what is the best way to save a completed project for the future use

[Natasha]

Hi,

I am a new user and I guess, I am going to have a lot of questions.

My first one: is there any way to save a completed project for the future use. Let's say, I am preparing a birthday party, and do all the planning with MLO. When I am done with it, I want to save it for future use, so in a year I can re-activate it, so all the tasks and subtasks will have the same properties, and I will just have to assign a new due date to the main task in the project.

Thanks,

Natasha.

[Simon Denham]

Hey Natasha,

The way I save completed projects is to have a folder which has 'Hide the branch in To-Do' set called 'Templates' at the bottom of my outline. In this folder I put duplicates of completed projects (Ctrl+D) I might want to reuse. Normally I re-name the project to some truly generic name so i'll know what it is in the future, un-complete all the tasks i'd already completed, and remove dates.

Then when you want to do the project again, just duplicate the project in the template folder and move it to an active part of the outline.

Hope that helps!

Simon 

[Natasha]

Thank you

[Dwight]

Natasha,

Simon’s suggestion is probably the best. One thing to make it even better, when you are ready to reuse the project, in your outline view just select the place where you want the new project and select “new from template” on the Task menu. Point to the saved template and MLO will make a duplicate project and put it where you want it.

 

Here are two other approaches, if you like.

 

First, do you have a good idea of when you will need it again? For example, if it’s about planning a birthday party, it will come up once a year. In this case, I would suggest a repeating project. Take the entry for the project itself, and go to the Task Properties panel on the right. In the timing and reminders section click on “recurrence: none” to bring up the task recurrence popup. Select “Yearly” and put in when the project should happen each year, for example “Every June 15^th”. (If it’s not annual, adjust these instructions for the appropriate interval. If the interval’s irregular or unknown you probably should use a different option.)  Under “Next Occurrence” in the Task Recurrence popup, put the start date and due date for your next tie up – the due date should match what you entered for a recurrence schedule. Click OK. Then, when you mark the project completed it will immediately regenerate a new project with the same subtasks and next year’s date.

 

Last option, if you are using the “review” feature, store the project somewhere in a hidden branch. “Templates” would be a possibility, or in this case you might prefer a “Someday/Never” branch. Pick a date that is definitely sooner than the earliest you might need to rerun this project, but if possible, make it late enough so that when the date arrives you will already know the plan for the next run. Set this date as your next review date. On your next review cycle after that date, the project will appear on your review screen, prompting you to set up the next occurrence.

-Dwight

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[Natasha]

Thank you very much.

Is there any way to preserve timing inside the project, when I use it again? Let's say, there is a subtask I need to do a week before the main task. Can I somehow save it, when I assign the new due date to the project?

[Dwight]

As a matter of fact, MLO is very good at this.

 

Let’s assume that you are using the Template technique. When you set up the template project, give it a made-up start date (I use 1 Jan 2001) and give a due date that would be correct if the project had started on 01/01/01. Set “lock period” (not necessary but helps you avoid mistakes later). Set all of the subtasks to “inherit parent dates”. Then, any task that needs to have different dates, go ahead and set the needed dates. Inherit parent dates will be extinguished for any task where you set dates. In my example if I wanted to do something like order supplies two weeks before the start of the project I would set the task dates to start 18 Dec 2000 and end 1 Jan 2001.

 

When you “create new from template” MLO will find the earliest date in the template (in this case 18 Dec 2000) and change it to “today” – if I did it today it would be 23 Jul 2013. It will then slide all the other dates back to match – in the example the main project would now start 6 August 2013.

 

Repeating tasks do something similar. The main project dates are controlled by the repetition specification you set up but any task that does not inherit parent dates and has different dates than the parent will be adjusted accordingly.

 

Advanced user tip: If you want to set up a template project and you do not want it to start today, go back to the template and add a placeholder to create the appropriate delay. In the example it’s 23 July 2013 and the project starts 01 Jan 2000. Assume I want to set up the project so that it will start 2 September 2013. That’s a 27 day delay from the 6 August day we are expecting. So go back to the template and create a 27 day project ending 01/01/01. Here’s how.

1.       Highlight the main project entry and click “create subtask”.

2.       Enter a task name, like “wait for project”

3.       If “inherit parent dates” is set, clear it

4.       If “lock period” is set, clear it.

5.       In “due date” enter the date the template project starts, i.e. 01/01/01

6.       In “lead time” enter 27d for 27 days then hit tab

7.       Start date should be automatically be calculated – in this example it would be 5 Dec 2000

8.       Now go ahead and create the new project from template. The dates should come out just where you want them.

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[Stéph]

You truly are a (or THE) Power User, Dwight. I'm going to try controlling template project durations like this; thanks!