Quick instructions and examples for common Ganttry features. Download the printable PDF — commands on page 1, every keyboard shortcut on page 2 — and pin it by the plotter.
The sidebar for every place you can go; the two-row toolbar for the project in front of you.
The ☰ button at the left of the top row opens the sidebar: Planning, Resources, Insights and Administration — only the places your account can open — then your five most recent projects and All projects. Beside a full page it stays pinned; on the editor it folds to a narrow icon rail and opens over the chart, so the Gantt never loses width.
Every project lives in the app. File ▾ → Open project… opens the Open a project page: type to search, Enter opens. Each project's ⋯ menu on Home makes a copy ("Make a copy…"), renames, archives (unarchive any time) or permanently deletes it.
The management view across every project: In progress, Starting soon, then the rest. Each project compares "Planned progress" — the planned % complete as of today — against "Reported progress", the % your team has actually entered.
Searches names, notes, quantities, Activity IDs and custom columns. Jumping to a match expands collapsed phases.
The ? button (Help & support) and your avatar menu both open Keyboard shortcuts…, the list of every shortcut in the app.
Click the project name in the identity row, or File ▾ → Project settings…: rename, project status, site address, start date and calendar, critical threshold, Activity ID display, baselines.
Saving is automatic in a normal project, about half a second after you stop typing. The whole-project autosave is off for a shared link, a field-only session and before your company is set up. A shared link has no save chip; a no-company session still shows the chip reading "✓ Saved," even though nothing autosaved. On the Work page, your progress updates save to the server as soon as you record them. In the demo, your changes live in this browser and reset when you reload. Click the chip for Save now, Save a version… and History… (saved versions and automatic saves).
It behaves like the spreadsheet you already know.
Click selects, click again (or just start typing) edits. Enter finishes the edit and moves down; Tab moves right; double-click puts the cursor where you clicked.
Drag a row number to move a task — a multi-selection drags as a group, a summary brings its subtasks, and links always survive the move.
Indent a task to make it a subtask. The task above becomes a summary — its dates and progress come from its subtasks. Right-click rows for insert, delete, indent and link.
Click the ▾ arrow on a summary. Row numbers keep their gaps like MS Project, and the PDF can print the collapsed outline.
Double-click a header edge to auto-fit. Drag headers to reorder. Right-click a header for the grouped Add or show columns picker — custom columns can be text, checkbox, dropdown list or symbols — and the Column guide.
Undo covers the last 100 editing steps. Undo does not cover column widths, column show/hide/reorder, applying a saved view, collapsing a phase or the task filter. Undo history starts over whenever a different version of the project loads — opening another project, opening a file, a rollback, a resolved conflict, a recovered draft, another tab's or another person's save, or a trainer resetting a class copy — and does not survive a reload.
Excel muscle memory, honored.
Copy rows in-app and paste below the selection — links between copied tasks are kept and remapped. Works across projects and browser tabs.
A copied block lands cell-by-cell from the active cell, columns mapping across, rows walking down, overwriting as it goes. Rows past the bottom become new tasks. One Ctrl+Z.
Adds the clipboard block as freshly inserted rows below the selection instead of overwriting.
Drag the small square on the active cell down, like Excel. Series continue; single values repeat. Works in any editable column.
A real CPM (critical-path method) engine — dates are computed from durations, links and calendars, with MS Project semantics.
How long a task takes, in working days by default — 5 means five workdays, skipping weekends and holidays. Add a unit to change that: 5d is days, 2w is weeks (multiplied by the workweek), 36h is hours (converted at the calendar's hours-per-day and remembered as hours). A duration of 0 makes the task a milestone — a zero-length marker like "Notice to proceed".
Which tasks must come before this one — the other task's row number plus an optional link type. A bare number means FS, finish-to-start: task 12 must finish before this task starts (the normal case). 12SS is start-to-start (this can start once 12 starts), 12FF is finish-to-finish (this can't finish until 12 finishes), 12SF is start-to-finish (rare). Add lag or lead in working days: 12FS+3d starts 3 days after 12 finishes; 14SS-2d starts 2 days before 14 does. Separate several with commas — references renumber automatically on insert and delete.
The same links seen from the other end, maintained automatically: enter 14SS+2d on task 5 and task 14 gains predecessor 5SS+2d. Edit or remove either side and the other updates to match — they are one set of links, not two.
Date rules that restrict task dates or flag a missed date, via right-click → Constraint & deadline. SNET, start no earlier than: an earliest-start limit — the task can start later but never sooner; typing into a Start cell sets one. MSO, must start on: pins the start exactly. FNLT, finish no later than: moves nothing, but float goes negative and a red warning shows if the computed finish lands past it. MFO, must finish on: moves nothing and warns whenever the finish is not exactly on its date, early or late. A task with a recorded actual finish never warns.
