Task dialog and properties panel

Task dialog and properties panel

You can edit a task in two places: in the Edit task window and in the Properties panel. They share almost all fields. This article says for each field what it does, what the default is and what you notice of it. How to create and set up a task is in Adding tasks and milestones; why the calculation comes out where it does is in Critical path and float.

The two places

• Edit task — the window for the first selected task. Open it with F2, by double-clicking a bar in the Gantt, or by right-clicking a task in the Gantt or the table and choosing Edit.... Your changes stay in a draft until you click Save (Enter); Cancel (Esc) throws them away. Save is disabled while the name is empty. Saving is one step under Undo, including what you did in the sections Task type, Dependencies, Assignments and Codes & fields: those already act on the project while you edit, and Cancel reverses them.
• Properties — the panel in the right-hand column, for the active task. Every change takes effect at once; consecutive changes to the same field count as one step under Undo. Without a task it says Select a task to view properties. Turn it on or off with View › Panels › Properties. Default: on. The panel sits next to the Gantt and on the Table tab, not on IFC and Report and not under the full resource panel.

Only in the window: Parent task and the buttons Save and Cancel. Only in the panel: the bin Delete task, the button Calculate at the bottom, the Breaks section, the three markers under Task type (long non-working period, MS Project, recorded dates) and adding relations and jumping to a linked task in Dependencies. All other fields are in both places. The window shows Dependencies, Assignments and Codes & fields only for an existing task.

If you changed something that touches the dates, press Calculate. Calculating does not happen by itself unless Calculate automatically is on.

General

• Name (in the window Name *) — the name of the task in the Gantt, the table and the reports. Required: an empty name is not kept. Default for a new task: New task.
• WBS Code — the structure code of the task, for example RB-301. Required. With Planning › Structure › WBS auto the field is disabled (tooltip: WBS codes are numbered automatically (Planning → Structure)), because the app then owns the codes.
• Description — free text. No effect on the calculation; you can show it as the column Description in the table.
• Work category — the work category of the task. The list has the groups Built-in work categories (Construction, Installation, Demolition, Logistics, Inspection, Relocation, Renovation, Maintenance), My work categories and From this project. Other only appears if the task already has that work category. At the bottom are + New work category… and Manage work categories…. Default: the work category of the parent task, otherwise Construction (Construction mode on, the default) or Other. Effect: no effect on the calculation; you can group and filter on it and colour the bars by it. The app keeps a custom work category on your device; when you choose it, a copy goes into the project (From this project). If you type a name at + New work category… that is already in My work categories, even with different capitals, the app does not create a second work category but chooses the existing one. In Manage work categories… you edit or remove only your own work categories; an empty name or a name that already exists is not kept. If you remove a work category the open project uses, the app asks first, and the project copy remains. A work category under From this project, for example from someone else's file, only goes into your own list when you click Add to my work categories in Manage work categories….
• Calendar — the calendar in which the task counts its duration, finish date and float. Default: Project calendar: {name}. Effect: a task on its own calendar works on different days than the project calendar. After a change, Calculate recalculates the dates. See Calendars and working days.
• Parent task (only in the window) — moves the task under another task. Default: the current parent; - None (root) - puts it at the top level. A choice that would create a cycle in the relations is refused on Save with a message and the window stays open.

Notes

• Notes — a checklist on the task. Add note adds a line; the tick (Done) crosses it out; the bin (Remove) deletes it. Without lines it says No notes yet. No effect on the calculation; the column Notes in the table shows them with ✓ or ○ in front.

Milestone

• Milestone — makes the task a milestone. Default: off. Effect: the duration becomes 0. The app refuses it for a summary task (a task with subtasks) and for a task with resource assignments, with a message; remove the assignments first. If you untick it again, Milestone kind and Mandatory (contractual) disappear.
• Milestone kind (only for a milestone) — Automatic, Start milestone or Finish milestone. Default: Automatic. Effect: a start milestone sits at the beginning of a day, a finish milestone at the end. With Automatic the milestone counts as a start milestone when it is a predecessor, at the beginning of the day.
• Mandatory (contractual) (only for a milestone) — marks a contractual milestone, such as an inspection or handover. Default: off. Effect: a marker for the Gantt and reports; it does not guard a date. You do that with a constraint or deadline.

