Knowledge Base

PRJ98: Can't Add to Predecessor Field if More Than 255 Character

Article ID: 174803

Article Last Modified on 1/20/2007

APPLIES TO

Microsoft Project 98 Standard Edition

This article was previously published under Q174803

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Project 98, if you type an ID for a predecessor task in Task Form view and the Predecessor field contains more than 255 characters, you will receive the following error:

This value is not valid.

The predecessor information is not valid. Try one of the following:

Type only positive, whole numbers.

Type predecessor information in the following order: predecessor ID number, dependency, and lead or lag time.

If the predecessor information is too long, use the Task Information dialog.

NOTE: These symptoms occur with Successor tasks as well as predecessor tasks. In addition to Task Form view, this behavior also occurs in Task Details Form view and Task Name Form view.

CAUSE

This problem occurs if the data in the Predecessor field exceeds 255 characters.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, use either of the following methods.

Method 1

Select the task.
On the Project menu, click Task Information, and then click the Predecessor tab.
Do either of the following:
- In the ID column, type the task id number
  
  -or-
- In the Task Name column, select the Task Name of the predecessor.
Click OK.

Method 2

In Task Form view, in the Predecessors column, either type or select the Task Name of the predecessor.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the versions of Microsoft Project listed above.

Keywords: kbbug kbpending kbusage KB174803

Microsoft KB Archive/174803

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