Working with the Task List

Anatomy of the Task List

As mentioned above, the Task list provides a hierarchical list of tasks on the left-hand side (WBS), includes a Gantt chart that can be hidden or shown, and shows a set of tab in the Task Info pane that you can use to manage different aspects of a task. When you select a task in the WBS, the relevant information for that task for whatever tab is active is displayed in the Task Info pane. You can expand/collapse the different panes to display only the WBS, or only the Task Info pane, by clicking any of the collapse tools (shown below), and you can use the splitter to resize the two panes.

The All Tasks record at the top of the task WBS displays the earliest Start Date and latest Target Dates of any (dated) task in the WBS - provided you are using date-centric tasks for at least part of your WBS; other rolled-up totals are informed by task estimates and/or schedules, if using. Additional details for each task are displayed in the Details tab of the Task Info panel. When you make changes to the Task Details, the Task List automatically updates after you Save. Note that while you are editing the Task Info, the Task WBS is inactive until you save your changes. If using iterative methodologies, you might not see any data in the All Tasks row as dates are not required for IW tasks (see Using Tasks for Iterative Work), and IW tasks preclude the use of schedules.

Refer to Keyboard Shortcuts for a list of keyboard and toolbar shortcuts.

Editing the WBS

Select single records by single-clicking; use shift-click to select multiple records (or hold down the shift key and hit the down arrow key repeatedly). When you select more than one record, the message "n items selected" is displayed (temporarily) in the footer of the page. This is useful if you want to select a range of records and want to know the count.

To edit fields inline in the WBS, simply double-click a row to activate. You can use your mouse and/or keyboard navigation. Tab moves you from field to field and to the Save/Cancel Buttons. Use arrow keys to move you through drop lists and suggested matches (for picklists) and use Return/Enter to make your selections. An active inline record is shown below:

You can also single-select a record and edit fields in the Details panel using the same keyboard gestures, with the addition of Ctrl-S to save. Use Esc to undo an edit that hasn't yet been saved. A selected record and its corresponding Details is shown below:

The New Menu

The New menu contains operations for creating tasks. All operations except New Task at End and Bulk New assume that the operation is relative to the currently selected task.

When you create a new task, the task is created using the default category. If your organization uses only one task category (we expect this to be the most common case), then you will simply see a simple New menu, like below:

If your organization has implemented multiple categories, then you will see an addition pull-right menu that contains the additional category(ies). The default category is configured by your administrator, and is the first category in the New Task menu. Note that there is a project setting called Default Task Category that can override the value set by your administrator. If you click the menu without sliding to the right, the default task will be used when creating the task. Otherwise, select the operation you want to use, and slide the cursor to the right and then choose the category.

The Actions Menu

The Actions menu at the top of the list holds all operations that you can perform on tasks in the list. You can also access this menu by right-clicking on a task. Perform bulk actions by selecting multiple records (Shift-click or Ctrl-click) and then choosing an operation from the Actions or right-click menu.

	Menu Option	Description
	Expand All	Expands the entire list of tasks (opens all branches). If more than 100 tasks are expanded, either manually or via the Expand All button, only the first 100 tasks will be expanded on subsequent loads of the data - for example, after running a filter or leaving and returning to the Tasks list. If you want all tasks expanded again, click the Expand All button.
	Collapse All	Closes the list of tasks (collapses all branches)
	Edit	Invokes the inline editor for the selected task.
	Spreadsheet Edit	Invokes the spreadsheet-style editor for the entire WBS, not just the selected task.
	Bulk Edit	Opens an editor that allows you to edit multiple tasks. Select the task (Shift-click or Ctrl-click to select multiple rows) and then choose Bulk Edit. See Bulk Editing for more information.
	Open in New Tab	Open the selected task in a new tab.
	Select All	Selects all the tasks in the list.
	Copy URL	Copies the URL to the current task.
	Copy Rows to Clipboard	Copy the selected rows to the clipboard. (Shift-click or Ctrl-click to select multiple rows.)
	Associate Selected Tasks	Create associations between the selected tasks. For example, if you select Task A and Task B and the choose Actions > Associate Selected Tasks, Task A will appear in Task B's Associations tab, and Task B will appear in Task A's Association tab. This is a shortcut for creating the association as you don't have to search for the task to associate - you can just select it (provided it is in the same project).
	Outdent	Shifts the selected task(s) to the left. The summary task will be converted to a leaf task if no child tasks remain.
	Indent	Shifts the selected task(s) to the right. This option is available only if there is a child task above the task(s) to shift that can be converted into a summary task.
	Move	Moves the selected task(s) to a new parent. See Moving Tasks.
	Shift	Shifts the start date of the selected task(s). Shifting a task's dates will cause its sub-tasks's dates to shift also, which may cause its parent task dates to adjust accordingly.  To shift dates one week, use 5 days (Days=work days Mon-Fri). See Shifting Tasks.
	Delete	Deletes the selected task(s)
	Schedule	Provides ability to schedule multiple resources to multiple tasks.
	Unschedule	Provides the ability to remove multiple resources from a task.
	Manage Dependencies	Invokes the Manage Dependencies dialog, which allows you to create dependencies between tasks within this project or between tasks in this project and tasks in another project. See Creating Dependencies.
	Schedule From...	Allows you to reset the Schedule From date for the project.
	Reschedule	This menu option becomes available if there have been changes to the project's base calendar. Use this option to reschedule the project to adjust to the changes. You will see an icon in the task Info column that looks like a calendar. This appears when the project needs to be rescheduled.
	MSP Import	Provides the ability to import a Microsoft Project. See Importing/exporting tasks.
	MSP/XML Export	Provides the ability to export a PPM Pro task plan to an XML file which you can then import into Microsoft Project. See Importing/exporting tasks.
	Export to Excel	Export a maximum of 5000 list rows to Microsoft Excel. If you export 5000+ rows, you will be notified that your export will be truncated and encouraged to run a report to accommodate the large number of rows. Reports can handle up to 50,000 rows. See Printing the Tasks List.
	Run Task Report	Provides a shortcut to access task-level reports.
	Print	Prints the task list to a PDF. See Printing Task List.

Formatting Column Values

Add/Remove/Rearrange and Sort Columns

Out-of-the-Box Task Filters

PPM Pro supplies a set of out-of-the-box (OOTB) filters - OOTB filters always preceded with a + sign :

• Status: +Proposed
• Status: +Open
• Status: +Closed
• +My Tasks - returns all tasks owned by current user or tasks current user is scheduled to. This filter is also available on Home/Tasks, with an additional criterion: Project:Implied Status is not Closed

You can map the status filters to a custom status. This is called having an implied status. For example, you might have a status called "under review," which maps to Proposed, and thus has an implied status of Proposed.

The Details Actions Menu

The Actions menu contains a list of operations for the entity's Details section. 

	Menu Option	Description
	Log time	The Log Time option is visible if: the task is current (end date is later than current date) your organization's timesheet rules allow you to log time If you do not satisfy the above, you will not see the Log Time menu item. The Log Time link opens the New Project Time window, pre-populated with all required information, including project, task, Org role, current date, and HTC - simply enter your hours.
	History	Displays the change History window for the current entity. This window shows a list of modifications made to the entity, including the modification date, who made the modification, the field that was modified, and the old and new values.
	Layout	Select 1, 2, or 3 column layout (options available depends on the width of your display). Choose Auto-Layout to have PPM Pro format automatically to fit the space. Note that any changes you make on an entity will affect all entity instances of the same category.
	Print	Uses the browser printing facility to print the information on the Details page.