Sorting and Indenting for Summary Tasks is problematic

[gmeadows]

Hello,

I have around 30 tasks. They are broken into around 5 different WBS (work breakdown structures). If I sort by the WBS and then I place a new task above each section and then attempt to indent, weird behaviour occurs. Try it, you'll see.

Thanks in advance for any tips.
glenn

 

[PDQBach]

Tried it. Saw nothing unusual.

You're going to have to be *much* more explicit in describing exactly what you did (step by step; click by click) and in describing exactly what you saw.

 

[gmeadows]

OK. Let me simplify things.

Let's say I have the following tasks in Project.

ID# WBS Task Name Cost
1 SiteWork Excavate Foundation $5,400
2 Concrete Pour concrete footings $3,500
3 Concrete Pour concrete walls $4,500
4 SiteWork Backfill foundation walls $2,600

Now let's say I want to sort my tasks by their WBS which is the tasks' Work Breakdown Structure

I go to the Project menu selection and choose Sort and then I select WBS. Here's what I have now.

ID# WBS Task Name Cost
2 Concrete Pour concrete footings $3,500
3 Concrete Pour concrete walls $4,500
1 SiteWork Excavate Foundation $5,400
4 SiteWork Backfill foundation walls $2,600

Now let's create a summary task for Concrete and a summary task for SiteWork. First I need to add a row for each summary task. Here's what I want things to look like next.

ID# WBS Task Name Cost
5 Concrete
2 Concrete Pour concrete footings $3,500
3 Concrete Pour concrete walls $4,500
6 SiteWork
1 SiteWork Excavate Foundation $5,400
4 SiteWork Backfill foundation walls $2,600

Finally, I attempt to indent items to create their respective summary tasks. Here's what I want things to look like when I am finished but unfortunately, Project scrambles the tasks to be in some weird order. Try it you'll see. Am I missing something here... Thanks in advance for any tips.

ID# WBS Task Name Cost
5 Concrete $8,000
2 Concrete Pour concrete footings $3,500
3 Concrete Pour concrete walls $4,500
6 SiteWork $8,000
1 SiteWork Excavate Foundation $5,400
4 SiteWork Backfill foundation walls

 

[PDQBach]

Boy oh boy, do I wish everyone gave as much detail as you did. About the only thing you didn't tell me was the screen resolution!

Okay, let's see what I found.

First, in order to show ID numbers that match what you show, I had to display the Unique ID column. When I did that, the values you show as ID matched perfectly with the values I saw in Unique ID.

Second, you're right: the behaviour is, well, dramatic!

Third, I can get to the display result you want but it may not be exactly what you're looking for.

When I clicked Project | Sort | Sort by ... I filled in the dialog box by choosing a key of WBS, then I clicked "Permanently renumber tasks" so that it was selected (showed a tick mark), then I clicked on the Sort button. This gave me the display I believe you want -- but at the cost of losing the original ID assigned to the task. This is not a great problem since internally much of Project is based on the Unique ID but if you absolutely must keep the original ID (and that number is temporary at best) then my approach won't satisfy your requirements.

Try what I suggested in the above para and let me know if this meets your requirements.