The Timeline
Open it by choosing Timeline in the layout switcher in the Table toolbar. It sits beside the table rather than replacing it, and isn’t offered on a phone.
Most people don’t need this. If your work is a list, a list is better. It earns its place when several things have to happen in an order.
What’s on it
Section titled “What’s on it”- Bars for tasks that have a start and an end, shaded to show percent complete
- Parent bars that roll up their children, so a project shows its own span
- Milestones as diamonds, for dates with no duration — a launch, a deadline
- A today line, so “are we behind” is a glance
- Weekend shading, so a five-day estimate doesn’t quietly become five calendar days
Dragging
Section titled “Dragging”- Drag a bar to move the whole task.
- Drag its edge to change how long it takes.
- Drag from one bar to another to say this can’t start until that finishes.
That last one draws a dependency arrow. Click an arrow to remove it.
When you draw something impossible
Section titled “When you draw something impossible”If a dependency says B waits for A, but B is scheduled to start before A ends, the Timeline says so rather than silently drawing a picture that can’t happen. It’s the main reason to use a Gantt chart at all.
Day, week, month or quarter. It scrolls sideways as far as you like.
Click a day or month in the timescale to jump the Calendar to that date.
Color bars by status, priority or group, depending on what you’re trying to see.