Paste-special of external task with internal predecessors

[careta]

Hi All!
I want to link a task in one project to another project. I do this by "Copy" of the source task and "Paste special" in the target project. This works fine as long as the source task has no predecessors in its own project. If it has predecessors, the target project references them as tasks of its own, messing all the timing info.
In an example, let's say that task 30 has task 15 as his predecessor. When I copy & paste special task 30 to target project (being now task 40, for ex.), target project makes this new task dependant of his own task 15 (if it doesn't exist, it links it to project start date).
Is there any way to avoid this annoying behaviour?

Thanks,
careta

 

[Dale Howard]

Careta --

The method you are using to create external dependencies is not a method I
would personally use or recommend to others. A better approach, I believe,
is to create a temporary master project and link the cross-project dependent
tasks. Here's how to do it:

1. Open a new blank project
2. Click Insert - Project
3. Select the project containing predecessor tasks, then click Insert
4. Select the next blank cell below the first inserted project
5. Click Insert - Project
6. Insert the project containing successor tasks, then click Insert
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until you have inserted all projects with exeternal
dependencies

What you have just accomplished is to create a master project containing two
or more subprojects. Continue with the following steps:

1. Roll out the tasks in the last subproject
2. Roll out the tasks in the next subproject, and continue to roll out
tasks until all project tasks are displayed
3. Select the first predecessor task in the first project
4. Hold down the Control key and select the first successor task in the
second or later project
5. Click the Link Tasks button
6. Edit the dependency type, if necessary
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 until you have set all necessary cross-project
dependencies

Once you have set your desired cross-project dependencies, you need to save
the subprojects but not the master project. Here's how:

1. Close the temporary master project
2. When prompted about saving the project, click the No button
3. When prompted about saving each subproject, click the Yes To All button

If you open any of the subprojects in which you created cross-project
dependencies, you will see one or more "ghost tasks" in the project. The
ghost tasks are tasks in one or more other projects, which were created when
you set the cross-project dependencies. Hope this helps.

Hi All!
I want to link a task in one project to another project. I do this by

"Copy" of the source task and "Paste special" in the target project. This
works fine as long as the source task has no predecessors in its own
project. If it has predecessors, the target project references them as tasks
of its own, messing all the timing info.

In an example, let's say that task 30 has task 15 as his predecessor. When

I copy & paste special task 30 to target project (being now task 40, for
ex.), target project makes this new task dependant of his own task 15 (if it
doesn't exist, it links it to project start date).

 

[careta]

Thanks Dale for your detailed response. However, I must say that this is not what I described. I had no problem to do what you explained. But I want to do is to insert a "copy" of a task from the source project in the target project, not to make a task in the target project be a sucessor of a task in source project. Project allows to do what I want (just "copy" a task in source project and "paste special" as a link in target project. This will work fine as long as the "copied" task had no predecessors in his own source project
I hope I describe well this situation

Thanks
caret


----- Dale Howard wrote: ----

Careta -

The method you are using to create external dependencies is not a method
would personally use or recommend to others. A better approach, I believe
is to create a temporary master project and link the cross-project dependen
tasks. Here's how to do it

1. Open a new blank projec
2. Click Insert - Projec
3. Select the project containing predecessor tasks, then click Inser
4. Select the next blank cell below the first inserted projec
5. Click Insert - Projec
6. Insert the project containing successor tasks, then click Inser
7. Repeat steps 4-6 until you have inserted all projects with exeterna
dependencie

What you have just accomplished is to create a master project containing tw
or more subprojects. Continue with the following steps

1. Roll out the tasks in the last subprojec
2. Roll out the tasks in the next subproject, and continue to roll ou
tasks until all project tasks are displaye
3. Select the first predecessor task in the first projec
4. Hold down the Control key and select the first successor task in th
second or later projec
5. Click the Link Tasks butto
6. Edit the dependency type, if necessar
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 until you have set all necessary cross-projec
dependencie

Once you have set your desired cross-project dependencies, you need to sav
the subprojects but not the master project. Here's how

1. Close the temporary master projec
2. When prompted about saving the project, click the No butto
3. When prompted about saving each subproject, click the Yes To All butto

If you open any of the subprojects in which you created cross-projec
dependencies, you will see one or more "ghost tasks" in the project. Th
ghost tasks are tasks in one or more other projects, which were created whe
you set the cross-project dependencies. Hope this helps

--
Dale A. Howar
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultan
http://www.msprojectexperts.co
"We wrote the book on Project Server

Hi All
I want to link a task in one project to another project. I do this b

"Copy" of the source task and "Paste special" in the target project. Thi
works fine as long as the source task has no predecessors in its ow
project. If it has predecessors, the target project references them as task
of its own, messing all the timing info

In an example, let's say that task 30 has task 15 as his predecessor. Whe

I copy & paste special task 30 to target project (being now task 40, fo
ex.), target project makes this new task dependant of his own task 15 (if i
doesn't exist, it links it to project start date)