Gantt view
What a bar is
Section titled “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
Section titled “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
Section titled “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
Section titled “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
Section titled “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.