Bar and Task Properties dialog - Links tab

To access the Bar and Task Properties dialog, right-click a bar or task in the bar chart and select Properties.

The two grids display a range of information about each incoming and outgoing link. Each row in a grid represents one incoming or outgoing link. You can edit the properties of links - apart from implied links - by clicking and entering information directly into the grids. If you edit a field that identifies a task so that another task is identified, the corresponding link will be moved to the new task; if you delete the information from a field that identifies a task, the corresponding link will be deleted.

The following buttons appear underneath each grid:

If you right-click the heading of a column of information in one of the grids, a menu appears that enables you to configure the grid. The menu contains the following commands. Any changes that you make to a grid will be applied automatically to the other grid on the Links tab of the Bar and Task Properties dialog and to the grids on the Links tab of the properties view:

Either double-click the entry for the link, or right-click the entry for the link and select Go To Other End. Details of the task at the other end of the link are now displayed.

If the Barchart follows link navigation check box on the Logic Chasing tab of the Link Settings dialog is selected and if the current view is a bar chart, the view is updated automatically when you choose to display the properties of the task at the other end of a link so that the task is brought into view and selected. Selecting this check box and double-clicking links on the Links tab of the properties view or on the Links tab of the Bar and Task Properties dialog is a simple way of chasing the link logic in a project.

1. Click Add Link beneath the appropriate grid, or right-click the appropriate grid and select Add new link to... or Add new link from.... The New Link dialog appears.
2. Specify the task with which you want to link the currently selected task by entering information in the fields on the dialog. For example, enter the name or WBS code of the task with which you want to link the selected task.
3. Specify the type of link you want to create in the Link type field.
4. Enter the amount of lead/lag, for example 2d or 15h, you want to apply to the link in the Lag field. Leave this field blank to create links with no lead/lag.
5. Click Link. If only one task meets your criteria, a link is created between the selected task and that task immediately. If more than one task meets your criteria, the Select Link Ends dialog appears, displaying all tasks that meet the criteria.
6. Within the Select Link Ends dialog, select the check box to the left of the tasks to or from which you want to create links, then click OK.

1. Select the entry for the link that you want to delete in one of the grids.
2. Click Unlink Tasks.

1. Select the entry for the link in one of the grids and click Change. The Move From/To dialog appears.
2. Specify the task to which you want to move the other end of the link by entering information in the fields on the dialog. For example, enter the name or WBS code of the task to which you want to move the selected link.
3. Specify a different type of link if required in the Link type field.
4. Enter the amount of lead/lag, for example 2d or 15h, you want to apply to the link in the Lag field. Leave this field blank to apply no lead/lag to the link.
5. Click Link. The selected link is moved to the specified task.

1. Click the row of the link you want to edit to select the row.
2. Within the selected row, click the column of information you want to edit.
3. Overtype the existing information as required then click away from the row.

If you edit the information in the Predecessor name or Successor name columns, as well as entering the names of tasks you can specify the link category, link type and lead/lag amount, even though this information is not displayed in the column. You do this in the same way as when you create and edit links using the Predecessors and Successors columns in the spreadsheet.

For example, if you edited the Predecessor name column for a link as follows - Plumbing (Category A) SS 2d - the link would be moved to start at the Plumbing task, would be changed to be a Start-to-Start link, would have 2 days lead/lag, and would have the Category A link category assigned to it.

Creating and editing links using the spreadsheet columns

1. Select the entry for the link in one of the grids.
2. Click Properties.

• Right-click the heading of a column of information in the grid to display a menu that enables you to configure the grid. You can add and remove columns of information and sort the grid according to the information in any of the columns.
• Click the heading of a column in the grid and drag it left or right to change its position in the grid.

Click Variance to display the Task Variance Properties dialog.