Gantt View

The Gantt view is DPlan's primary workspace. It combines a structured task table on the left with a timeline of visual bars on the right, linked by a draggable splitter. Every project management action — scheduling, progress tracking, dependency visualization, and resource review — happens here.

Layout Overview

The Gantt view is divided into two panels:

Task Table (left panel) — Rows for every task and summary phase, with columns showing key scheduling data. Scrolls vertically in sync with the timeline.
Timeline (right panel) — Horizontal bars plotted against a time axis. Scrolls horizontally to navigate through the project date range.
Splitter — A vertical divider between the panels. Click and drag it left or right to resize the task table relative to the timeline. The split position is preserved in localStorage.

Both panels scroll vertically together — the row heights stay locked so each task's table row aligns with its Gantt bar at all times.

Task Table Columns

Column	Description
WBS	Auto-generated Work Breakdown Structure number reflecting task hierarchy (1, 1.1, 1.1.1, 2, 2.1…). Read-only — updates automatically on reorder, indent, or outdent.
Name	Task name. Single-click to edit inline. Summary phases are bold. Indented tasks show leading space proportional to their depth level.
Duration	Working days from start to finish. Single-click to edit inline — type a number to update. For summary phases, this is the span from earliest child start to latest child finish (read-only).
Start	Task start date. Single-click opens an inline date picker.
Finish	Task finish date. Single-click opens an inline date picker. Editing this recalculates duration.
Progress	A thin filled bar (0–100%) representing completion. Click the bar to open the quick progress slider popup.
Status	Color-coded status badge: grey (Not Started), blue (In Progress), green (Completed), amber (On Hold), red/muted (Cancelled).

Zoom Levels

Four zoom levels control the time granularity of the timeline. Switch between them using the VIEW ribbon or the zoom controls above the timeline.

Zoom	Top Header Row	Bottom Header Row	Best For
Day	Week (Mon DD – Sun DD)	Individual days (M T W T F S S)	Short sprints, detailed scheduling, micro-task management
Week	Month (January 2025)	Week numbers or week-start dates	Sprint planning, 1–3 month projects
Month	Quarter (Q1 2025)	Month names (Jan Feb Mar…)	3–12 month projects, stakeholder overviews
Quarter	Year (2025)	Quarter labels (Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4)	Multi-year roadmaps, portfolio views, annual planning

Zooming in or out does not change dates — only the visual scale changes. A 5-day task looks wider at Day zoom and narrower at Quarter zoom.

Day zoom day-name labels: Enable Settings → Feature Toggles → Show Day Names in Day Zoom to show a stacked two-line label in each Day-zoom column — abbreviated day name (Mon, Tue…) above the date number. Makes it easy to spot weekdays without counting from the week start.

Timeline Markers

Today line — A vertical red line marks today's date across the full timeline height. Always visible at any zoom level. Helps you see which tasks are currently active, overdue, or upcoming.
Weekend shading — Saturday and Sunday columns are shaded in a slightly different background tone. Toggle with VIEW ribbon → Show Weekends. Even when hidden from view, weekends are excluded from duration calculations.
Holiday shading — Days marked as holidays (SCHEDULE → Holidays) are highlighted with a red tint on the timeline, matching the Calendar view. Holiday names appear in a tooltip on hover.
Dependency arrows — Finish-to-Start links are drawn as arrows from the right edge of the predecessor bar to the left edge of the successor bar. Arrow color follows the task bar color of the predecessor by default. Critical-path dependencies are drawn in red.
Deadline markers — A small warning triangle (⚠) appears on the timeline at the deadline date for tasks with a deadline set. If the task's finish bar extends past the triangle, the task is over its deadline.
Milestone diamonds — Milestones render as rotated squares (◆) on their finish date rather than horizontal bars. See Milestones.
Team event lines — Vertical colored lines for team events added in SCHEDULE → Events. Each line has a small label at the top. See Calendar View.

Task Selection

DPlan supports single and multi-task selection for bulk operations:

Single click on a row — Selects that task. Highlights the row in the table and the bar on the timeline.
Ctrl+click (Cmd+click on Mac) — Adds or removes a task from the selection. Use for non-contiguous multi-select.
Shift+click — Selects a contiguous range from the last-clicked row to the clicked row.
Arrow keys — When the task table is focused, ↑ and ↓ move selection up and down one row at a time.
Escape — Clears the selection.

With multiple tasks selected, HOME ribbon actions (Delete, Indent, Outdent, Duplicate) operate on all selected tasks simultaneously.

Inline Editing

The most common fields can be edited directly in the task table without opening the Task Editor dialog:

Name — Single-click the name cell. A text input appears. Press Enter to confirm, Escape to cancel.
Start / Finish date — Single-click the Start or Finish cell. An inline date picker appears. Select a date to confirm.
Duration — Single-click the Duration cell. Type a number of working days. The Finish date adjusts automatically (Start is kept fixed).
Progress — Click the progress bar in the Progress column. A small popup slider appears. Drag to set 0–100% and click away to close.

Tip: After editing a cell with Enter, press Tab to jump to the same field in the next row — fast for bulk date or name changes.

Collapse and Expand Summary Phases

Summary phases can be collapsed to hide their children:

Click the triangle arrow icon on the left of the summary phase row to toggle.
Press Space when a summary phase row is selected.
Collapsed state is saved with the project — collaborators see the same collapse layout when opening the .dplan file.

