Quick Tour of Working with Linked Tasks (Pro Users)

This feature is available only in Project KickStart Professional.

In the Schedule step, you work in the Gantt chart to set start and finish dates for your tasks and refine your project plan. To make scheduling easy and quick, Project KickStart provides a starter schedule for new projects by setting today as the start date and assigning a one-day duration to each task. This creates a waterfall or cascade pattern, with one task following the other.

In addition, Project KickStart Pro links the tasks for you, so when you open the Gantt chart, you see a linked waterfall similar to the one shown below. Besides providing a schedule that starts in a cascade with each task lasting one day, each task is linked to the next task.

You work with the Gantt chart either using the Task Data view in the left pane or the graphical Chart view in the right pane. To adjust the schedule to fit your project, set the project start date in the toolbar, move and resize the taskbars in the Chart view, or change the start and finish dates or durations of individual tasks in the Task Data view. See About Scheduling Tasks for details.

Next, fine-tune the dependencies in your project by you can linking and unlinking tasks, changing their predecessors and successors, and setting lead times. For example, if one task is not dependent on another, you can unlink the tasks. If another task can’t start until two other tasks are finished, you can add a predecessor to that task, in which case the two tasks will be linked.

To link tasks:

In the Task Data view, select the tasks you want to link.

To select two or more adjacent tasks, hold down the Shift key and then click the tasks. To select two or more nonadjacent tasks, hold down the Ctrl key and then click the tasks.

Click the Link button on the Gantt chart toolbar.

The tasks are linked so that the first task is the predecessor to the second task, the second task is the predecessor to the third task, and so on.

To unlink tasks:

In the Task Data view, select tasks you want to unlink.

To select two or more adjacent tasks, hold down the Shift key and then click the tasks. To select two or more nonadjacent tasks, hold down the Ctrl key and then click the tasks.

Click the Unlink button on the Gantt chart toolbar.

The tasks are no longer linked.

To fine-tune the linked tasks:

To change the scheduled start and end dates of linked tasks, move and resize taskbars in the Chart view or change the number of days or the Start date in the Task Data view.
To display predecessor and successor information in the Task Data view, right-click any column heading, and then click Pred or Succ.
To change the predecessor for a task, double-click the number in the Pred column for the task, and then enter the number of a different task.
To change the successor for a task, double-click the number in the Succ column for the task, and then enter the number of a different task.
To add another predecessor or successor to a task, click in the appropriate column for the task, and then enter the number of another task.
To change the details of a linked task, open its Task Information dialog box. To do so, right-click the task and then click Task Information on the shortcut menu, or click a task and then click the Edit Task Information button . See Change Details for Linked Tasks.
In the Task Information dialog, you can also specify the predecessor(s) of a task and lead time(s) of the tasks.

Notes

Changes you make to linked tasks in the Task Data view are reflected in the link lines and other information in the Chart view.
As you move and resize taskbars in Chart view, the link lines and arrows change accordingly.