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Jumping to Predecessor

22 replies [Last post]
Mon, 2007-04-23 06:17
Bijaya Bajracharya
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"Jumping" is a function in another software - I am trying to find a similar feature in Power Project.

In the spreadsheet area of of the screen, you can show, Predecessor but is there a way to show only Unique Id of Predecessor rather than the full description of the predecessor?

How to go (jump) to that predecessor activity straight way?
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Replies

Mon, 2009-09-28 11:33
#1
Carlos Arana
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P3 has those nice predecessor/succesor windows with its "jump" button, PP does not. What is the best workflow to manage links in PP?

I mean, in P3 you just filter a single activity, then open the predecesor window and double click the driving pred to go for it. Then you can just double click the driving pred within it and go for the entire driving sequence for a selected activity.

How can I get the driving sequence for a selected activity in PP?

I do this a lot when using PP and it makes easy to explain why an activity’s dates are far from where they were planned.
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Fri, 2007-12-28 12:39
#2
Paul Clarke
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I’d forgotten all about the jump button - please get me back on a company that uses P3 and get me off this Asta rubbish !!!
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Mon, 2007-07-09 04:47
#3
Bijaya Bajracharya
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The way it works is when you click a link and right click it for properties, it gives properties for that particular link (like type of link, lags/leads). If that is not the link you want to edit, you need to do it again. There is no keystroke or anything that takes you to another link.

If you want to see all the links for an activity, it is easy. You can select the activity and then right click for peroperties and go to the links tab. Here it shows all incoming and outgoing links to that particular activity. Ideally it would have been the right place/window to edit those relationships. But Power Project does not allow to edit links in this window. You see the problem here but to correct that problem, you need to click that particular link (arrow) from bar chart. This is very frustrating.
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Mon, 2007-07-09 02:54
#4
David Bordoli
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Well, I havn’t had to do this for ages but i thougfht when you clicked a link and opened the properties box the firts link you will select is the last one that was inserted (like they stack up on each other). Then clicking again will select the next link and so on. It’s not a random thing, you just have to know how to do.
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Fri, 2007-07-06 08:19
#5
Bijaya Bajracharya
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I mean GUI
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Fri, 2007-07-06 08:18
#6
Bijaya Bajracharya
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GIU is definintely more user friendly. But the question in case for links in Power Project is that it is VISUAL rather than graphical. Just to illustrate - one milstone activity may have 10 predecessors. You want to edit one of them. In Power Project the only way to pick that particular link is to click the mouse in the right link coming to the milestone (or activity). It is very much a visual thing now - you right click the link and find that that you have clicked the wrong one. You keep on doing it until you hit it right. Even with 500% zoom, it is very difficult and frustrating that you don’t hit it right. In such cirumstances you would definitly wish that those links can be edited easier way.
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Tue, 2007-07-03 15:03
#7
David Bordoli
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Just a thought, not asking you if it is right or wrong, good or bad, but where do you think the future of software lies? In GUIs, speach recognition, some other gadety thing and touchy feely type inputs or using keyboards to type in digital data?
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Tue, 2007-07-03 03:40
#8
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Yes, you can bend and use different colours to the relationship lines to identify. They are still graphical interface to work with links. Even in Microsoft Project, one can easily edit relationship by exact text in columns. But the Power Project with so many additional features, seem to lag way behind in this aspect of relationship editing.
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Tue, 2007-07-03 01:39
#9
David Bordoli
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Bijaya

You know you can ’bend’ straight links so that you can easily identify straight links that lay on top of each other which makes them easy to identify and select.

David
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Wed, 2007-06-13 09:19
#10
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Well that was something I had seen before. Anyway, this button brings only related activities on the screen.

Editing the link is still a very difficult task in Power Project as it is fully dependent on graphical input only.

You can get into the properties of a task by double clicking it. You can also go to Links Tab which show Incoming and Outgoing links. You can only view it. You cannot change anything here.
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Wed, 2007-06-13 08:36
#11
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Where are the predecessor/successor buttons in view menu?
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Wed, 2007-06-13 08:06
#12
Dick Murray
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have you tried using the predecessors/successors button in the view menu. this lets you see / edit all tasks linked to the one you have selected
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Wed, 2007-06-13 08:56
#13
Dick Murray
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path is;

view/view/predecessors-successors.


if you select a task first (not a bar )this will then bring up a view on its own of all the p’s/s’s. By then double clicking on a task you can follow / edit a path.

you can install a button for this on your toolbars by

tools--customise-commands-view- view , and then drag the p/succ button onto your toolbar at the top of the screen
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Tue, 2007-04-24 09:55
#14
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Surprisingly, ASTA customer support is answering the questions very fast. The answers I have received so far indicate that Power Project does not have easy ways of editing links.
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Tue, 2007-04-24 08:40
#15
Andrew Pearce
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I am sure there is a way of doing it but cant remember - must be my age!
Again have you tried
1. Asta Help file in pp?
2. Asta Help on thier Website?
3. Customer support?

I know custoimer support can take a while to get back to you, but you are paying for it in your maintenance agreement.
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Tue, 2007-04-24 08:31
#16
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Well in MSP, at least there is Go to function (F5) which is good enough to jump around. Power Project does not have anything like that too.
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Tue, 2007-04-24 04:41
#17
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Exactly. I just want to edit the relationship and there does not seem to be an easy way around.

In the Spreadsheet area, I have created columns for Predecessor and Successor. They display the Line number of predecessor or successor but it cannot display lags or leads associated with these links.

I need to display and edit these relationships without depending on right clicking the relationship lines in graphical area which is proving to be very difficult as there are many lines and they overlap on top of each other making it almost impossible to search the link you are looking for.

And if possible, I should able to jump between these links so that you can continue to edit the chain of links (just like you do in other software like P3).
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Mon, 2007-04-23 10:57
#18
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Thank you Andrew and Alexandre,

I contacted ASTA customer support and their answer was to right-clicking the link and "Go to the other end". This is purely graphical solution and quite difficult to click exactly the place you want. So it is very difficult to edit relationships.
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Mon, 2007-04-23 07:07
#19
Andrew Pearce
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I am sure there is a way but not currently using PP so cant help you.
Have you tried
1. The Help function? sometimes it works!!
2. Asta technical support

Regards
Andy
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