Viewing Gantt from a Project Record

You can view the following in Gantt format from the project record without opening Gantt:

  • Project tasks.
  • Project task hierarchy.
  • Project task assignments and the resources or resource roles assigned, including external resources.
  • Any dependencies between tasks.

Child tasks are displayed underneath their parent tasks. The start date and end date of parent tasks reflect the details within the child tasks. For more information on how the tasks are displayed, including the color-coding, see Gantt Chart Controls.

In addition to the Name and Assigned Resources columns, an administrator can add further custom columns containing useful details. For more information, see Project Gantt Lightning Component Properties.

Tips:

You can reorder the columns by dragging them into the required position. The column positions are retained whenever you use the same browser on the same device.

You can hide columns if they contain information you don't need. Right-click on the column heading and select Hide column. To show a hidden column, right-click on any column heading and select the column you want to show from the Columns sub-menu.

To bring a project task into view on the Gantt chart, click the project task name on the relevant row.

To reload the data displayed, click The Reload button.. This is useful if, for example, project tasks or project task assignments were created or updated after you loaded the project record page, or if you have made a change in a different tab.

If a work calendarClosed A calendar that defines the working days, hours and public holidays for a resource, region, practice or group. is associated with the project, any non-working time is grayed out. For more information about work calendars and holidays, see About Time Periods, Work Calendars, and Holidays and Using Work Calendars in Gantt.

Warning:

If the time zone used by your operating system is different from your Salesforce user time zone, the dates and times on the project tasks might be inaccurate.

Changing the View

The default zoom level available is Months but you can change it to Days, Weeks, Quarters, or Years. The zoom level you select is retained between browser sessions.

To center the view on the current date, click Today.

Viewing Resource Details

To view details of resources assigned to a project task, do one of the following:

  • Double-click a resource in the Assigned Resources column. The resource details panel is displayed.
  • Click a resource in the Assigned Resources column and then click View details of the selected resource. The resource details panel is displayed.
  • Click a project task in the Name column or click a cell in the Assigned Resources column and then click View details of the selected resource. If the resource you want is not displayed in the resource details panel because there are multiple assigned resources, select the relevant resource from the list displayed in the Search Contacts lookup field. The number of resources assigned to the selected project task is indicated in the panel heading, for example, Resource Details (3). You can't view resource details for external resources.

For all the lookup fields, you can also click Show All Results for “ ”. The search lookup window opens with the searched string populated in the Search field and displays all related items in the grid.

Select the item from the grid that you want and click Select. The selected item is then displayed in the lookup field. For more information, see Using Advanced Lookup.

Note:

If Shield Platform Encryption is enabled in your org, the records in the Resource, Account, and Opportunity search lookup window are filtered using only the Name field in the grid.

The resource details panel stays open until you close it. This means you can click through other resources to view their details or click through other project tasks to quickly view details about the assigned resources. To hide the panel, click Close panel on the panel or click View details of the selected resource again.

For information on viewing resource details, see Contact Card Lightning Component Overview.

For information on permissions, see Permissions for the Project Gantt Lightning Component.

Viewing the Critical Path

To show or hide the critical pathClosed The longest path of planned activities to the end of the project. This shows the earliest and latest each task can start and finish without making the project longer. This is the shortest time in which the project can be completed. of the current project in Gantt, click Button to show critical path. If the Button to show critical path button is not available, contact your administrator.

When the critical path is displayed, tasks that end on or after the project end date and any dependent tasks are highlighted.

Notes: Changing the end date or duration of any task in the critical path could affect the end date of the project.

When using the critical path, we recommend that you select Adjust This Project's End Date in Gantt Preferences. For more information, see Gantt Preferences and Using Critical Path in Gantt.

Exporting Data to Microsoft Project

To export the data to a file in XML format, click Export. You can then open the XML file in Microsoft Project 2013 or later. The following data is exported:

  • Project details
  • Project tasks
  • Project task assignments and the resources or resource roles assigned, including external resources
  • Project task dependencies
  • Project work calendar
  • Data in custom columns
Notes:

Project tasks are exported with a 24/7 work calendar.

If the Export button is not available, contact your administrator.

Exporting Data in Custom Columns

Data in custom columns is mapped from Salesforce data types to Microsoft Project custom field types as shown in the table below.

Mappings Used for Custom Columns
Salesforce Data Type Microsoft Project Custom Field Type Notes
Address Text  
Boolean Flag  
Date Date  
Datetime Date  
Double Number  
Email Text  
Integer Number  
Location Text  
Long Number  
Lookup Text Lookup fields are exported using the lookup record’s name. For example, a lookup to a milestone called 50% Complete would export with the value 50% Complete.
Phone Text  
Picklist Text Picklists are exported using the label of the picklist value. This means the same value might be exported differently depending on the label translation. Multi picklists are not currently supported.
String Text  
Textarea Text  
Time Text  
URL Text  

There is a limit to the number of custom columns you can export for each Microsoft Project custom field type.

Warning:

Any custom columns that exceed the maximum limit for each custom field type are excluded from the export. Columns that are within the limits are still exported.

Maximum Number of Fields Available Per Custom Field Type
Microsoft Project Custom Field Type Maximum Number of Fields Available
Date 10
Flag 20
Number 20
Text 30

To view the data in an exported custom column in Microsoft Project, click the Add New Column column heading when viewing the exported data and select the relevant entry from the column selection list displayed.

Notes:

If the time zone used by your operating system is different from your Salesforce user time zone, the dates and times on the project tasks might be inaccurate.

The character limit on fields exported as text is 255.

Microsoft Project does not support exported numbers with more than 14 digits.

You can't currently export Currency and Percent data types.

Data is exported in the order shown on the grid. If you exceed the maximum number of custom columns for a Microsoft Project custom field type, you can hide any columns you don't need as hidden columns are excluded from the export. To prioritize columns, drag and drop them toward the left of the grid so they appear earlier in the export.

Custom fields are aliased in the Microsoft Project export and appear twice in the column selection list in the following formats:

  • Type: Column Name (Aliased Field)
  • Aliased Field: (Type: Column Name)