Allow use of NA in Start/Finish OR Repress task from Gantt Chart 1

[phantom2120]

MS Project 2002

Problem: Gantt Chart always shows a task graphically, even if the task doesn't yet have a valid Start/Finish date. Argh. I can't override the default Start/Finish date with "NA," which I hoped would suppress the Gantt graphic as well as show that the task doesn't yet have a valid date. This means that I have erroneous Gantt graphics and erroneous dates in my MS Project!

Situation: I have a set of 20 tasks/milestones that are considered standard to a process. Therefore, I do NOT want to delete any of these tasks, even if this project team chooses to ignore a given (standard) task or chooses to not assign a start and finish date yet.

Reasoning:
1. I'd like to communicate to the project team that a certain task, although usually standard, is NA (not applicable) for this project. I'd like it to be clear that a task was not "left out," instead, it was "intentionally left blank." Maybe I want to use the Note column to explain why the date is "NA."
2. I'd like the Gantt chart to be blank for that task, because it is only a placeholder for a normal process.
3. I certainly DON'T want the Start/Finish columns to show a bogus, default date! (MS Project defaults to the Project Start Date.

WORKAROUNDS? Solution?

Thanks in advance!

 

[phantom2120]

User can supress the task from the Gantt Chart by double-clicking on the task and checking "Hide task bar"

But now how to get rid of that date from the Start/Finish columns?

 

[phantom2120]

HOWEVER, "Hide task bar" does NOT keep the date information from impacting the rollup task graphic.

For example, If there is a parent task called, "RESEARCH" and there are two subtasks, "TYPE A" and "TYPE B"

and this project isn't going to use TYPE B, so we "Hide task bar"

the problem is that the TYPE B task STILL drives the summary task bar, rendering it useless unless the user puts in a bogus date that falls within the other start and stop dates. obviously not a good solution!

 

[PDQBach]

By definition, the summary bar is a summary of the data of the tasks beneath it. This includes the earliest start date and latest finish date.

You already know how to hide the Gantt bar ... your remaining issue is the start/finish dates for these "NA" tasks.

How about this:
1. Let's call the NA sub-task T1.
2. Let's create 4 other sub-tasks T2, T3, T4, T5.
3. Let's put them under summary task STask.

4. Give T1 a duration of 0 days (which makes the milestones) and change the Milestone indicator for this task from Milestone to No.

5. Find the first scheduled task under STask (obviously, something other than T1). Let's assume T3.

6. Click on the Start date for T3; click copy; click on the start date for T1; click on Edit | Paste Special and choose the Paste Link option.

You've hidden the Gantt bar.
You've forced the NA task to have a start date that matches the start date of a real work existing sub-task AND whenever you change the start date of the real work sub-task you will (because of the link you just set up) force the start date of the NA task to change, too.

Problem solved.