Tasks change sort after Filtering

[F0rdy40]

I work in construction for background.  I have activities, i.e. install equipment A, install equipment A electrical, install equipment A mechanical ...that I like to bunch together because they are all linked.  Lower I have activities like install equipment B and associated activities.  When I filter by installer to see just their activities and then turn the filter off to view all, my tasks get resorted into 1 timeline and mix all activities.  Is there a setting I can turn off to stop this?

[#2]

FOrdy40,
First of all, what version of Project are you using (i.e. desktop, Project Online, Project for the Web)?

What is your filter criteria (e.g. field, test and value)? How exactly do you "turn the filter on and off"?
When you say "timeline" are you referring to the Timeline view or the normal Gantt Chart timescale (i.e. graphic [right] side of the view)?

Screen shots of before and after would help us better understand what you see.

John

[#3]

@John-project 

• Project Desktop
• Version 2312
• Criteria 
  • Task name
  • duration
  • start
  • finish
  • predecessor
  • Text 1, which I changed to say Subcontractor
• I use the Gantt view
• See screen shot below.  What I see happening is the program automatically sorts all my tasks from top down by start date, though I have all changed to "manually scheduled".  Best way I can describe it, is I would like to keep the logic and restrict the tasks from reordering based on the logic.

[#4]

Sorry, forgot to answer one question about the filtering. I added the Text 1 column, which I renamed to subcontractor. I use the drop down/carrot at the top of the column next column name and select the specific subcontractor activities I want to see.

[#5]

@John-project 

[#6 · Accepted solution]

@F0rdy40 

The latest update for the desktop version of Project is: Version 2402 (build 17328.20142 CTR) released on Feb 28. I suggest you update although it won't change the issue you're posting about.

Why are all your tasks manually scheduled? In my view, is a user wants to use manual scheduling, they might just as well use Excel. Manual scheduling is only useful for initial rough draft planning. Once the plan's structure is in place, then all tasks should be auto-scheduled to take full advantage of Project's scheduling engine.

I'm a little confused about what you are doing. Sorting will re-order tasks based on the sort criteria although the outline structure can be kept if that option is selected in the Sort Window. Are you sorting and then applying the filter?

All three of your screen shots show some type of sort is applied. To remove that sort, re-sort by ID.

John

[#7]

Thanks for the feedback John, I appreciate it. I am very new to the program but understand what you are saying. I need to insert additional columns to identify specifics tasks to sort by first, followed by a second sort of start date.

[#8]

FOrdy40,
Okay....will that resolve your issue or do you still need help?
John

[#9]

@John-project 

All good for now, I changed the filters and that helped.  I need to learn a lot more to figure out how to auto schedule appropriately.  Thanks again for your help.

[#10]

FOrdy40,
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback. If you feel I answered your question, please consider marking one of my responses as the answer.

As I noted, manual scheduling may be useful when initially laying out the rough draft of a project to get an overview of how things might play out to achieve an end goal. But once tasks are "honed" and linked in a logical sequence with resources assigned, everything should be auto-scheduled with no, or very few, constraints. That will allow Project to provide a dynamic plan that responds to real life changes.

John