Sorting Tasks In Project 2007

[Guest]

I am fairly new to Project and I have not found a way to make Project sort
my tasks to the order in which I would like them.

The task list that I created for my current project has 117 tasks. Of those
117 tasks, only 24 are not linked to a predecessor or a successor. What I
would like to be able to do is have Project sort my tasks in a manner in
which linked tasks are repositioned next to each other.

In other words, if I have a task which starts on Tuesday November 10th and
it is linked to additional successors that start on Wednesday the 11th, I
would like Project to sort them all together, one right after the other.

I'm thinking of each of my tasks that are linked to additional tasks as
threads. I would like each thread of tasks sorted together.

I'm probably not making any sense, and I'm probably not using Project
properly, but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

What about a custom field to flag each of the threads? Then you can sort
by thread and then by Start Date or something like that....?

Otherwise there isn't another field you can really sort by. The links are
not displayed in a consistent order in the Predecessor/Successor fields,
but rather are displayed in the order in which the links are made (i.e. there's
a link Unique ID which drives the sequence of how those are displayed).
Hence, it would be quite difficult to sort by the Predecessor or Successor
fields.

You might play with intelligent WBS codes which do allow you to slice and
dice your project in many different ways - which might get you close to what
you're looking for.

If you're that serious about the issue, you might be able to save the project
to Access where you can look at the different fields/tables and maybe figure
out a better way to sort from there. It's been a while since I did that
in 2003, but I seem to remember a link table which might be able to be used
to do what you're looking for from a reporting standpoint.


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

 

[Prj_Mngr]

Someone may have an idea for sorting, but I would take a different approach
by grouping the tasks together under summary tasks. Each summary task would
be a deliverable, or a logical group of tasks. All tasks under the summary
would be linked together.
Let me know if you need more information.

 

[Jim Aksel]

Without seeing your schedule, it is difficult to tell your schedule
architecture.
Normally, tasks will be grouped and flow in time based on predecessors. For
example Set Requirements, Design, Code, Test, Deploy. They would all flow
in series.

You may want to try Andrews advice by placing information in the spare text
or flag fields. These can then be filtered or grouped.

Custom grouping is also avaialble. Please see Project/Group By/Customized
Group by... I am sure with that feature, along with custom information you
enter in the spare fields you can obtain what you want.



--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Guest]

Thanks everyone for your input. I am managing my way through it. I think
the best solution to my sorting issue is to reorder the steps I create the
task list in the first place.

As I am continuing to build on my task list today I am fining it much easier
to manually sort the tasks before I link them. Some of my issues I had
yesterday came from me dragging existing tasks to different locations or
inserting new ones and Project was automatically linking them itself.

I appreciate the advise, and I am sure to be back for more, but I will start
a new thread for that (Printing Network Diagrams).

Thanks again

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi ,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Autolinking is one of the Project traps! Go to Tools/Options/Schedule tab
and deselect Autolink inserted or moved tasks.

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

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Guest]

Good Tip!

Thanks

Hi ,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Autolinking is one of the Project traps! Go to Tools/Options/Schedule tab
and deselect Autolink inserted or moved tasks.

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

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials

 

[Mike Glen]

You're welcome,

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials