Creating a template for projects that have both a start and end date

[Madeline_Filewych]

I work in the legal industry. My firm is trying to find a way to create project templates that start with relative due dates to the project start date, but then create a new section of tasks that are relative to the end date, once an end date is known. Specifically, trial dates are not known for many months after beginning a new project - that those tasks associated with trial prep do not need to be visible until the trial date (end date) is set. How do I accomplish this? Thank you.

[lpb]

Welcome, @Madeline_Filewych,

If the trial-related tasks are not needed until the date is known, perhaps keep those in a second template to instantiate when that date is know, and specify those in the second template relative to that date?

If that’s not appealing, you could still specify dates relatively, maybe with dependencies, in the single template but recognize they’ll be incorrect at first. When you know the dates, either use dependencies and shifting dates in the chain (see Help for settings and approach), or multi-select the batch of tasks in Timeline or Gantt view and move them as a unit maintaining their relative buffers.

Thanks,

Larry

[Madeline_Filewych]

Thank you, Larry. Is there a way to add a different project template into an existing project (without using Bundles)? We would need to keep all tasks within the same project

[lpb]

You could create a second project from a second template as I described, then re-home the desired tasks from that project to the already-existing project, then delete the second project (you just needed it to generate the tasks).

“Re-home” means multi-selecting the tasks in the second project and adding them to the existing project, then removing from the second project.

Thanks,

Larry