Create summary tasks and subtasks

A summary (or top-level) task has one or more subtasks associated with it. A summary task appears as a black summary bar in the Gantt chart.

• Its start date is defined as the earliest start date of its subtasks.
• Its end date is defined as the latest finish date of its subtasks.

Note: The top of every schedule contains a schedule summary task. The summary bar may not match up exactly with its last subtask if the last task is less than a working day. Summary tasks use the end date of the last task for calculation. The subtasks calculate and display exact hours.

Procedure

1. Select one or more tasks from the task table.

2. Choose Schedule→Indent task. (To indent multiple tasks, they must be consecutive tasks.)

   The selected tasks become a subtask of the task directly above it, the summary task, in the task table. The summary task and each of its subtasks have a parent/child relationship.

3. Choose Schedule→Outdent task to remove a subtask from its parent summary task. (To outdent multiple tasks, they must be consecutive tasks.)

Note: Do not assign resources to summary or top-level tasks. Instead, assign resources to subtasks for distributed progress-reporting to work correctly.