Time

• Start (in the window Start date) — shows the start, the same date as the Gantt bar and the column Start, not the raw planning anchor. For a task that has started, that is the actual start and the field is read-only; change the Actual start instead. Otherwise it is the calculated start. Required: an empty field falls back. Effect of typing: the new date becomes the planned anchor (column Scheduled start). If the task has a predecessor and has not started yet, the app records the new start as a constraint Start no earlier than (SNET) on that date (or moves an existing SNET), with a message; after Calculate the task therefore does not start earlier. If there is a constraint other than ASAP or SNET, the app does not apply the start and says which constraint determines the start.
• Duration — how long the task works. Type 5d for days, or 12h or 1h 30m for hours (u, hour and hours also work). A number without a unit counts in the unit of the task. Days are always whole; hours may have a decimal. An invalid entry gives Enter a whole number of days or hours, for example 2d or 12h. and the field jumps back. Default for a new task: 5 days (a milestone 0). The field is disabled for a summary task, a hammock and a milestone with duration 0: their duration follows from other tasks or is zero. A task in hours is disabled while Enable hour planning is off; there is a button with that name. Effect: after Calculate the duration determines the finish in the task's calendar. If the task has resources and a task type, the task type decides whether work or units move along. If the task is already partly done, the app refuses a duration shorter than the work done. See Days and hours.
• Duration unit — a choice of Days or Hours, with an info button next to it. Only visible when Enable hour planning and Allow mixed day/hour planning are on (the latter is on by default when hour planning is on). Effect: when you choose another unit, the app converts the duration immediately, if the result is exact. Undo reverts this in one step. If it does not fit exactly, the unit stays and the app says so. A calendar without valid working times refuses the switch.
• Task type — which corner of duration × units = work stays fixed when one of the three changes. Choices: Project default (Fixed duration and units), Fixed duration and units, Fixed duration and work, Fixed work and Fixed units. Default: the project default. The i icon next to the field explains the task type that applies now; in the open drop-down each option has such an i icon. For a task from MS Project that explanation takes the stored effort-driven setting into account. Only visible when Use task types is on (App settings, tab Planning, heading Calculation) or the file itself carries task types or stored work, and only for an ordinary task: not a summary task, milestone, hammock or task in elapsed time. See Task types: duration, units and work.

Hammock

• Hammock (derived duration) — lets the duration follow from two other tasks instead of having one of its own. Default: off. Only for an ordinary task, so not for a milestone or summary task. On: Start driver shows the predecessors with a Finish-Start or Start-Start relation, Finish driver those with a Finish-Finish or Start-Finish relation, each with the relation type after it. If you have no finish driver, it says No finish driver (FF/SF) — the span falls back to zero length. and the duration is zero. See Making a hammock.

Constraint and deadline

On a summary task a constraint or deadline has no effect: the calculation only calculates leaf tasks and derives the dates of a summary task from its subtasks.

• Constraint — a date limit for the task. Choices: As soon as possible (ASAP), As late as possible (ALAP), Start no earlier than (SNET), Start no later than (SNLT), Finish no earlier than (FNET), Finish no later than (FNLT), Must start on (MSO) and Must finish on (MFO). Default: ASAP, which is no constraint. Choose ASAP and all constraints of the task disappear; choose ALAP and the secondary one disappears. Effect after Calculate: a limit moves the task or makes the float negative. See Constraints and deadlines.
• Constraint date — the date belonging to the constraint. Visible for every constraint except ALAP. Required; a new constraint gets the planned start as its date.
• Mandatory (pin logic) — only for MSO and MFO. Default: off. On: the date is hard, overrides the relations and pins the bar even before its predecessors. A violation becomes negative float upstream. The first time you turn it on, an explanation appears once.
• Secondary constraint and Secondary date — a second limit, only one of SNET, FNET, SNLT or FNLT (or (none)). Visible as soon as there is a primary constraint that is not ASAP, ALAP or a hard pin. Always soft. A forbidden combination gets a red border and a reason: a secondary constraint may not be hard, not with MSO/MFO or a hard pin, not with ASAP/ALAP, must be a bound, and primary and secondary may not bound the same side. A valid pair is, for example, SNET with FNLT.
• Deadline — a target date for the finish. Empty = no deadline. Effect: the task does not move because of it. If the early finish is later, the float becomes negative and the app reports Deadline … missed — early finish ….