When a summary phase is collapsed, its children are hidden from both the task table and the timeline. The summary bar remains visible, showing the phase's overall span and progress.

Quick Progress Popup

Single-clicking a task bar on the timeline (not the progress bar in the table) opens a small inline popup directly on the bar. It contains:

A progress slider (0–100%).
The current percentage displayed numerically.
A close button or click-away to dismiss.

This is the fastest way to update progress without leaving the timeline view. Double-clicking the bar opens the full Task Editor instead.

Dragging Bars to Reschedule

Click and hold a task bar, then drag it left or right to move its start and finish dates. The bar snaps to the nearest working day (skipping weekends and holidays). During the drag:

A tooltip shows the new start and finish dates.
Dependency arrows update live to reflect the new position.
If auto-schedule is active, successor tasks may cascade-move automatically.

Release to confirm the new dates. The task table columns update immediately. Press Ctrl+Z to undo if you dragged to the wrong position.

Anchored tasks and tasks with Must-Start-On constraints resist dragging — their dates are locked. Remove the anchor or constraint first if you need to move them.

Resizing Bar Duration

A resize handle appears on the right edge of each task bar when you hover over it. Click and drag the right edge to extend or shorten the task's duration. The finish date updates as you drag; the start date stays fixed. The duration column in the task table updates in real time.

Minimum duration is 1 working day — bars cannot be collapsed to zero (use the Milestone type for zero-duration points).

Drag-Drop Row Reorder

When Drag-Drop Reorder is enabled in Settings, a handle icon appears on the far left of each task row. Click and drag the handle vertically to reorder. A drop indicator line shows where the row will land. WBS numbers update after the drop. See Tasks for details.

Weekends Toggle

VIEW ribbon → Show Weekends toggles whether Saturday and Sunday columns are displayed on the timeline. This is a visual-only toggle:

Show Weekends ON — All 7 days per week are visible in the timeline. Weekends are shaded. Useful at Day zoom to see the full calendar week.
Show Weekends OFF — Only working days (Mon–Fri) are shown. The timeline is more compact. Useful for dense projects where weekend columns waste space.

Regardless of this toggle, weekends are always excluded from duration calculations — a "5-day task" means 5 working days in both display modes.

Scroll Synchronization

The task table and timeline are vertically synchronized — scrolling either panel scrolls both. The timeline scrolls horizontally independently. The splitter position is preserved but does not affect scroll sync.

Use Home and End keys (when the timeline is focused) to jump to the project start and end dates respectively. This is faster than scrolling for long projects.

Zoom to Fit

Click the Fit button in the zoom group (alongside Day / Week / Month / Quarter) to automatically calculate the zoom level and scroll position that shows the entire project in the visible Gantt area in one view — no scrolling required.

Fit mode calculates a pixels-per-day value based on the current Gantt panel width divided by the total project span. It is capped at the Day zoom maximum (so very short projects don't blow up to a giant scale). To return to a standard zoom, click any of the Day/Week/Month/Quarter buttons.

Use Fit before screenshots, screen shares, or the Print export — it guarantees the full timeline is visible without manual adjustment.

Splitter Collapse Buttons

Two small collapse buttons appear on the divider between the task table and the Gantt timeline:

◀ (left button) — Collapses the Gantt timeline to zero width, leaving only the task table visible. Useful for editing task details without distraction.
▶ (right button) — Collapses the task table to zero width, leaving only the full-width Gantt timeline. Ideal for visual project reviews and screen shares.

Click the button again (or drag the splitter) to restore the split.

Task Color Rules on the Gantt

The colour of each Gantt bar is controlled by the Task Color Rule setting (Settings → Feature Toggles). Four modes are available:

Manual: Each bar uses the colour set in the Task Editor's Bar Color picker (default).
By Status: Bar colour reflects the task's current status — grey (Not Started), blue (In Progress), green (Completed), amber (On Hold).
By Priority: Red (Critical), orange (High), blue (Medium), grey (Low).
By Assignee: Bar colour matches the assigned resource's colour in the resource pool. Turns the Gantt into a visual team workload map.

In addition to bar colour, each task row in the table shows a matching left-border accent when a color rule is active, making it easy to read the colour code at a glance in both the table and the timeline.

Critical path tasks always show in red when critical path highlighting is on, regardless of the active color rule.

Due-Date Countdown Badges

Each task row in the task table shows a small coloured countdown badge when the task is near or past its end date (and is not yet completed). The badge appears in the task name column, after the task name:

Badge	Colour	Meaning
Xd late	Red	End date was X days ago — task is overdue
today	Orange	End date is today
Xd	Amber	Due within 1–3 days
Xd	Green	Due within 4–7 days

Badges are not shown for completed or cancelled tasks, summary phases, tasks more than 30 days in the future, or tasks more than 180 days overdue. See Tags & Comments for the What's Blocking Me Today panel, which aggregates all overdue and at-risk tasks in one view.

Blocker Badge on Bars

When a task has at least one comment flagged as a blocker (see Tags & Comments), a small red circle with an exclamation mark appears in the top-left corner of that task's Gantt bar. This ensures blockers are visible directly on the timeline without needing to open the task.

Clicking the 🔴 badge on a task row (in the task table) opens the Task Editor directly so you can review and resolve the blocker comment.