Overview
One of the available views in the Activity center is the Gantt view. It offers an easy way to visualize your projects and activities as bars on a timeline in relation to each other. Useful features of the Gantt view include:
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Dependencies between activities are presented visually as arrows connecting related tasks, aiding in understanding task relationships.
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The Gantt view provides a visual representation of project and activity progress. As tasks advance, their bars darken proportionally to the completion rate, with progress percentages displayed in parentheses alongside task names.
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Projects and top-level activities are distinguished by a line running along the top of their respective bars, making it easier to identify key milestones and overarching project phases.
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You can filter and identify critical activities, enabling you to pinpoint the critical path within a project.
Opening a Gantt view
To enable the Gantt view:
- Go to the Activity center.
- Click
.
Granularity
The Gantt view comes in four granularity settings:
- Daily
- Weekly
- Monthly
- Yearly
Showing a critical path
Critical path activities are marked with a thick red line on top and have a pinky coloring. Like so:
To display a critical path:
- Click
.
- Turn on the Critical path toggle.
Showing a baseline
The baseline is shown as a thick black line running along the bottom side of projects and activities.
To show baselines:
- Click
.
- Turn on the Baseline toggle.
Gantt view conventions
To make it easier for you to work with the Gantt view, the following key conventions are used to help identify various objects as they are displayed on the Gantt view:
The current day/week/month/year are identified by sky-blue print. | |
Projects and activities with duration only are moved to the left end of the project. Their progress, if specified, is indicated only as a numerical value in brackets beneath the graphical representation after the name. |
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Projects and activities with start date or end date. The progress is not shown graphically, only numerical value is given in brackets. |
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The progress of a project or activity is shown as a darker portion of its base color (azure for projects, emerald green for activities, beige for milestones). The value of the progress is given in square brackets beneath the object next to its name. |
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Projects with activities, and activities with sub-activities are shown with a thick line running along their top side as a visual aid to tell them apart from 'single' projects and activities. | |
The color used for milestones is beige. Accordingly, the progress of a milestone is shown as a dark beige portion starting off from the left-hand edge which length is the same percentage of the total length of the bar as the progress of the milestone. |
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When the mouse pointer is close enough to a project or activity on the Gantt, two 'handles' appear on both of its sides. These can be used to change its start or end date by drag-and-dropping or move the entire bar along the timeline. However, if there are restrictions in place, such as dependency, sub-activity, etc., drag-and-dropping may not take effect. In such a case, try to identify a possible reason for any 'unexpected' behavior before reporting it as a bug. |
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Dependencies are shown as arrows connecting start and end dates in accordance with the type of dependency. You can set a dependency using the 'handles'. |
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Navigation
The Gantt view in the Activity center is interactive insofar as it allows you to build dependencies and change the position of projects and activities on the timeline.
To move a project or activity to another position on the timeline:
- Place the mouse pointer in the middle of the activity to be moved, press and hold the button.
- Drag the bar representing the activity to a new location without releasing the left button.
- Release the button to "drop" the activity at the new location.
To change the start date or end date of an activity:
- Place the mouse pointer at the left- or right-hand extremity of the activity you want modified until it changes its shape to
.
- Drag the edge to the desired date on the time line holding down the left button.
- Release the button.
To set a dependency between two activities:
- Place the mouse pointer on the activity you want to make dependent on another until two 'handles' appear on both ends (
).
- Drag one of the handles to the start or the end of the target activity.
- Option 1: Activity 1 Start -> Activity 2 Start. Result: Dependency Start to Start ('Activity 2 starts when Act 2 starts')
- Option 2: Activity 1 Start -> Activity 2 End. Result: Dependency Start to Finish ('Activity 2 finishes when Act 2 starts')
- Option 3: Activity 1 End -> Activity 2 Start. Result: Dependency Finish to Start ('Activity 2 starts when Act 2 finishes')
- If a dependency of the intended type can be set, you will see a handle in a black circle linked with a dashed line. Releasing the button now will set a dependency.
- If a dependency of the intended type CANNOT be set, you will see a warning message about the same.
- The dependency will be represented by a polygonal arrow with its end connecting to the dependent activity. See Manage dependencies to learn more.
1. Dependency can be set
2. Dependency cannot be set
Editing and removing dependencies
To edit or remove a dependency:
- Click the polygonal arrow that represents the dependency you want to edit/remove. The dependency editing screen will appear.
- To edit the dependency, make changes as required and click Save.
- To remove it, click Remove dependency.
Project and activity details
To access a project or activity details:
- Adjust the project/activity's position in the chart area to make sure its name, or any clickable part of it, is visible.
- Click the name of the project/activity.
- Go to the details as the panel opens on the right.