Progress

• Progress (%) — a slider from 0 to 100. Default: 0. Effect: above 0 the app fills in a missing Actual start, and 100 fills in the Actual finish. The status follows: Not started without an actual start, In progress with an actual start and Completed with an actual finish. The remaining duration (Remaining) is the duration × (1 − progress), rounded to whole days for a task in days and to whole minutes for a task in hours. Work done is measured up to the status date; if there is no status date yet, the app sets it to today and says so. For a summary task the field is disabled: its progress follows from its subtasks after Calculate (Derived from the subtasks: change progress there. The summary task follows after calculating (F5).).
• Actual start — the date the task really began. A date after the status date is refused. In the task grid and at the question Enter the actual start, a date after the actual finish is also refused. If the task is planned to start only after the status date and now gets progress, the window asks Enter the actual start. For a milestone there is one field Actual date instead of Actual start and Actual finish.
• Actual finish — the date the task was really done. Filling it in sets progress to 100 and the status to Completed; clearing it sets progress back to 0 and the status to In progress. A date after the status date is refused, as with Actual start.
• Remaining — read-only (not for a milestone): how much duration is left, in the unit of the task.

The window applies these rules to the draft; they only count after Save. See Progress, status date and baseline.

CPM Result

• CPM Result — read-only view of the last calculation: Early start, Early finish, Late start, Late finish, Total float, Free float, Interfering float and Critical path (Yes or No). Float is in working days with two decimals. Out of date or not calculated yet? Press Calculate.

Dependencies

• Dependencies — the relations of this task, one line per relation: the linked task (in the panel the WBS code, or the name if that is missing; in the window the name), a lightning icon if the relation is driving (Driving relationship, after a calculation), the relation type (FS, SS, FF or SF), the lag and a bin. In the panel the WBS code is a button: pointing at it shows the task, clicking jumps to it. A small mark before the code shows the role: a golden round mark for a predecessor and a purple square one for a successor, the same colors as in Tracing a path. The role is also in the name of the button, for a screen reader. In the window it is plain text and you only see the section if the task has relations.
• Lag — type a number with a unit: 2d working days, 3ed calendar days, 2u or 2h working hours, 3eu or 3eh calendar hours, 50% a percentage of the predecessor's duration, -25e% a percentage in calendar time. A minus makes it a lead. Without a unit it counts as working days. An invalid entry turns the field red and falls back. See Relations and lag.
• Add relation (only in the panel) — opens a draft row. Under Direction choose Predecessor or Successor, find the task with Search task… by WBS or name, choose the type and the lag, and confirm with Create relation (or Cancel). A duplicate or a relation with the task's own parent is refused with a message and the row stays.

Breaks

Only in the panel, and not for a milestone, summary task, hammock, task in elapsed time, manually scheduled task or a task that is too short for a break.

• Breaks — pauses in the work of the task. One line per pause: after (how much work before the pause), pause (the length) and the unit (work days, for a task in hours hours), with from–to of the piece after it below. A pause made by leveling carries the badge leveling. A pause of length 0 removes it; the bin per line (Remove break) removes it too. Effect: the bar is drawn interrupted and after Calculate the finish moves by the pause.
• Add break — adds a pause of one unit in the middle of the longest piece. Disabled when there is no room for a pause.
• Remove all breaks — appears when the breaks come from a source file in a form that cannot be edited here (These breaks come from the source file in a form that cannot be edited here.). Then you only see the dates.

