Editing in the grid

The grid is the table on the left of the editor: one row per task, one column per field. It behaves like the spreadsheet you already know — click, type, press Enter — with a few scheduling habits of its own, such as indenting tasks under a summary.

Where to find it#

Open a project in the schedule. The grid fills the left side, beside the Gantt chart; the pane toggle in the top row shows the grid alone, the chart alone, or both.

Selecting and editing#

• Click a cell to select it. Click it again, press Enter or F2, double-click, or just start typing to edit it.
• While editing, Enter finishes the edit and moves down, and Tab finishes it and moves right. The arrow keys move between cells.
• Double-clicking puts the cursor exactly where you clicked, and while you edit you can click or drag in the text to move the cursor or select.
• To select rows, click a row number. Shift+click selects a range and Ctrl+click adds or removes a row. Ctrl+A selects every visible task.
• Delete clears the cell. On a Start cell it also clears the date pin — see Scheduling.
• Ctrl+= inserts a task and Ctrl+- deletes the selected tasks. The right-click menu also has Insert task above, Insert task below and Duplicate task.

Leaving the grid with the keyboard#

In the grid, Tab indents. To move focus on to the next control instead, press Esc, then Tab; Esc, then Shift+Tab goes back. Any other key in between, or a click, cancels the Esc, so a Tab after it indents as usual. While a right-click menu is open, or Split task (click the bar) is waiting for your click on the chart, Esc cancels that instead.

Moving rows#

Drag a row number to move a task. A multi-row selection moves together, and a summary brings its subtasks. Alt+↑ and Alt+↓ do the same from the keyboard, and the right-click menu has Move up and Move down. Links between tasks always survive a move.

While a filter is on, moving rows is switched off — see Filters, saved views and the 3-week lookahead.

Indenting and collapsing#

• Tab indents the selected rows and Shift+Tab outdents them. The task above an indented row becomes a summary task, which takes its dates and progress from its subtasks.
• Right-click rows for insert, delete, indent, outdent and link.
• Click the ▾ arrow on a summary, or right-click it → Collapse, to fold its subtasks away. Row numbers keep their gaps, as in MS Project, and the PDF can print the collapsed outline.
• From the keyboard, Alt+Shift+− collapses the selected summary rows and Alt+Shift+= expands them (on a Mac, Alt is the Option key). While a filter is on they do nothing, as the ▾ arrow does, and the status line says Collapse is inactive while a filter is applied.
• Inserting a task below a collapsed summary puts the new row after the whole phase (the summary and its subtasks), at the summary's own level, and the phase stays folded. Below an expanded summary, the new row goes straight under it as a subtask.

Header rows#

Right-click a row, or open Format ▾, and pick Header row to turn it into a section header at once — it doesn't need subtasks first. A header row looks and schedules like a summary: bold, no bar, and blank dates until it has subtasks. Every row you add below it indents underneath automatically, until you outdent back out.

Once it has subtasks it is an ordinary summary. Turning Header row off on a row that still has subtasks changes nothing — its position makes it a summary.

Blank rows#

You can add as many empty rows as you like. A row with nothing in it has no dates and no bar, and links, summaries, the quality checks, progress, the work views and every export all ignore it. Someone booked on an empty row is booked on no day: People, the reports and the crews' day plans don't count it, so it never makes a double booking. The moment you type anything into it — a name, a duration, a date — it schedules like any other task. Clear it out again and it goes quiet.

Blank rows are handy for sketching the shape of a project before the details exist, without upsetting the schedule.

Columns#

• Size: double-click a column header, or right-click it → Auto-fit width, to fit the widest entry. Drag a header's edge to resize.
• Order: drag a header to move the column.
• Show and hide: right-click a header → Hide column; Show all columns brings every hidden one back. Hidden columns keep their data. They drop out of Excel and CSV exports until you show them again; the PDF dialog picks its own printed columns.
• Add or show columns… (right-click any header) opens the column picker: a shelf of the most common columns, every built-in column grouped with a plain-English description, a search box, and your own columns. Many useful columns — WBS, Total Float, Cost and more — start hidden; this is where you find them.
• Booked, a hidden column right after Assigned To, lists who and what is booked on each task, by crew line and machine type, with the days in parentheses for anyone booked by the day — for example Laborer: Sal Rinaldi (Oct 12–16), Worker 014 (Oct 12–16). A long list is cut with … at the column's width; point at the cell to read up to 120 characters. It is read-only: typing, Enter or Delete on it books no one, and the status line says You can’t type here: book people in People or with Shift+F2. (You can’t type here. on a summary, or where you can't book anyone). Book on People or with Shift+F2. While it is shown, Excel and CSV exports carry its text, cut at 120 characters the same way.
• Column guide… (also in Help & support) explains what every column does. Column glossary in the manual, at the guide's foot, opens the manual's column glossary in a new tab; it has the same descriptions.

You can add your own columns in four types: free text, a checkbox (click the cell, or press Enter, to tick it), a dropdown list (you set the choices, and can edit them later), and symbols (✓ ✗ ⚠ ⚑ ★ ▲ ▼ ● ◐ ○ from a picker). Your own columns can be renamed or deleted from the header's right-click menu. Columns your company defines for every project are on Company columns.

Who made and changed each row#

Four hidden columns — Created, Created by, Modified and Modified by — show who created and last changed each row, and when. Ganttry fills them in as people edit. Signed in to a company account, they record names; without one, only dates. Rows last changed before these columns existed stay blank.

Undo#

Ctrl+Z undoes and Ctrl+Shift+Z redoes, up to 100 steps, and they cover every editing action.

Undo does not cover how you look at the project: column widths, showing, hiding or reordering columns, applying a saved view, collapsing a phase, or the task filter.

Undo history starts over whenever a different plan loads — opening another project, opening a file, restoring from History, resolving a conflict, recovering unsaved changes, a save from another tab or another person, or a trainer resetting a class copy. It does not survive a reload.

Who can use it#

Admins and Editors edit in the grid. A Field account never opens the editor; it reports progress from My tasks and Work instead. See Who can see and do what.

Good to know#

• A summary's dates and progress come from its subtasks, so you can't type into them; the status line says "That field is calculated from subtasks".
• Ctrl+F finds tasks by name, notes, quantity, Activity ID or custom column, and opens collapsed phases to show a match.
• Shift+F2 opens Crew & equipment… for the active row — see Crew planning and Equipment on tasks.
• Copying, pasting from Excel and the fill handle are on Copy, paste and fill. Every key is on the keyboard shortcuts page.