Connecting Tasks
 

I'm trying to see how I can connect tasks - the Connection icon in the toolbar seems to be greyed out all of the time. I have connected tasks within the same group, but I want to do that between tasks in different groups.

Thanks
Vince

Option-click...
 

Hi,

I can successfully link arbitrary tasks (accross groups) by option-clicking to select them both, then choosing the type of link from the connection icon (press and hold it to see the options).

Rob C

You can also just drag up or down from the beginning or end of one task to the beginning or end of another.

I found the trick was to click on the little dark circle before dragging a link off to the dark circle in another Gantt bar. Everything else I tried ended up moving tasks around or setting them up as subtasks of something else.

Easy way
 

The easiest way is to shift select the tasks you want to connect, then click on the Connect icon in the bar. This will also keep you from inadvertantly dragging the duration out to the side when trying to connect by clicking and dragging between tasks.

[QUOTE=Ken Case]You can also just drag up or down from the beginning or end of one task to the beginning or end of another.[/QUOTE]

Sometimes, however, the tasks in my plan change color to a dim shade of blue. I'm not sure what causes this but when they do this when I roll over the task I don't get any visual feedback and can't grab the end to connect it to another task. How do I revert this state change for my task?

[QUOTE=sfpayam]Sometimes, however, the tasks in my plan change color to a dim shade of blue. I'm not sure what causes this but when they do this when I roll over the task I don't get any visual feedback and can't grab the end to connect it to another task. How do I revert this state change for my task?[/QUOTE]

You've probably switched from Actual to Baseline view. The baseline is intentionally hard to edit since you set that up as the initial plan and shouldn't (usually) change it over the course of the project. You need to switch back to actual view. It's a drop-down menu in the toolbar or an option in the View menu.

(To edit the baseline for a task, use the task inspector or adjust the actual and then set the baseline with the "Baseline" toolbar button.) Hope that helps.

You can also hold the "shift" key down while you drag from one Gantt bar to another to create a connector line.