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 two-row toolbar: identity on top, every action below.
Every schedule lives in the app — create, switch, archive (unarchive any time) or permanently delete. "Make a copy…" copies any schedule under a new name.
The management view across every schedule: In progress, Starting soon, then the rest. Each job compares "Should be" — the planned % complete as of today — against "Reported", the % your team has actually entered.
Searches names, notes, quantities, Activity IDs and custom columns. Jumping to a match expands collapsed phases.
The ? button in the toolbar lists every shortcut in the app.
Click the project name in the top toolbar row: rename, schedule status, critical threshold, Activity ID display, baselines.
Saving is automatic in a normal schedule, about half a second after you stop typing. The whole-schedule 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 field-only or 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 and History.
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 schedule loads — opening another schedule, 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 schedules 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 schedule from the header menu.
Named calendars per schedule — working weekdays, hours/day, holidays, annual shutdowns ("12-15 → 03-15 Winter") — 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 dashboard’s planned-crew-per-day roll-up.
Per job on the dashboard: 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 schedule; 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, "Update this schedule…" 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 Changed. 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.
Server revision history, capped at 30 per schedule — a new revision is recorded when the author changes or after a few minutes of edits. Restore any version — your current version is saved to History first — or copy any point into a new schedule.
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 schedule 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.
Toolbar → Health: 13 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.
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 schedule.
Copy report puts a plain-text summary on the clipboard; PDF report produces a letterhead document with red-flagged failures and task tables.
Company admins manage users and licenses in Company manager.
Companies can have groups. Your memberships and roles control which schedules you can access — a group membership controls which group schedules 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 people and schedules of the company or group where the role is held, and is the only role that can delete a schedule. Editor creates and edits schedules. Field updates task progress.
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.
