Timeline (Gantt chart)

Overview

A Gantt chart is part of the Gantt module. It represents your project and plots tasks across a timeline. The tasks are represented as horizontal bars (taskbars) that stretch across the timeline according to their start and end dates.

Navigate the timeline

Go to task

Click the task in the task structure section. The timeline date range will adjust to show you the corresponding taskbar on the timeline.  

Snipe to task start/end date

1. Right-click the task swimlane (anywhere but the task key, task name link, or directly on a taskbar) to prompt the context menu.

2. From the menu, select Snipe to start date or Snipe to end date.

The timeline date range will adjust to show you the corresponding taskbar on the timeline based on its start or end date.

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Drag the timeline

Grab an empty space (anywhere but the taskbar or dependency) on the chart and move the mouse to scroll horizontally or vertically.

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Zoom in/out

Depending on the scale, the timeline shows days, weeks, months, quarters, or years. You can adjust the scale to your needs to display long-lasting projects in their entirety.

You can zoom in all the way down to see individual days. These will be hidden once you zoom out to see the quarters of the year on the timeline.

Zoom in/out levels on the Gantt timeline:

• 2 weeks (minimum)

• 1 month

• 1 quarter

• 6 months

• 1 year

• 2 years

• 4 years (maximum)

To see more on your timeline, expand the Gantt chart to the maximum (so that the task structure section is hidden).

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The maximum zoom-out level on the Gantt timeline.

Context menu

1. Right-click the task swimlane (anywhere but the task key, task name link, or directly on a taskbar) to prompt the context menu.

2. From the menu, select Zoom in or Zoom out.

This will change the granularity level of your timeline to help you see more details or gain a bird’s eye view of your project.

Keyboard shortcuts

Use one of the following keyboard shortcuts to zoom in/out the timeline:

• Ctrl/Cmd + mouse wheel

• Ctrl/Cmd + swipe the touchpad with two fingers

Buttons

The set of buttons in the upper-right corner are responsible for the following actions:

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• Today (the timeline displays the current date at the center. This action adjusts the timeline but does not increase or decrease its zoom level)

• Zoom out

• Zoom in

• Scale to fit

Scale to fit

If your task list contains a lot of important information, you may want to adjust the timeline to fit all tasks in the available area of your screen.

Use the Scale to fit option to adjust the timeline so it shows all your tasks sorted from the earliest start date to the latest end date. This option lets you display tasks that aren't visible in their entirety when you have reached the limit of the zoom-out option.

For example, the maximum zooming-out level is reached. The task in the screenshot below fits the Gantt timeline only partially.

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After clicking the Scale to fit button the entire task fits the timeline. 

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Minimap

The minimap lets you navigate through your list of tasks quickly and easily. It shows a large portion of the timeline and shows you which segement you are currently looking at.

To enable it, click the minimap icon in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Once the minimap is enabled, click it to adjust the view to your needs. The currently viewed area of the timeline is highlighted in blue.

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Show more information on the timeline

Click More actions (…) next to the timeline buttons to open the context menu and check the following options to enable them:

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• Markers (markers help you remember important dates throughout your project or portfolio. The marker showing the current date cannot be disabled)

• Timeboxes (available only when the timeboxes are configured)

• Week numbers (enable to display week numbers)