# Gantt view

## What a bar is

Every bar is one item, drawn between the value of a **start date** field and a **finish date** field. An item missing either date has no bar, and appears in the left-hand list with an empty track.

Drag a bar along the timeline to move the item, or drag either end to change that one date. Every drag writes the field values straight away, and `Ctrl-Z` puts the values back.

An arrow between two bars is a real dependency between the two items, not a drawing.

## A parent keeps its own plan

A parent row draws **one** shape, never two. Expanded, that shape is a bracket. Collapsed, or with every child filtered out, the shape is an ordinary bar.

Either way the shape covers the **parent's own** dates. Where a date is not set, the earliest or the latest child date stands in.

Where the children reach past that shape, the excess is drawn as a **dotted rail** in neutral ink. Red marks a child that runs past its parent's finish.

A collapsed parent's bar can be dragged, and an expanded parent's bracket cannot.

## Draw the critical path

Open **Tools** in the toolbar and turn on **Critical path**. The open items with no float are marked in red, and the bars and arrows that are not critical fade. A dot on **Tools** means the critical path or a baseline is drawn.

Float and the critical path always come from the **Start** and **Finish** fields. On a Gantt that draws its bars from other date fields, the marks can disagree with the bars.

## See the float of each item

Tick **Total float** in the column list. A cell shows working days. Point at the cell to read what the number means.

## What belongs to you and what is shared

Zoom, the width of the left-hand pane and whether the pane is collapsed are yours alone. So are the baseline you compare against and whether the critical path is drawn. Each of them is kept for this view, in this browser.

The date fields, the color-by field, filters, columns and grouping are the shared definition of the view. Changing any of those is a change everyone sees, and only once you save it.

## Next

- [Compare against a baseline](../compare-against-a-baseline/)
- [How dependency scheduling works](../../how-it-works/dependency-scheduling/)