Getting around: the sidebar, pages and page addresses

Every page in Ganttry hangs off one frame: a dark row across the top, a sidebar down the left, and the page itself. The schedule editor and every full page — Projects, Crew planning, Company and the rest — share it, so the controls you use most stay in the same place wherever you are.

Where to find it#

It is always on screen. The ☰ button at the far left of the top row opens and closes the sidebar.

The top row#

The top row runs across the whole window. From the left:

• ☰ (the sidebar), then the Ganttry logo, which takes you to Home when you're signed in.
• On the editor and on a project's own pages, the project's name — click it for Project settings — and its view tabs: Schedule, Work, Dashboard and Crew planning (see Work, My tasks and Calendar and The project Dashboard). On another project's Work page, its Schedule, Dashboard and Crew planning tabs switch the editor to that project first.
• On the right: the scope control (below), then the editor's own chips — the project's status, the pane toggle, who else is viewing, the save chip and, for a project in Draft, the Draft chip. Full pages hide these chips.
• Then the notification bell, the light and dark theme toggle, ? (Help & support) and your avatar, last.

A Field account sees My tasks, Work and Calendar in the top row instead of project tabs, and has no sidebar.

The sidebar#

The sidebar is the map of the app. It lists only the places your account can open, under four headings:

• Planning — Home, My tasks, Projects, Master plan and Calendar.
• Resources — Roster & equipment, Crew planning and People, in the order a team uses them: set up the list, plan the counts, book the names. Roster & equipment is who and what your company has; Crew planning, how many of each trade one project needs, per day; People, the named people booked on tasks across projects.
• Insights — Reports.
• Administration — Company.

A heading with nothing in it for you is not drawn. Home and My tasks need a signed-in account; Master plan and People need Master planning; Company is for company admins and partner staff. Projects, Calendar, Crew planning and Reports are there for everyone who works in the office.

Five rows carry a one-line description — for example, Master plan reads "Several projects on one date axis" and Roster & equipment "Who and what your company has". Under the headings, Recent lists the five projects you opened most recently, the open one first and in bold. Click the open one to go back to the editor. Clicking another project keeps you on the same view when you are on Work, the Dashboard, Crew planning or Calendar; from anywhere else it opens that project in the editor. All projects opens the Projects page, and Help & support sits at the foot.

The sidebar has no create button: + New project is on Projects and Home, and the editor's File ▾ menu keeps New project and Open project….

Go to#

Go to finds a page, a command or a project by name. Press Ctrl+K (Cmd+K on a Mac), or choose Tools ▾ → Go to…, the last item under App. Type a few letters and the list narrows to what matches, in three groups:

• Go to — the pages your account can open from the sidebar, the project tabs and the Tools ▾ menu, each with its sidebar line where it has one, such as People's "Book named people on tasks, across projects".
• This project — the commands in the editor's File ▾, Export ▾ and Tools ▾ menus, shown with their menu, such as Tools › Save a version…; a Tools ▾ command shows its description too. A command that is grayed out in its menu is grayed out here too.
• Recent projects — the projects in the sidebar's Recent list.

↑ and ↓ move through the list, Enter opens the row you are on (the best match until you move), and Esc or Close closes Go to. It lists only what your account can open, and each row does what its sidebar row, tab or menu item does.

Go to lists only your recent projects. When nothing matches, it says so and points you to the page that lists them all: Nothing matches "culvert". Not here? Find it in Projects. Click Projects there, or press Enter, and the Open a project page opens with what you typed in its search box.

Over a full page, such as People or Reports, Go to lists pages and projects but no commands, because the editor's menus act on the editor. It doesn't open while you are typing in a cell or in the find bar, over a dialog, or while you look at an earlier version. A Field account has no Go to.

Pinned, icon rail or drawer#

How the sidebar sits depends on the window and the page:

• At 900 px and wider, it is pinned open beside every full page. ☰ folds it to a narrow icon rail and back, and your browser remembers the choice. The rail's icons show their names when you point at them or tab to them.
• On the editor, it always starts as the icon rail, so the grid and Gantt keep the width. ☰ opens the full sidebar over the editor. Esc, a click outside it, moving focus away, or going anywhere closes it again — the Gantt never narrows.
• The Master plan and People pin the sidebar only where the Master plan's three-week window still fits beside it, and show the icon rail otherwise.
• Below 900 px, the sidebar is a drawer that slides over the page, with the page dimmed behind it.

