Adding tasks and milestones

Adding tasks and milestones

Goal: put a new task or milestone in your schedule, in the place where it belongs.

When you need this

You are building a schedule, work is added, or you want to record a moment such as handover or an inspection.

A task is work that takes time. A new task lasts 5 work days by default (with hour planning the project default can be hours). A milestone is a moment without duration: 0 days. A task with subtasks is called a summary task, in construction often a phase. Its duration and dates follow from its subtasks as soon as you use Calculate (F5).

Steps

Adding a task

1. Choose Home › Tasks › Task. The same button is on the Table tab.
2. The Properties panel opens and the Name field is selected. Type the name and press Enter.

The new task is first called New task and starts on the project start.

If a task is selected, the new task goes directly below it, at the same level. If the selected task is a summary task, the new task goes below that whole phase, so after its subtasks. If nothing is selected, it goes at the bottom of the list. The button's tooltip says which of the two will happen: New task directly below the selection or New task at the bottom of the list. If you select several tasks, one new task is created, below the lowest of the selection as you see it on screen.

Quickly one after another in the task list

Below the last task in the task list there is always a grey New task row. It is not a task yet: it is not in the Gantt and not in the file.

1. Click a cell of that row, or go to it with the down arrow.
2. Type the name and press Enter. Now it is a real task, at the same level as the task above it. The cursor is right away on the new grey row below.
3. Type the next name, and so on.

If you only fill in a duration or a date on the grey row, the task is called New task. If you leave without filling in anything, nothing happens: no task and no step in Undo. Creating the task and its first value are one step in Undo together. The grey row is only there when the task list is not filtered, grouped or sorted.

With the right mouse button on empty space

Right-click on empty space: in the task list below the last task, or in the Gantt next to or below the bars. Choose New task or Add milestone. The task goes to the bottom of the list. In the Gantt it starts on the date where you clicked. In the task list the name cell opens right away so you can type.

Above or below a specific task

Right-click the task and choose Insert above or Insert below. The keyboard works too: Insert adds above the selected task, Ctrl+I (⌘+I on a Mac) below it. In the task list the name cell opens straight away after Insert, ready for typing.

With several tasks selected, one new task is created: Insert above puts it above the topmost selected task, Insert below below the lowest.

Adding a subtask

Right-click the task and choose Add subtask. The new task goes at the bottom of that task's subtasks. In the task list next to the Gantt, a summary task also has a small + after its name that does the same.

Adding a milestone

1. Choose Home › Tasks › Milestone ▾ and then Start milestone, Finish milestone or Inspection point (mandatory).
2. Type the name and press Enter. The placement follows the same rule as for Task.

The three kinds differ like this:

• A Start milestone belongs at the start of the day, a Finish milestone at the end of the day. In the Gantt the diamond sits at the left or right of the day column respectively. It matters for the successor too. Say a milestone is on Tuesday 29 September 2026 and a task follows it with a Finish-Start relation: after a start milestone that task begins on that same Tuesday, after a finish milestone on Wednesday 30 September.
• An Inspection point (mandatory) is a finish milestone with the work category Inspection and the tick Mandatory (contractual).

Turning an existing task into a milestone

Right-click the task and choose Toggle milestone, or tick Milestone in the Properties panel. The menu item works for the whole selection. The duration becomes 0.

If you turn it off again, it stays an ordinary task with duration 0: enter a duration yourself.

Other ways

• Ctrl+M (⌘+M on a Mac) creates an ordinary finish milestone using the same insertion route as the ribbon: below the selection in tree view, otherwise at the bottom. The new milestone is selected and the Properties panel opens with its name ready to type.
• Ordinary milestones from the ribbon, Ctrl+M or the right-click menu get the work category Other. Ctrl+M and the right-click menu create a finish milestone. Only the explicit inspection-point choice creates a mandatory milestone with the work category Inspection.
• Add milestone in a task's right-click menu makes the milestone a subtask of that task, not a sibling.

Copying a task or a whole branch

1. In the Gantt, click the task's bar. Select more tasks with Ctrl+click.
2. Press Ctrl+C (⌘+C on a Mac). The app copies the task with all its subtasks, the relations between the copied tasks and their resource assignments.
3. If you like, click the bar of the task next to which the copy should go, and press Ctrl+V (⌘+V).

The copy has the same name, the same dates and the same progress. It goes in as a sibling of the selected task (with several: the one you clicked first), at the bottom among those siblings. If nothing is selected, it goes at the bottom of the list. The copied tasks are selected afterwards, the WBS codes (each task's number in the tree, such as 1.2; see Adjusting the structure) are determined again and the schedule is out of date.

The clipboard is shared by the whole app, so you can also paste into another document. What does not exist there, such as a task calendar, a custom work category, an activity code or a custom field, the app clears and tells you.

Afterwards

A new task does not change the other dates yet. The status bar says Out of date — recalculate (F5). Press Calculate (F5), for example through Home › Schedule › Calculate.

Pitfalls and what the app does

Every new task starts on the project start. Without relations a task waits for nothing. Add relations, see Adding relations.

Filtering, grouping or sorting is on. The order you see is then not the order of the schedule. With a task selected, Task and Milestone ▾ add the new task at the bottom. A red notification then says The new task was added at the end. While filtering, grouping or sorting, the app cannot place it below your selection. Insert above and Insert below are refused, with the strip Not available while filtering/grouping/sorting. The Clear button in the notification or in the strip removes filter, grouping and sorting in one go. That is not part of Undo: Ctrl+Z does not bring them back.

A subtask under a task with resource assignments. The task becomes a summary task, and a summary task carries no assignments itself. The app moves the assignments to the new subtask and tells you. If that is not possible, for example because you chose Add milestone and a milestone cannot carry assignments, the app adds nothing and says why.

A subtask under a milestone. The milestone becomes a summary task and the app removes the milestone flag, with a message.

Milestone on for a summary task or a task with assignments. The app refuses and says why. With assignments: remove them first.

Copying in the task list. In the task list (and on the Table tab) Ctrl+C copies only the values of the selected cells, as in a spreadsheet, and Ctrl+V pastes into cells. Copying tasks therefore only works if you use the Gantt: click a bar first.

See also

• Adjusting the structure: indent and move tasks and keep the WBS numbers up to date.
• Adding relations: link tasks together.
• Selecting, deleting and undoing tasks: take a task away again.
• Critical path and float: what the app calculates once there are relations.
• Task dialog and properties panel: all fields of a task.
• New project and Project settings: starting with a phasing template.
• Right-click menus: all items of the menu on a task.
• Refurbishment & Extension of a Family Home: a small example project (File › Examples) with four phases, a start milestone and a mandatory handover milestone.