See Splitting a task.

Assignments

• Assignments — the resources on this task. Each resource is on one line: an arrow, a small square in the resource colour, the name, Units, Work (h) and a bin (Remove). A header above the lines names the columns. Click the name to show Curve, the button Hour distribution… and Move to… below it. Click again to hide them. If the assignment has a curve other than Uniform or its own hour distribution, a bar icon shows next to the name, also when it is collapsed. At the bottom is a list Assign resource; it assigns the resource with 1 unit per day. Without resources it says Create resources first (Resources tab).; when all are assigned, All resources are already assigned. For a milestone or summary task it says that assigning is not possible.
• Units — how much of the resource the task uses per day (units per day), a number above 0. The field shows at most two decimals; the exact value is in the tooltip. You can type a comma or a point. Effect: the load in the histogram and the overallocation, and with a task type the work. If the assignment comes from Primavera P6 (.xer or P6 XML) and work remains, this is the remaining rate (Remaining Units/Time in P6). The planned rate stays stored in the table column Planned units per day.
• Work (h) — remaining work in hours for this resource. Only visible when the task types are visible and the task has one; for material there is a dash. The lock in the header shows which corner the task type protects (Protected by the task type …). The warning triangle in the field (Differs from units × duration) means the stored work is not equal to units × remaining duration; the histogram then follows the stored work.
• Curve — how the work is spread over the duration: Uniform, Front loaded, Back loaded, Bell shaped, Early peak, Late peak, Double peak or Turtle. Default: Uniform. If the assignment has its own hour distribution, it says Contour and the list is disabled; an imported curve is called Imported curve.
• Hour distribution… — opens the hour distribution per working day of this assignment. See Adjusting the hour distribution.
• Move to… — moves the assignment to another leaf task that does not have the resource yet. Only visible when such a task exists.

Codes & fields

• Codes & fields — only visible when the project has activity codes or custom fields. Each activity code is a list with (none) and the values as code — description; per type you choose at most one value. Each custom field has an input that fits its type: Text, Number, Integer, Cost, Date or Yes/no. Effect: no effect on the calculation; you can group and filter on them and show them as columns. See Codes and custom fields.

Markers under the task type

Only in the panel, and only when they apply.

• Long non-working period — This task runs through a …-day non-working period (… to …)., or with the name of the holiday or construction break added. Appears when the task runs through a continuous period of 8 days or more that contains at least one holiday. It is a warning, not a refusal; check whether the schedule is meant that way.
• MS Project marker — a block Follows the hour distribution from MS Project, MS Project date window no longer applied after editing — … or Own hour distribution, with Read more. It says whether the hour distribution from an MS Project file still drives the dates.
• Recorded dates — a block at the top of Time, directly above Start, as long as the app shows the dates from the file. Orange: You see the dates that were in the file, not the app's calculation. (for a Primavera file You see the dates Primavera saved, not the app's calculation.), with Recalculating changes this task. or Recalculating leaves this task the same. below it. If the file does not contain everything for this task, a third line follows with the missing values: The file does not contain everything for this task. Missing: … (for Primavera Primavera did not save everything for this task. Missing: …). The block stays orange. With Read more. See Dates as recorded.

Head and foot of the panel

• Delete task — the bin next to the heading Task; deletes this task together with its subtasks, as one step under Undo. The schedule is out of date afterwards until you press Calculate.
• Calculate — the button at the bottom; the same calculation as Home › Schedule › Calculate.

What you do not find here

• Leveling priority — is not in the window or the panel. You set it by right-clicking and choosing Priority (Low = 100, Normal = 500, High = 900) or by typing a number from 0 to 1000 in the column Leveling priority. Default: 500. Effect: leveling keeps tasks with a higher priority in place first; 1000 pins the task, so that leveling never moves it. See Leveling.
• Other task data — the rest of what a task carries, such as the columns Manually scheduled, Colour and the technical columns, is only in the table; see Table columns.