Deleting task and linking to predecessor

[Mark Durrenberger]

Here's an interesting thing I stumbled on last night.
I wanted to delete a task that was linked (predecessor/successor) to
adjacent tasks in the outline.
After the task was deleted, I wanted its predecessor and successor to be
linked (sort of like setting the 'middle' task to zero duration)

Anyone have a shortcut way of doing that?

I know I can write VB to do it... but the NG has been quiet lately so here
is something to chew on.

Mark

--
_________________________________________________________
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
________________________________________________________

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

 

[John]

Mark,
Newsgroup quiet? Maybe you should turn up the volume

I know of no way to automatically do what you want other than the two
methods you suggest. Namely, change the "middle" task to a milestone (0d
duration) or use VBA.

John

 

[JulieS]

Hi Mark,
If you have three tasks (task 1, task 2, and task 3) and
they are linked to one another in a F to S relationship
(task 1 F to S with task 2, Task 2 F to S with task 3) and
you delete task 2, Task 1 & 3 should now be linked in a F
to S *unless* in Tools --> Options on the schedule tab you
have disabled "Autolink inserted or moved tasks."
I assume there is something I am missing - links are not F
to S, or there is lead or lag added to links.
Julie

 

[Mark Durrenberger]

Well I'll be. the flag was in fact turned off in my setup...

Thanks
Mark


--
_________________________________________________________
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
________________________________________________________

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones

 

[John]

Julie,
Boy, I totally missed that one. In too much of a hurry I guess.

John

 

[support]

I am from the MS Project / Project Server 2002/2003 support department at http://www.enterpriseprojectconsulting.com and we would be happy to assist you in resolving your issue

Thank you

Enterprise Project Consulting

 

[JulieS]

Glad I could help ;-)
Julie

-----Original Message-----
Well I'll be. the flag was in fact turned off in my setup...

Thanks
Mark


--
_________________________________________________________
Mark Durrenberger, PMP
Principal, Oak Associates, Inc, www.oakinc.com
"Advancing the Theory and Practice of Project Management"
________________________________________________________

The nicest thing about NOT planning is that failure
comes as a complete surprise and is not preceded by
a period of worry and depression.

- Sir John Harvey-Jones



.

 

[JulieS]

Hi John,
That's the great thing about these newsgroups - the
collective brain power is wonderful! What one of us
misses, the others make up for. You have "bailed" me out
on several occasions and I am grateful!
Julie

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Mark,

If I might just add a warning. With Autolink enabled you can get all sorts
of strange happenings when there is more than one link associated with any
of the tasks. If you insert a task between 2 that have multiple links, the
links could well be broken and inserting the new task could thus give you
strange results. Even more so if you're dragging tasks to a new position in
the heirarchy as when you Move a task. I always recommend disabling the
Autolink when you start a new project as it is enabled by default - you can
always enable it for specific purposes when you're aware of the pitfalls,
but always turn it off afterwards.


Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Support --

If you can help this person, then why don't you post the answer in the
newsgroup so that everyone can benefit? This newsgroup is a forum where we
all help one another publicly. I would suggest you start posting some real
answers instead of merely advertising your services.

I am from the MS Project / Project Server 2002/2003 support department at

http://www.enterpriseprojectconsulting.com and we would be happy to assist
you in resolving your issue.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Mark & Mike,
I couldn't agree with Mike more. Disabling "Autolink
inserted or moved tasks" is one of the first things that
I always recommend to students taking my Project
classes. I recommend not only that they disable it, but
click on "Set as Default" so it is off for all new
Project files.
Not only for the reasons that Mike describes, but because
even with Autolink enabled, it only works for F to S
links and then only if there is no lead or lag modifying
the link relationship. Autolink doesn't work for S to S,
F to F, or S to F links.
I am very hesitant to recommend that anyone assumes that
Project will do the thinking for them. Users should
always assess how the inserted or moved task should
relate to other tasks in the file and create/modify links
themselves.
Just my thoughts -
Julie