A target finish you want to watch without forcing the schedule. A deadline never moves a date — but if the computed finish lands past it, Total Float turns negative and a red diamond marks it on the Gantt. Use deadlines for contract dates you need to see slipping early.
Total Float is how many working days a task can slip before the project finish (or a deadline/constraint) slips; Free Float is how far it can slip before delaying the next task. Late Start / Late Finish are the latest dates that still protect the finish. Read-only CPM columns, hidden by default, red when negative, included in exports once shown.
At a threshold of 0 (the default) — the classic critical path — critical tasks have zero or negative Total Float: delay one and the project finish (or a deadline or constraint) slips. A higher threshold also highlights near-critical work with some float left, so you see trouble coming. Project settings → "Critical total float (working days)" sets the threshold. A task with a recorded actual finish is never critical.
Two numbering systems. WBS is the computed outline position — 1.1.2 means second task under the first phase's first summary — and it changes when tasks move. Activity ID is stable and editable, P6-style, preserved across moves — renumber the whole project from the header menu.
Named calendars per project — working weekdays, hours/day, holidays, annual shutdowns ("Winter shutdown: 12-15 → 03-15 (ends next year)") — assigned per task in the Calendar column.
Record what actually happened each month, and prove the trend against the plan you saved.
Tools ▾ → Update progress…: set the data date — the "as of" date progress is measured against — then record per-task actual starts, finishes and % complete in one dialog, with "Use scheduled start/finish" shortcuts. Unstarted work reschedules to after the data date; recorded actuals are facts and never move. One Ctrl+Z undoes the whole round.
A baseline is a frozen snapshot of the plan you compare progress against later. Project settings → Save baseline: keep up to 5 named ones, one active. Replace a baseline's saved values with the current plan, for all tasks or just the selection; every action is one undo step.
Start Var / Finish Var show how far each task has drifted from the active baseline, in working days. MS Project sign convention: positive = slipped (red), negative = ahead (green).
Enter costs on tasks that have no subtasks (leaf tasks). Summary tasks add up the costs of their subtasks. Cash flow shows costs over time as planned, earned, and baseline S-curves, with a monthly table.
Free-text roles with counts; totals show in tooltips, exports and the planned crew per day in the Projects page's This week pane.
On the Projects page, the This week pane for the selected project: the tasks that should be in flow, each with planned %, a state badge (Behind 2.5d / On track / Ahead), and how fresh its % is.
Canvas-drawn, synced to the grid, drag-friendly.
Drag a bar to move it — this pins its start with a SNET constraint, same as typing a Start date. Drag the right edge to resize, or drag from just past the bar end onto another bar to draw an FS link.
Ctrl+wheel zooms around the cursor; Fit shows the whole project; Today scrolls to the red line.
Dates, duration, % complete, slack, constraints and baseline comparison in one tooltip.
The Crew button toggles a band under the chart: total assigned crew per working day for the visible, incomplete tasks — collapsing a phase drops its crew.
The Baseline button picks which named baseline draws as gray bars under the live plan — or none.
Right-click → Color & text: named tags ("Sub: electrical") tint rows, bars and exports; the PDF legend lists them. Critical red wins while the toggle is on.
Bring schedules in without retyping them.
File → Save As → XML in MSP, then import: tasks, hierarchy, all four link types with lag, constraints, deadlines, % complete, actuals, calendars, StatusDate.
File → Export → XER in P6: WBS becomes summaries, activity IDs and calendars come along, constraints map to Ganttry's four types. Import-only.
A column-mapping wizard with preview auto-matches common headers (Name, Duration, Predecessors, Cost, WBS…). Mappings save as named presets.
When a newer MS Project XML (MSPDI) or XER file of the same project arrives, the import dialog offers Update "<project name>"…, which shows added, removed and changed tasks with per-group checkboxes, then applies as one undo step. It updates only what the file owns — name, duration, hours, constraint, deadline, % complete, actual dates, remaining, Activity ID, calendar, and the links it recognizes — and keeps your notes, colors, costs, crew, custom columns and attachments. A Ganttry-drawn link survives only if the file doesn't know both tasks it connects; a link between two file-known tasks is replaced when you accept Change tasks. MS Project XML (MSPDI) or XER only, not CSV or Excel.
Everything leaves as cleanly as it came in.
Table + Gantt (width slider + per-column checkboxes), Gantt-only, or table-only. Print… opens a ready print dialog; presets save combos like "Owner monthly update".
One-click styled XLSX — row tints, text styles, typed columns — plus a second Cash flow worksheet when tasks are costed.
Opens natively in Microsoft Project and imports into P6. Round-trips tasks, links, constraints, deadlines, actuals, calendars — the active baseline exports as Baseline 0.
