This was posted by a user…. there was no detail so here is a background>
In ProjectLibre, **hierarchical relationships**—created by indenting and outdenting tasks—form the backbone of your project’s **Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)**. By organizing tasks into parent-child groupings, you gain clarity on phases, improve roll-up reporting, and keep complex projects manageable.
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## 1. Building Your Hierarchy with Indents
– **Indent a Task**
Select one or more tasks and click ** ▶ Indent Task** (or press Tab).
– **Outdent a Task**
Select and click ** ◀ Outdent Task** (or press Shift + Tab).
Each indent makes the task a **child** of the task immediately above it—turning that above task into a **Summary Task**.
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## 2. Summary Tasks & Roll-Up Data
– **Summary Task**
Automatically created when you nest tasks beneath it. It displays:
– Start and finish based on earliest/ latest dates of its children
– Total duration summing up children’s durations
– Percent complete rolled up from child tasks
– **Collapsing / Expanding**
Click the **“–”** or **“+”** icon next to a Summary Task to hide or show its child tasks. This lets you focus on high-level milestones or drill down into details whenever you need.
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## 3. Unlimited Levels of Structure
There’s no hard limit to how many layers you can nest—use as many levels as your project requires:
`
Phase 1 (Summary)
├─ Task 1.1
│ ├─ Task 1.1.1
│ └─ Task 1.1.2
├─ Task 1.2
└─ Task 1.3
Phase 2 (Summary)
…
`
Each level of indent deepens your WBS, gives you more granularity, and ensures that even large, multi-phase plans remain organized.
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## 4. Best Practices
1. **Define Phases as Top-Level Summaries**
Use your highest-level Summary Tasks to represent project phases or major deliverables.
2. **Limit Depth to What You Need**
Deep hierarchies can become hard to read—aim for 3–5 levels unless absolutely necessary.
3. **Name Summaries Clearly**
Give each Summary Task a descriptive name (e.g., “Design Phase,” “Testing & QA”) so your roll-up view is instantly understandable.
4. **Use WBS Codes (Optional)**
Enable WBS codes in **Project → WBS Code Mask** to automatically number tasks (1, 1.1, 1.1.1, etc.) and mirror your indent structure.
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## 5. Why Hierarchy Matters
– **Clarity**: Quickly see which tasks belong together.
– **Reporting**: Summary Tasks give you top-level metrics without manual calculations.
– **Navigation**: Collapse large sections to focus on what’s relevant.
– **Scalability**: Organize projects of any size—from a handful of tasks to hundreds.
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By mastering indents, Summary Tasks, and WBS codes, you’ll unlock ProjectLibre’s full potential—turning a flat task list into a powerful, structured blueprint for project success.