Modifying displays

Good afternoon,

I'm trying to set up a Project approach (using a desktop version instead of networked), and wanted to see how far I could tweak MS Project standard tools.

1) I can set up indented lists easily enough, which automatically creates Summary Tasks of a variety of types.  My challenge is one of organization.  We run multiple projects simultaneously; each project runs through a particular phase, and then goes dormant for periods.  However, if I use an indented list for organization purposes, I could wind up with a Summary Task that lasts for years for a project that started long back, and now has a shorter support phase.  This could be circumvented with a vertical summary task bar that floats to the start of the display window,

P |               Subproject Name

r  |     |=====================|

o |       |===Task1===|

j  |                                |===Task 2===|

e |

c |

t  |

...but I doubt Project is that friendly.  Any better thoughts?

Followup thought - This might not be hideously bad if there's no other way, but if I have a Top Text associated with the Summary Task, can it be centered in the calendar range I'm specifying?  That way I wouldn't have several black bars stretching across with no context.

2) Again, with the indented lists, I have Project -> Subproject -> Task (which is defined a resource).  Now if I'm trying to use standardized tasks with common names, things get challenging in the Team Planner, as only the name of the (potentially identical) task will be shown.  Can I set the task to display the Project and Subproject names without changing the task name?

Thanks!