The page head#

Every full page starts the same way: its title, and under it a line that says what the page covers — Northline Civil · All groups · 22 projects on Projects, the project's name on Work, the Dashboard and Crew planning, All your projects on Calendar. A page has at most one main button: + New project, on Projects and Home only.

A project's own pages (Work, the Dashboard and Crew planning) carry Open schedule, which opens that project in the editor. Company, Training and the partner dashboard carry ← Back to the schedule. Other pages have no Back button of their own — use the sidebar or your browser's Back.

The scope control#

The first item on the right of the top row says which company and group you are looking at. With one company and no groups it is plain text. Otherwise it is a menu reading company · group ▾, with Company (a ✓ beside the current one), Group (All groups, then each group) and a Manage entry named for each company you administer.

It is navigation, never a permission. It changes what Projects and Home list and which company Roster & equipment and Company open — never what your account may see. Each page's scope line says what that page actually covers; My tasks, Calendar, the Day plan and the Master plan don't follow the pick; each says its own scope. The pick lasts until you close the browser tab. On a narrow window it moves to the top of the drawer.

The avatar menu#

Your avatar, at the end of the top row, opens the same menu everywhere: your name and role, Profile…, Change password…, a partner dashboard entry for partner staff, Keyboard shortcuts…, Help & support… and Sign out. See Your account.

Projects and the Schedule#

The thing you plan is a project wherever Ganttry names it: Projects, + New project, Open a project, project templates. Schedule names only a project's Gantt view — its first tab — the timing it shows, and the verb. Page addresses and file formats that used older words keep them, so existing links and saved copies still work.

Page addresses and the Back button#

Every page has its own address. To send someone to a page, copy the address from your browser's address bar. When they open it, they land on the same page if their account can open it — otherwise they see the message below.

The browser's Back always goes back one view:

• Open schedule adds the editor as a new step, so Back returns you to the page you came from.
• ← Back to the schedule returns to the editor without dropping you out of Ganttry, even when you arrived from a link.
• Each Company section is a step of its own.
• Switching projects from Recent keeps you on the same kind of page, as described above.

Open in schedule on People or the Master plan opens the editor with that task selected, its row in the middle of the grid when there are rows after it, and its Gantt bar in view.

Esc never closes a full page.

"Isn't available"#

When your account may not open a page — or the link is out of date — the page area says Company isn't available (or whichever page it was), then "Your account doesn't have access to this page, or the link is out of date." One button takes you to Projects, or to My tasks for a Field account. The message names the page, never a record, and reads the same whether the record doesn't exist or you may not see it. The button, Esc or going anywhere else closes it.

A Field account that opens a page it can't use — the editor, Projects, Reports, Home and the like — lands on My tasks.

Presenting to a room#

For a training session or a meeting without screen sharing, open Tools ▾ → Present to everyone viewing…. Your scroll position and Gantt zoom go to everyone who has the same project open, and their screens follow yours. A pill on their screen reads Following with your name — click to stop. Any scroll or keystroke of their own stops following; clicking the pill follows again.

There is one presenter per project — the last person to start presenting takes over. The menu item reads Stop presenting while you present. The presenter edits and everyone else watches the changes arrive; if several people edit at once, their saves still go through the usual conflict review (see Saving, history and opening projects).

Who can use it#

Everyone sees the frame, trimmed to what their account can open — see Who can see and do what. Presenting needs a signed-in company account; a Field account can follow a presenter but not present.

Good to know#

• On a phone, a bottom bar replaces the project tabs — see On phones and tablets.
• Keyboard users: the keyboard shortcuts page lists every key, and Accessibility says how focus moves when a page opens and closes. Ctrl+K opens Go to, which reaches the pages on the sidebar, the project tabs and Tools ▾ from the keyboard.
• Who-is-viewing avatars and live selections are explained on Companies and groups.