


--
Paul Berkowitz
MVP MacOffice
Entourage FAQ Page: <http://www.entourage.mvps.org/faq/index.html>
AppleScripts for Entourage: <http://macscripter.net/scriptbuilders/>

Please "Reply To Newsgroup" to reply to this message. Emails will be
ignored.

PLEASE always state which version of Microsoft Office you are using -
**2004**, X or 2001. It's often impossible to answer your questions
otherwise.
 
H

Hoff

Paul Berkowitz said:
Too bad. No idea either.


I see two other workarounds:

You could give artificial Due Dates to them in the order of creation - just
assign each one a due date a day or so later than the previous one, if you
don't need real due dates for individual tasks. Then sort them by Due Date.

Or make Notes instead of tasks. Notes have a Creation Date column.
Click to expand...

Bummer - it's just a limitation of the software then. Neither of those
workarounds buys me more than just putting a number or code in the Name
or Notes field of the task.

I'll request it and hope for future versions. Ordering and nesting tasks
seems like a pretty basic feature for even very basic project management
tools.

Thanks a ton for your response - you saved me a bunch of
"head-scratching" time!
 
H

Hoff

Hoff said:
Bummer - it's just a limitation of the software then. Neither of those
workarounds buys me more than just putting a number or code in the Name
or Notes field of the task.

I'll request it and hope for future versions. Ordering and nesting tasks
seems like a pretty basic feature for even very basic project management
tools.

Thanks a ton for your response - you saved me a bunch of
"head-scratching" time!
Click to expand...

FYI to anyone else looking for the same thing - I'm using OmniOutliner
for my initial task planning now. Each project in Entourage has a
checklist, stored in the project's folder in the finder. The checklist
is easy to open from the project center, so is convenient whenever I am
looking at my project data.

I'd rather have the functionality in Entourage itself, but until they
build in more project management features, this serves me well. I'm very
impressed with OmniOutliner.
 
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