Some task properties can be edited directly from the Gantt tasks view: the
name of the task and the work effort.
You can also launch the task properties dialog from here by right clicking on
a task and choosing Edit task.
In the Task View you can edit more fields for a task than in the Gantt
View, and is the preferred view when you start to add tasks to a project.
To edit all the task properties, right click on a task and select
Edit Task from the dialog
that appears.  Alternatively, you can select the task and use the
main menu:
ActionsEdit Task.
There are several tabs to modify the properties.
The General tab contains the following fields:
Name - the name of the taskMilestone - the milestone check box
flags the task as a milestone, which disables the ability to
modify the Work, Duration, Complete, and Priority
fields, since a milestone signifies a significant
event in the timeline of a project that has no duration or work
activity of its own.
Fixed duration - the fixed duration
option is used when the duration of a task will take a fixed
amount of time regardless of the resources devoted to achieving
it.  For instance, the gestation period for a human baby is
nine months.  It cannot be sped up by adding more resources.
Choosing Fixed duration for a task will unlock the
Duration
field and allow you to enter a value for the fixed duration.
Work - this is the amount of effort
required to complete the task
Duration - the amount of calendar time
required to complete the task.  Duration is normally calculated
based on the amount of work and the resources assigned to the
task.  The calculation also takes calendars
into account.  See the section
for more information.
Schedule - sets a constraint on the
task start date,
which can either be As soon as possible
, No earlier than, or
On a fixed dateComplete - allows tracking of the
amount of work done
for the task, entered as a percent of total workPriority - sets a priority for the
task.  There is no specific functionality tied to this field at
the moment.  It is informational only
The Resources tab allows you to assign
resources to a task. Remember that resources can include
materials as well as people.  Click the check box in the
Assigned column to allocate the resource
to the current task.  Use the Units field to enter the percent
of the resource that is allocated to the task.
The Gantt view will list the resources assigned to a task to
the right of the bar.  If a short name was entered in the
resource view, then the short name will display in the Gantt,
otherwise, the full name will be displayed.
You can see in the Predecessors tab the
tasks that need to be finished before the task being edited can
start. In this example, we have three tasks.  In
, the third task, t3, requires
that t2 be complete before it can start.
From this dialog, you can change the task predecessor, the
predecessor type, and edit the lag between the task and the
predecessor.  To add or remove predecessors from this dialog
by clicking the Add or
Remove button.
When you add a new predecessor you need to choose the task
predecessor, which you can select from the drop down list box.
The next field is the Relationship type.  You can choose
Finish to Start (FS),
Finish to Finish (FF),
Start to Start (SS), or
Start to Finish (SF).  Finally, you
can enter a lag time for the relationship, which represents the
number of days after the relationship has been satisfied.  For
example, if you enter a lag time of 1 in a Finish to Start
relationship, it means that the current task may begin 1 day
after the predecessor task has completed.
Lag time can be entered in terms of hours, days, or weeks by
appending an h, d, or w to the unit value you enter.  For
example:
3h = 3 hours2d = 2 days 4w = 4 weeks
Time entered as weeks will be converted to days.
You can add notes to the task using the editor in the
Notes tab.  You can also insert the current
time to the note using the button that appears in the dialog.
