The Settings panel controls DPlan's appearance, feature set, and active project metadata. Changes take effect immediately and are persisted to localStorage automatically.
Click the ⚙ Settings tab in the application titlebar. The Settings panel replaces the main content area. Click any other tab (Gantt, Dashboard, Calendar) to leave Settings.
DPlan offers a three-way theme selector:
| Option | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Light | Forces the light theme regardless of operating system preference. White/grey backgrounds, dark text, pastel task bars. |
| Auto | Follows the OS dark/light mode setting. DPlan listens to the prefers-color-scheme media query and switches automatically if you change your OS theme while DPlan is open. This is the recommended default for most users. |
| Dark | Forces the dark theme regardless of OS preference. Dark backgrounds, light text, vivid task bars. Better for low-light environments and extended planning sessions. |
The theme preference is saved to localStorage and restored on next load. It is not stored in the .dplan file — each user's device keeps its own theme preference independent of the project file.
Eight feature toggles control optional functionality. Each can be switched on or off independently.
When ON: Summary phase progress is automatically computed as a duration-weighted average of child task progress values:
Phase % = Σ(child_progress × child_duration) / Σ(child_duration)
The progress field on summary tasks becomes read-only in the Task Editor. Any time a child task's progress or duration changes, all ancestor summary phases update instantly.
When OFF: Summary phase progress is set manually, just like a regular task. Use this when you want to report phase completion based on your own judgment rather than mechanical computation — for example, when some child tasks are much harder than their duration suggests.
When ON: Activates the full cost tracking feature set:
When OFF: All cost UI is hidden. No data is lost — re-enabling restores all previously entered rates and fixed costs. See Cost Tracking for the full guide.
When ON: A baseline comparison bar is rendered below each task bar on the Gantt timeline. The baseline bar shows where the task was originally scheduled, allowing you to see schedule slippage at a glance. Bars that have slipped right have a visible gap between baseline and current bar.
Prerequisite: A baseline must have been captured first. Use SCHEDULE → Set Baseline to snapshot the current schedule. If no baseline exists, enabling this toggle has no visual effect. See Baseline for full details.
When OFF: Baseline bars are hidden even if a baseline exists. The baseline data is preserved.
When ON: Hovering over a task row in the task table triggers a tooltip showing the task's notes. The tooltip appears after a short hover delay and disappears when the pointer moves away. Tasks with no notes show no tooltip.
When OFF: No hover tooltips for notes. Notes are still accessible via the Task Editor (double-click the bar). Disabling this is useful on touch devices or if tooltips feel distracting.
When ON: A drag handle icon appears on the left of each task row in the task table. Click and drag the handle to reorder rows. Drag respects hierarchy — children follow their parent when the parent is dragged. After reordering, WBS numbers update and the schedule recalculates.
When OFF: Drag handles are hidden. Use the Move Up / Move Down buttons in the HOME ribbon to reorder rows. Disabling drag-drop prevents accidental reorders on touch screens or with imprecise pointing devices.
When ON: In Day zoom mode, each day column in the Gantt timeline header shows a stacked two-line label: the abbreviated day name (Mon, Tue…) above the date number. This makes it easy to spot weekdays at a glance without counting from the week start.
When OFF: Only the date number is shown in each day column — more compact for very dense day-zoom views.
Controls how Gantt bar colours and task row left-border colours are determined. Four options:
| Option | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Manual | Each task uses the colour set in the Task Editor's Bar Color picker. This is the default — full manual control. |
| By Status | Bar colour is automatically set by the task's current status. Not Started = grey, In Progress = blue, Completed = green, On Hold = amber, Cancelled = muted grey. The manual colour picker is ignored. |
| By Priority | Bar colour is set by priority. Critical = red, High = orange, Medium = blue, Low = grey. |
| By Assignee | Bar colour uses the colour of the first assigned resource from the resource pool. Tasks with no resource assigned get a neutral grey bar. This turns the Gantt into a visual team workload map. |
Critical path tasks always override the colour rule and show in red when critical path highlight is active.
When ON: A Ko-fi support button is shown in the application (default). This helps support ongoing DPlan development.
When OFF: The Ko-fi button is hidden. Useful if you prefer a distraction-free workspace or are using DPlan in a client-facing screen share.
The Active Project section shows metadata about the currently selected project and lets you edit project-level properties.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | The project's display name. Used as the filename stem for all exports (e.g., Website-Redesign.dplan). Edit inline. |
| Tasks | Read-only count of total tasks (excluding summary phases) in the project. |
| Resources | Read-only count of resources in the project's resource pool. |
| Completion | Read-only overall project completion percentage, computed as a duration-weighted average of all top-level task and phase progress values. |
| Total Cost | Read-only sum of all task costs. Visible only when Cost Tracking is enabled. |
| Status | Project-level status dropdown. Four values:
|
The About section at the bottom of Settings shows the application version number and a brief description. No action is required here — it is informational only, useful when reporting bugs or verifying you have the latest version.
All settings changes are written to localStorage immediately — no Save button required. The following are persisted automatically:
localStorage is browser-specific and device-specific. Settings on your laptop are not synced to your phone. Clearing browser data or using private/incognito mode will lose stored data. Always save a .dplan file for reliable off-device backup.