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How to Display Task Summary and Task Name in MS Project Team Planner

Jason Miller Oct 21, 2026 868 views

Question details

The user needs to display the parent summary name alongside individual task names in the Microsoft Project Team Planner view to easily differentiate tasks with identical names.

How to Display Task Summary and Task Name in Project Team Planner

Product: Microsoft Project
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Managing a project with repetitive subtask names across multiple phases, making it difficult to distinguish them in the Team Planner view without their parent summary context.
Observed behavior: Microsoft Project Team Planner natively displays only the task name and lacks a direct built-in setting to show the parent summary name together with each task.

Before you start

Before applying any VBA macros to your project, ensure you save a complete backup copy of your file to prevent accidental and irreversible changes to your task names.

Solution 1Recommended

Use a VBA Macro to Automatically Prepend Summary Names

Run a customized VBA script to quickly add the parent summary name before every non-summary task name, ensuring each task is uniquely identifiable.

Because Microsoft Project considers each task as a uniquely identified entity, filtering or viewing identically named tasks in the Team Planner can cause confusion. Using a Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro is the most efficient way to append the parent summary name to the task name automatically, especially for larger projects.

Open the VBA Editor

In Microsoft Project, press 'Alt + F11' on your keyboard to launch the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Editor.

Insert a New Module

In the VBA Editor, click on 'Insert' in the top menu bar and select 'Module' from the dropdown list to open a blank code window.

Paste the VBA Code

Copy and paste the following code into the module window: Sub AddSumIdent() Dim t As Task For Each t In ActiveProject.Tasks If Not t Is Nothing Then If t.Summary = False Then t.Name = t.OutlineParent.Name & " - " & t.Name End If End If Next t End Sub

Run the Macro

Press 'F5' on your keyboard or click the 'Run' button in the toolbar. The macro will immediately rename all non-summary tasks to include their parent summary name.

Use a VBA Macro to Automatically Prepend Summary Names

Macro Reversibility: Actions performed by a VBA macro usually cannot be undone using the standard Undo (Ctrl+Z) function. Always test this script on a duplicate project file first.

Solution 2

Manually Add Summary Identifiers to Task Names

If you are working with a small project plan, you can manually type the summary identifier into each task name to distinguish them.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why do my tasks show the same name in the Team Planner view?

If you have identically named subtasks (e.g., 'Testing' or 'Review') organized under different parent summary tasks, the Team Planner only displays the subtask name by default, which makes them appear as duplicates.

Is there a built-in column setting to show Summary Tasks in Team Planner?

No, the Microsoft Project Team Planner view currently lacks a built-in feature or toggle to dynamically display parent summary names directly on the task bars. The best workaround is to modify the task names themselves.

Can I automatically remove the summary names if I no longer want them?

There is no direct 'undo' for the macro provided. To remove the summary names, you would need to either revert to your backup file or write a new VBA script designed to strip the specific prefix from the task names.

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