Outlining Tasks with Microsoft Project

Being able to look at your project's tasks in different ways makes it easier to get a look at the big picture. If you use Microsoft Project, you can easily outline your tasks to make your task list appear organized and easy to read. Working with tasks in Project is an involved process, making Microsoft Project Training extremely beneficial. No matter which version of Project you use, by enrolling in the appropriate course such as Microsoft Project 2003 Training will give you the skills you need so that you can focus on your project - not your software.

To organize tasks within MS Project, you can either create a simple outline with indents and outdents, which creates an outline of summary tasks and subtasks, or you can create a work breakdown structure which is more complex and covered in further detail in Microsoft Project 2007 Training.

To create an outline, go to the View menu and click on Gantt Chart. Click on a task and decide whether you want to indent or outdent it. Project is set up to outdent summary tasks and make them bold with subtasks indented beneath them by default. By clicking the Indent or Outdent icon, you can assign tasks as either subtasks or summary tasks.

When browsing a task list, you can easily indent or outdent it using the mouse. To use this technique, simply hover the mouse over the first letter of the task name until the pointer turns into a double arrow. Once the pointer changes drag the task to the left to outdent it and drag it to the right to indent it.

Be aware that by turning a task into a summary task, changes you make to the summary task affect the subtasks. This can be for better or for worse. For example, if you move a summary task, all subtasks are moved with it. However, if you delete a summary task, all of its subtasks will also be deleted.

Outlining tasks is fairly easy once you know how your changes affect the organization of the task list.