Entering bar and task names

This section explains how to create tasks, or activities, by entering their name into the spreadsheet.

A bar is a row across the spreadsheet and bar chart. Tasks are the activities that are drawn on bars. A bar can have no tasks, one task, or multiple tasks.

You create tasks by drawing them on bars or entering their details into the spreadsheet. You might want to create more than one task on the same bar to show repetitive or intermittent working on an activity; this lets you condense lots of information onto one bar. You can name each bar and each task to describe the activity that they represent. For example, a bar named Write Report may have three tasks on it named Draft 1, Draft 2 and Draft 3.

When a bar has a name but no tasks, it acts as a heading, which can be useful for grouping related tasks within a project.

You can leave bars and tasks untitled, which might be suitable when drafting a project or when you want to use blank bars to improve the layout of a project.

You can enter and edit bar and task names in the spreadsheet, using the Bar and Task Properties dialog and using the properties view. You can specify whether you want new tasks to inherit the name of the bar on which they are located.