Hiding and showing bars and tasks in a project

You can hide specific bars and tasks in a project from view, then subsequently redisplay them. This enables you to have all items visible while you are preparing a schedule, but gives you the flexibility to omit certain items when you show your schedule to others, or when you print it out. You may want to hide bars and tasks within a project from people for a number of reasons - for example, you may want to hide commercially-sensitive bars and tasks from your clients.

Hiding bars and tasks

In order to hide specific bars or tasks, you must first mark them for hiding. To do this, either:

  • Right-click the bar or task and select Mark For Hiding from the menu that appears.
  • Select the Mark for hiding check box in the Details section of the Bar or Task tab of the Bar and Task Properties dialog.
  • Configure a spreadsheet column to display the Marked for hiding field - which appears as a check box - and select the check box for bars or tasks that you want to hide.

Once you have marked bars and tasks for hiding, you can hide them from view at any time. To do this, on the Format tab, in the Show/Hide group, click Hide or Show Marked Items.

Redisplaying bars and tasks that are currently hidden

To redisplay bars and tasks that are currently hidden, on the Format tab, in the Show/Hide group, click Hide or Show Marked Items again.

To remove the 'mark from hiding' designation from bars and tasks that are currently marked for hiding, either right-click the bar or task and reselect Mark For Hiding from the menu that appears, clear the Mark for hiding check box on the Bar or Task tab of the Bar and Task Properties dialog, or clear the Marked for hiding field when it is displayed in the spreadsheet.

  • If a bar contains more than one task and all of the tasks are displayed on the same bar - ie if the bar is not displayed in 'one-task-per-line' mode - marking the bar for hiding applies to the bar itself. If such a bar is displayed in 'one-task-per-line' mode and you mark one of the bars for hiding, this applies only to the task on that line, and not to the bar itself.
  • If you mark all of the tasks on a bar for hiding and choose to hide marked items, the bar itself is hidden too.
  • You cannot mark the chart that represents the programme for hiding.
  • When you hide marked items, they are hidden in all views and do not appear in any filters, in RBS or CBS views, or in the project timeline.
  • When a task is hidden, its allocations are not shown and neither are any links that start or end on the task. You cannot draw links to or from any tasks that are currently hidden, but you can still create links to or from hidden tasks by specifying the tasks in either the Predecessors or Successors spreadsheet columns, or in the Link From/To dialog.
  • The charts and summary groups that relate to hidden summary tasks and expanded tasks do not appear in the project view.
  • If a summary or expanded task is hidden, the items it contains are also hidden.
  • Hidden items are excluded from histogram and rollup calculations and from tabular reports.
  • If you cut or copy a bar or task and paste a copy of it into a project, the copy retains its 'mark for hiding' setting.
  • If you reschedule a project while items are hidden, the hidden items are rescheduled in conjunction with the non-hidden items unless the scope of the reschedule is limited to the current view. However, note that hidden tasks that are located on the same bar as non-hidden tasks are rescheduled even when the scope of the reschedule is limited to the current view.
  • If hidden items are booked out of a project, they are hidden in the destination project.

Related Topics:

Setting up spreadsheet columns