Why link tasks in project

Find the Predecessors or Successors column and select the cell for the task you want to link. Note: The Successor column is not shown by default.

To show it, go to the last column in the row, and select Add New Column. Choose Successors. In the hierarchical list of all of your tasks, scroll up or down to find the task you want, select the check box next to it, and then click anywhere outside of the drop-down box.

The task ID of the task you're linking to will appear in the cell. Selecting links from the drop-down is especially useful if the task you want to link to is not located close to the task you're linking from. You can set up Project so that when you insert a new task between linked tasks, the new task is automatically linked to the surrounding tasks.

In the Project Options dialog box, choose Schedule and scroll to the Scheduling options in this project section. When you link a manually scheduled task to another task, Project places the manually scheduled task relative to the other task. You can configure Project so that a manually scheduled task does not move when you link it to another task:.

Learn more about manually and automatically scheduled tasks. If you have tasks that depend on the successful completion of an entire project, consider setting up a master project. To highlight how a single task relates to other tasks, use task paths. After tasks are linked to create task dependencies, you can easily change or remove the dependencies, if needed, by doing any of the following:.

By default, Project links tasks in a finish-to-start dependency. You can, however, easily change the type of task dependency on the Advanced tab of the Task Information dialog box. To open the Task Information dialog box, double-click the name of the task whose link type you want to change.

Note: Double-clicking a link to an external task opens the project containing the task, if the project is available. Externally linked tasks appear dimmed in the task list. If you want to modify the link type for an external task, double-click the externally linked task to open the project that contains the task, and then do the following to modify the linked task. For example, if you linked Task A in Project Z to Task 1 in Project 5, you can modify the link type in the task information for Task 1.

To change the type of task dependency, select a different type from the Type list. If you have a task that is currently linked to the wrong task, you can easily modify the link so that it reflects the correct dependency.

On the Task tab, in the Properties group, choose Information. On the Predecessors tab, in the Task Name column, select the task that should not be linked, and then select a task from the list to identify the correct dependency. Modify the link type, lag time, or lead time in the Type and Lag columns. Tip: To enter lead time, type a negative value in the Lag column, such as —2 for two days of lead time.

If your task is no longer dependent on any other tasks, you can remove all of the task's dependencies at once. To select multiple tasks that are not listed consecutively, hold down CTRL and select each task. To select tasks that are listed consecutively, select the first task, hold down SHIFT, and then select the last task that you want to select in the list.

On the Task tab, in the Schedule group, choose Unlink Tasks. Note: Removing a task link removes the dependency between two tasks, as indicated by the link lines between the tasks. If you want to change the hierarchical structure of a task or subtask as part of an outline structure for your project, then you need to outdent the task rather than remove the task link.

If your task is linked to several tasks and you need to remove specific links while leaving some intact, you can choose which links to remove in the Task Information dialog box. You can configure Project so that when you insert a task among linked tasks, the new task is automatically linked to the surrounding tasks.

This is called autolinking. For example, if you have three tasks with finish-to-start links and you add a new task between them, the new task will take on a finish-to-start link with the tasks above and below it.

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Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. You can begin by selecting the type of dependency, or start with the default link and change the dependency type later. In the long run, it may be less work to link groups of tasks finish-to-start and modify the exceptions rather than establish all task dependencies individually.

For those unfamiliar with these different task dependencies, our last blog post covered this very subject. Figure 5 Link path linking by mouse. By default, Microsoft Project sets a Finish-to-Start task dependency regardless of which method you use. Our next post covers how to customize these links.