Using empty rows between tasks

[CB]

I am looking for some best practice advise. What are the pros and cons of
using empty rows between tasks?
Such as

Task 1 summary
Task 1a
Task 1b

Task 2 summary
Task 2a
Task 2b

Any comment welcome.

 

[Dave]

Pros are clarity

Not really any cons except that it takes more space to represent the plan.

Some activities like dragging fill down add tasks in the gaps.

 

[John]

I am looking for some best practice advise. What are the pros and cons of
using empty rows between tasks?
Such as

Task 1 summary
Task 1a
Task 1b

Task 2 summary
Task 2a
Task 2b

Any comment welcome.

CB,
I'll give you some reasons why not to include blank rows.
1. There is really no good reason for it. Project already has hierarchal
indentation that provides good readability
2. Blank rows are given task IDs just like real tasks. This can be a
disadvantage when sorting or tracking by task ID
3. If a macro is written to operate on the file, the code must detect
and work around blank lines. (Any good VBA programmer will do this as
good practice but less experienced users may not be aware of this
requirement).

John
Project MVP

 

[CB]

Dave,

I have to admit this is not the answer I was expecting. I would assume that
it is a bad practice that project probably stores some sort of data in the
rows and that it may have an effect on running code?????

CB

 

[Dave]

Well I don't think there are any issues of the nature that you describe.

I would suggest that for the vast majority of users there are no issues
and the question would come down to one of personal preference or
corporate standards.

Presumably of the application operation was affected, then it wouldn't
allow the practice.

 

[CB]

Thanks John. I thought that there were more cons.

 

[Jack Dahlgren MVP]

It does have some ill effects.

It can break VBA code.

It can give wierd results while moving, inserting and copying tasks

I think there may be some other subtle things about it which are not
positive.

I always advise against it for the reasons above.

It you want to have your outline structure to show up more clearly, just set
the font for summary tasks to be a bit bigger and it will be obvious where
one summary ends and the next begins.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[CB]

Jack,

Thanks. I am really looking for reasons not to use this as some of the PMs
use this on the front end in the proposal phase. Which in turn leaves clean
up for me when transitioned to active. I thought I had read a post awhile
back that listed a lot more reasons not to do this and was unable to find
that particular post.

CB

 

[John]

Thanks John. I thought that there were more cons.

CB,
You're welcome. There probably are more reasons not to insert blank rows
but since most experienced users avoid a "blank row" structure, we never
see all the problems it causes.

I think you have enough ammunition in our combined replies that you
should be able to convince your PMs not to do it.

John
Project MVP