Hierarchical Appearance dialog

You use the Hierarchical Appearance dialog to specify the font colour, background colour and font that you want to apply to bars that indicate the hierarchy of a project. The set of hierarchy appearance settings that appears in this dialog depends on the way in which you access the dialog.

  • To specify the appearance settings for the bars on which summary and expanded tasks are located - ie those that make up the hierarchy of a project - on the Format tab, in the Format group, click Hierarchy Appearance. Alternatively, right-click a chart or summary group icon in the project view and select Appearance.
  • To specify the appearance settings that apply to subheadings that appear above each sorted group of tasks to indicate sort/group criteria in WBS-based sorts/groups, right-click an element of the work breakdown structure in the project view and select Appearance, or click the Hierarchy Appearance button on the Work Breakdown Structure dialog. For example, if you are sorting/grouping on WBS code, the subheadings will display the WBS code that has been assigned to each sorted group of tasks.

You use this dialog to maintain both sets of hierarchy appearance settings in the same way, regardless of which one is currently displayed in the dialog. The title of the dialog indicates which set of hierarchy appearance settings you are currently maintaining.

You can specify a different appearance for each level of the project or WBS hierarchy. For example, if the project hierarchy of charts and summary groups comprises eight levels, you should define eight different levels of appearance settings; if the hierarchy of a work breakdown structure comprises six levels, you should define six different subheading appearances: one for each level. Each row in the grid represents a level of the project or WBS hierarchy. For example, the appearance settings you define for the first row apply to the top level of the project or work breakdown structure, the settings you define for the second row apply to the second level of the project or work breakdown structure, and so on.

The dialog displays the following information about each level of the hierarchy for which you specify appearance settings:

Field Description
Text colour Specify the font colour to apply to either the bars on which summary and expanded tasks are located, or to the sort/group subheadings for each level of the WBS - depending on which set of hierarchy appearance settings you are currently maintaining.
Background colour Specify the fill colour to apply to either the bars on which summary and expanded tasks are located, or to the sort/group subheadings for each level of the WBS - depending on which set of hierarchy appearance settings you are currently maintaining.
Level font Specify the font to apply to either the bars on which summary and expanded tasks are located, or to the sort/group subheadings for each level of the WBS - depending on which set of hierarchy appearance settings you are currently maintaining.

The dialog displays the following buttons:

Button Description
Add Click this button to add a new row to the grid, representing a further level of the hierarchy.
Remove Click this button to delete the currently selected row from the grid.

How do I...

  1. Click Add to a new row to the grid.
  2. Click in each column of the grid to specify the font colour, fill colour and font settings to apply to either the bars on which summary and expanded tasks are located, or to the sort/group subheadings for each level of the WBS - depending on which set of hierarchy appearance settings you are currently maintaining.
  3. Select a row and click Remove to delete it from the grid if required.
  4. Click OK to close the dialog and apply the changes.

Related Topics:

Working with dialogs

Highlighting bars that indicate the project hierarchy

Setting up a work breakdown structure (WBS)