The Gantt chart

The Gantt chart draws your schedule as bars on a timeline, beside the grid. It is live: change a duration or a link in the grid and the bars move; drag a bar and the grid changes to match.

Where to find it#

Open a project in the schedule. The chart sits to the right of the grid; the pane toggle in the top row shows the grid only, both, or the chart only. On a phone, the editor shows one at a time.

Moving, stretching and linking bars#

• Drag a bar to move the task. This pins its start: it sets a Start No Earlier Than constraint, like typing a Start date. See Scheduling.
• Drag a bar's right edge to change its duration.
• Drag from just past the end of a bar onto another bar to link them finish-to-start.

Zooming and moving around#

Hold Ctrl and scroll over the chart to zoom the timeline. The toolbar has zoom out and zoom in, Fit (the whole project in the window) and Today. See The editor's toolbar.

What the bars show#

Point at a bar for its dates, duration, % complete, float, constraints and baseline.

On the chart you will also see:

• the critical path in red while the toolbar's Critical button is on — see the critical threshold;
• a red outline on a bar whose constraint can't be met, and deadline diamonds — green when met, red when missed;
• task colors from color tags — see Colors and text;
• the blue data date line once you record progress — see Progress tracking and the Projects page;
• gray baseline bars under the live bars, when a baseline is drawn.

Baseline bars#

The toolbar's Baseline button chooses which saved baseline draws under the live bars, or turns them off. The tooltip always compares against the active baseline, and adds a "Drawn" line when you draw a different one. See Baselines and variance.

Splitting a task#

When work stops and restarts, split the bar, as in MS Project: right-click the bar where the work pauses → Split task here. The bar splits into pieces joined by a dotted line, and you can split it as many times as you need.

• Drag any piece after the first to lengthen or shorten its pause; shrink the pause shut to join the pieces again.
• Dragging the first piece moves the whole task. The pieces keep their shape when predecessors push the task later.
• Pauses are working days on the task's own calendar. The next tasks wait for the last piece, and progress fills the pieces in order.
• Splits print in the PDF and show in the tooltip.
• Remove splits, on the bar's or the row's right-click menu, clears them. From the grid, the row's right-click menu also offers Split task (click the bar).

A task needs at least two days' duration to split. Once a task is in progress it draws as one solid bar, but its dates still allow for the pauses in the work that remains.

Work patterns#

Some tasks only happen on certain days — a crew on site Mondays only, or three days a week. Right-click → Work pattern… and choose:

• Only these weekdays — for example Mondays only or Mon+Wed;
• First working days per week — the first N working days of each week, so a Monday holiday moves the crew to Tuesday and Wednesday on its own.

The task keeps its duration in working days but works only on the days you allow. The Gantt draws the weekly pieces joined by a dotted line, and the next tasks wait for the last piece. The crew histogram, the crew and equipment reports, the cash flow and the planned percentage all count only the days actually worked.

A Work Pattern column (hidden until you show it) shows the pattern in the grid and in exports. Patterns combine with splits, and the tooltip shows both.

The crew histogram#

The toolbar's Crew button shows a band under the chart with one stacked bar per working day, colored by trade — each trade keeps its color everywhere, on the band, in Crew planning and in the PDF. The band scrolls and zooms with the chart.

• Its scale fits the busiest day, with labeled gridlines, and when the days are wide enough each bar shows that day's total headcount.
• Crew you still need — entered with a ? — draws as a striped segment.
• When the project's crew availability is set, days where demand is higher than supply get a red shortfall strip.
• Point at a day for the breakdown by role.
• Drag the band's top edge to make it taller; tall enough, it gains a legend.
• The ⤢ button, or Tools ▾ → Crew planning, opens Crew planning.

The band follows what is on screen — collapse a phase and its crew drops out — and your browser remembers whether it is on for each project.

Who can use it#

Admins and Editors, in the editor. A Field account never opens the editor. See Who can see and do what.

Good to know#

• Weekend shading, and the crew histogram, follow the project's calendar even when a task has its own — see Scheduling.
• Everything here prints: see Print and export for the PDF's chart options, including the crew histogram.