Save a version… keeps the plan by name: 20 per project, or 5 in this browser without a company account (in the demo, until you refresh). History also keeps the last 30 automatic saves (5 in this browser). Each one offers Look, Compare with now, Restore… and a copy into a new project. Restore… saves today's plan first, as "Before restoring …". Outside Training, restoring a Live project needs the master planning capability.
If someone saved first, review each changed field, then use their version, replace it with yours, or save yours as a separate copy. Nothing is overwritten silently.
Ctrl+S exports the open project as a portable JSON file; the library imports it anywhere — your data is never hostage.
The submittal-grade quality audit — the checks a reviewer runs before accepting your schedule.
Tools ▾ → Schedule quality checks… (or Reports → Open schedule quality checks…): 16 checks adapted from the DCMA 14-point assessment, the quality standard many owners and DOTs hold schedules to — missing logic, leads, lags, relationship types, hard constraints, high float, statusing hygiene and crew and equipment coverage. Checks whose inputs don't exist yet (no data date, no baseline) are skipped with a footnote.
Click any failing check to list the affected tasks and jump straight to one in the grid.
Defaults are DCMA values, editable in the dialog and stored per project — a district's agreed tolerances travel with the project.
Copy report puts a plain-text summary on the clipboard; PDF report produces a letterhead document with red-flagged failures and task tables.
Plan several projects on one axis, decide what crews see, and staff the work.
Several projects on one date axis — from the sidebar, Tools ▾ → Master plan, Ctrl+M, or Open in Master plan with projects ticked on the Projects page. By project edits each project in its own section, with its own save chip, and Publish… opens Publish to crews for all of them at once; By resource lays out the people and machines across them. The window reads From [date] for 1 to 8 weeks. Needs attention and Double-booked (a person or machine planned on two projects the same day) are advisory: nothing there blocks a save. Up to 8 projects at a time (a company admin can allow 15); it needs the master planning capability and a wide screen.
Every project starts Live: crews see each save as it lands. Tools ▾ → What crews see… puts a project in Draft — you keep saving as usual, and shared links, Work, My tasks and the Calendar keep the plan from your last publish. A Draft chip beside the save chip says where it stands. Publish… (in that dialog or on the Master plan) opens Publish to crews: every project in it goes together, or none do. A crew's own progress still reaches a Draft at once. Draft and Publish need the master planning capability.
The project's role-by-day matrix: one row per trade, one column per day (or per week, in crew-days), a heatmap and totals, over 2 to 26 weeks or the whole project. Add ? to a crew entry for crew you still need — 2 carpenter? is two carpenters nobody is assigned to yet. The Have column records how many of each trade the project has; a day whose demand beats it turns red. An EQUIPMENT section maps machine types the same way. Open it from the sidebar, the project's Crew planning tab or Tools ▾.
Join tasks in one project that share a crew or machine (Tools ▾ → Shared coverage…, or right-click two or more selected rows → Shared coverage…). Each day the set needs the highest requirement among its tasks (or your own number per trade), counted once — Crew planning, the Crew band and the crew and equipment reports all read that number — and double-booking warnings between its own tasks stop. Dates and links never change; Ungroup gives every task its own numbers back.
The field side. Share… → Crew links makes a link for a crew's phone, no sign-in: choose the dates it shows and when it expires, check the Preview, then Create crew link. It carries the plan crews were last published (the live plan on a Live project), each task's crew and equipment, the site address and the notes ticked for crews. An itinerary link is one person's plan across their projects (Roster & equipment → the person → Itinerary). Signed in, My tasks → Day plan is your own work day by day on every project you're on: Day | Week, Mine | Everyone, Print my week.
Save as a project template… (Tools ▾, or the project library row) keeps the outline, durations, links, calendars (with their annual holidays and recurring shutdowns; dated holidays and working exceptions are cleared), crew and equipment demand and columns, and clears everything project-specific — the data date, baselines, progress, actuals, assignees, constraints and deadlines. In New project, START FROM lists each project type; picking one selects its default template, and everything re-dates from the start date you type. Admins manage them in Company › Standards → Project types and project templates.
Company admins manage users and licenses in Company.
Companies can have groups. Your memberships and roles control which projects you can access — a group membership controls which group projects you can open.
Each person's role is set per company or group membership — you can be Admin in one and Field in another. Admin manages the projects where the role is held and is the only role that can delete one; a company Admin also manages the company's people and groups. Editor creates and edits projects. Field updates task progress.
In Company › Users & access, add a user and leave the password blank — a single-use invite link (7 days) lets them set their own password and land signed in.
Forgot password? is self-service with email configured; otherwise any company admin generates a 1-hour single-use reset link. Setting a new password makes every outstanding invite and reset link invalid; changing your own keeps you signed in, but an admin-set password or a redeemed reset link signs the account out everywhere.
