Managing Tasks › Task Work Breakdown Structure › Expand and Collapse the Work Breakdown Structure

Expand and Collapse the Work Breakdown Structure

You can expand and collapse multiple branches of the WBS hierarchy at the same time and view tasks that are in multiple branches of the hierarchy. This is useful when you have defined a WBS with multiple branches and you have inserted sub-projects into the WBS. You can see an overall picture of your WBS, or you can collapse some tasks and expand others.

Expand the Work Breakdown Structure View

You can expand a project to view the top-level tasks in the project. Indented tasks are folded one level under the nearest higher-level task. A plus (+) sign appears in front of the higher-level task.

To expand the view of a collapsed group of tasks

1. Open the project.

   The Project: Properties: Main - General page appears.

2. Select the Tasks tab.

   The Project: Tasks: Task List page appears.

3. Select the Work Breakdown Structure subtab.

   The Project: Tasks: Work Breakdown Structure page appears, displaying only the top level tasks.

4. Click the plus (+) sign next to each summary task.

   The higher-level summary task is expanded, and the lower-level tasks that are indented beneath it display on the page.

Collapse the Work Breakdown Structure View

The collapsed view is useful when you want to view a small group of tasks (a parent and descendents) alone. You can collapse all of the expanded tasks in the list at the same time.

To collapse the view of an expanded group of tasks

1. Open the project.

   The Project: Properties: Main - General page appears.

2. Select the Tasks tab.

   The Project: Tasks: Task List page appears.

3. Select the Work Breakdown Structure subtab.

   The Project: Tasks: Work Breakdown Structure page appears, displaying only the top level tasks.

4. Click the minus (–) sign next to each summary task.

   The lower-level tasks are collapsed under the higher-level summary task.