In this article, you will learn what a Split Task is and how to activate and use the feature.
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Please note: This feature is only available to Enterprise customers.
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The Split tasks feature is designed to aid teams working on complex projects and assignments with scheduling interruptions or multiple start and end dates.
This tool enables the representation of compound task schemas, adding valuable clarity to your schedule by tracking detailed task dates and removing calendar days from tasks when assignee work is not intended to be done.
Current limitations
The Split tasks feature is a fully functional tool, but it has its limitations.
Currently, the split doesn't automatically expand over weekends.
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Moving an individual split doesn’t take into account or exclude weekends from scheduling, but they are still considered once you move the whole task.
(E.g. For a task that is bid for five days, when split over a weekend, will show seven working days involved.)
How to use Split Tasks
The function of splitting a task is to break a task into two or more portions that can be scheduled independently of one another but still count as one task. This feature can be helpful if an assignee needs to jump between different tasks, projects, and priorities or if they will be away and a break needs to be recorded in the continuity of work.
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Time spent not working is represented by a gap in the scheduled task bar (ie: Assignee is on holiday or had to jump to a new priority on a different project mid-task)
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Time spent working has start and end dates reflecting actual portions of working time for that assignee, as shown by the blue duration bars. (i.e.: Assignee is back from vacation or finished their other priority and can return to their original task).
This saves you from creating multiple tasks for different stages of the same work or inaccurately scheduling one task over ten days to capture the correct start and final due date of the task when only five working days were needed over that time period.
Task assignment remains the same as any other task - you can assign one or more users to a task, but you cannot assign users to a specific portion of a split. All time logged will be recorded towards the task as a single unit.
Splitting a task
1. To split a task into parts, navigate to the Gantt scheduler of your project.
2. Right-click on the Task duration bar where you wish to split it.
3. Select Split task to see a break form in the duration bar.
4. Drag the “active working” portions of the duration bar to update the start and due dates of each portion as you would with any regular task.
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Tip: You can break one Task into multiple parts. |
| Please note: Moving the schedule of the whole task will also move all its parts. Once the task is split, you will need to use the dotted grip handle to the left of the task bar to move it as a whole. |
Updating a Split task
Menu options available to update a split task are to split the task further (using the Split task command as explained above), set a label for a split, or clear all splits of that task.
Edit
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Split Task Edit dialog A. - The Start and Due date of a Task. B. - Using the Name cell, you can label/name or rename the split. C. - The Start and Due date buttons enable you to schedule the split. D. - The Add dates button enables you to add more splits to a Task. E. - The Clear all button removes all the Splits from a Task. F. - Click Save to save the settings. |
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Tip: You can also edit the Split from the Tasks Spreadsheet view or the Sidebar.
Go to the Tasks Spreadsheet and hover over the Start/Due date column of the Task with a split (the split is indicated with a little blue icon).
Double-click / Or open the right-click menu and choose Edit.
Open the Sidebar of a Task that has a split(s). Single-click on the Due date. (The small blue icon shows that the task has a split)
Using the new Sidebar:
Or navigate to the Info tab and single-click on the Start or Due date.
Using the new Sidebar:
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Set label
- Right-click on the scheduled portion of the split task bar, opening the Split task edit menu.
- Choose Set label, opening the label window.
- Type in a name and select Update or hit the enter key to save the label.
- Double-click on any scheduled portion of the split task bar, opening the label window.
- Type in a name of the Label and select Update or hit the enter key to save the label.
Clear splits
The Clear splits is used to remove all the splits from a Task.
| Please note: If you prefer to delete only specific split sections on a task, it is better to use the merge function below. |
Merging a Split task
Merge split is used to remove individual splits (non-scheduled timeslots) of a task, as represented by the grey portions of the task duration bar. There are two ways to accomplish this:1. Drag and drop the split on top of another, healing that part of the Task.
2. Using the split task edit menu.
- Right-click on the grey area between the splits you want to merge, opening the edit menu
- Select Merge left and right, opening the merging window.
- Type in a name of the Label (only if you want to add one) or leave it blank and select Merge.
| Please note: Merging will only clear the split between these two segments, it will not merge all splits of that task. |