Cut or Copy and Paste a WBS Node

You can save time when building the work breakdown structure by cutting or copying existing WBS nodes. The cut operation enables you to easily move WBS nodes around in the table. This is useful for moving nodes from one group to another, for example, across projects in a program. Use the copy operation to duplicate nodes in the table. You can cut or copy one or more nodes at a time. Cut or copy one or more nodes to duplicate their hierarchical structure. You can also copy all of the activities assigned to the selected WBS and their associated activity data. This is useful if your project repeats the same type of work, such as constructing each floor of a building.

If you include activities in the copied WBS nodes, you can configure the renumbering options for the activity IDs that are copied. If the pattern you choose results in duplicate activity IDs, you will be prompted to enter a new activity ID for each conflicting activity.

The functionality described in this topic applies to the following pages in the application:

To cut or copy and paste WBS nodes:

  1. Navigate to the main table on a page.
  2. In the table, select one or more WBS nodes, select the Context menu, and then select Copy.
  3. Select the row in the table where you want to paste the node, select the Context menu, and then select Paste.
  4. In the Paste WBS Options dialog box, select Include Activities if you want to also copy the activities in the selected nodes. Choose what activity data you want to copy.
  5. (If Include Activities is selected) In the Renumbering Options section, in the Renumber Activity IDs list, select one of the following options, and then configure the option's settings:
    • Increment Activity ID based on selected activities: Enter a value that each pasted activity will be incremented by.

      Each pasted activity ID is incremented with an ID that begins after the highest activity ID sequence with a matching prefix. For example, in a project with activity IDs A10, A30, and B50, copying all three activities and pasting them with an increment value of 10 will result in new activities with IDs A40, A50, and B60 because A30 and B50 were the largest existing IDs with matching prefixes.

    • Auto-number: Enter a prefix value, starting number, and increment value. The pasted activities will be numbered in the order that the copied activities appeared in the table.

      Each pasted activity ID is incremented with an ID that begins after the largest existing ID with a matching prefix. For example, in a project with activity IDs A10, A30, and B50, copying all three activities and pasting them with a prefix value of A, starting number of 1, and increment value of 1 will result in new activities with IDs A31, A32, and A33 because A30 was the largest existing ID with a matching prefix.

    • Replace beginning characters: Enter the number of characters to replace starting from the beginning of the ID, and then enter the value that will replace the characters.
    • For example, in a project with activity IDs A10, A30, and B50, copying all three activities and pasting them with the first character replaced by the letter C will result in new activities with IDs C10, C30, and C50.
  6. Select Paste.
  7. All changes made to this page are saved automatically.

    Note: If user preference is set to save views manually, you must save the view to keep changes.

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