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Plan User Manual
Page 17 of 17
TASKS
Editing tasks
To create a new task position the highlighted area at the bottom of the task list or Gantt chart
view and press enter, or use shift-enter to insert a new task above the current position in any
of the task based views. Pressing enter with the cursor positioned on an existing task allows
the given tasks details to be altered.
When entering or editing tasks a dialog box will appear which allows the following items to
be set:
Details:
• Description. A description of the task, up to 255 characters long.
•
Constraint. This field allows an additional constraint to be placed on the task start/end
dates. The default is “As soon as possible” whereby Plan will set the start/end dates to the
earliest value possible taking into consideration any dependencies. The options prefixed
with the word “Fixed” allow the start or end date to be fixed absolutely. In this case no
dependencies may be set for the task. The last four options, postfixed with “…” allow a
constraint date to be entered in the following “Constraint date” field.
• Constraint date. See above description of the “Constraint” field.
•
Input. This field may be set to “Work&rates” (the default), “Rates&dates” or
“Work&dates”. The setting controls which of the start/end dates, work and resource work
rates are entered. Two of these three parameters are entered and the third is calculated.
• Start and End. The date and time the task starts and ends. Depending upon the “Input”
field setting this field may be greyed out. The fields can only be set if the Input field is set
to “Rates&Dates” or “Work&dates”. When entering the start and end dates the values are
used to calculate the work per resource or each resource work rate. If dependencies or a
constraint are also set then the start/end dates may subsequently be recalculated to meet
the conditions, regardless of the entered start/end date.
•
Work. The work for the task is specified in days, hours, and minutes, (the length of one
work day is given in the plan properties settings). This item may or may not appear
according to the “Input” field.
Resources:
•
Resources. This tab of the task dialog displays the resources assigned to the task.
Resources may be added or removed from the task or existing assignments can be edited.
When editing resource assignments the resource name and a percentage are entered. A
percentage of 100% would indicate, for example, one resource working on the task 100%
of the time, 200% could indicate a resource consisting of two people each working 100%
of the time on the task.
Dependencies:
• Dependencies. This tab of the task dialog displays the dependencies of the task upon
other tasks. Dependencies may be added or removed from the task or existing ones can be
edited. When editing dependencies a type may be entered (Start after, Start with or after,
Finish with or before, or Finish before) which indicates in what way the start or end
depends upon the other task. Along with the task name a lag value may be entered. The
lag offsets the dependency by the given amount. A positive or negative value may be used
to shift the dependency forwards or backwards in time.
Tracking: