Starting with Gantt

To add project tasks:

1. Click . The project task is added to the task grid and the name field is editable.
   • If you have selected the project name, the task is added at the bottom of the project's tasks.
   • If you have selected a parent project task, the task is added to the bottom of the parent's tasks.
   • If you have selected a project task, the task is added immediately below the selected task.
   • The start date and end date are populated relative to where you've added and the duration is set as one day (1d).
2. Enter a name for the task, and then press Enter, or tab or click away from the field. If you need to change this, double-click the name.
3. You can set or edit the duration of a task by:
   • Double-clicking the Start Date and End Date fields, and selecting dates from the calendar. The Duration field is also updated.
   • Double-clicking the Duration field. You can then type a duration of up to two decimal points in days or hours, such as 1d, 7.75h, or you can use the selector to increase the duration by one day or hour at a time.

   You can also change the start and end date, and the duration by moving and stretching project tasks in the Gantt chart. For more information, see Scheduling Project Tasks.

You can select one or more project tasks and move them in the hierarchy by indenting, outdenting or dragging them to a new location.

Moving Project Tasks

To move a single project task:

1. Select and hold for the task.
2. Drag the task to another location in the hierarchy.

To move multiple tasks:

1. Select the tasks.
2. Select and hold for any of the selected tasks.
3. Drag the task to another location in the hierarchy.

If you move or delete a parent task, its child tasks are also moved or deleted.

Indenting and Outdenting Project Tasks

• To move your selected tasks down one level in the hierarchy, click
• To move your selected tasks up one level in the hierarchy, click

Tip: To improve performance for large projects when multi-selecting tasks to indent or outdent, change individual parent tasks rather than multiple parent and child tasks.

After you have added tasks in the task grid, you can change their scheduled start date, end date or duration using the Gantt chart. This helps you to visualize the details of the project plan when making changes.

To edit a task, double-click the task bar to open Task Editor, where you can update the details of the task, including dependencies and task assignments.

Alternately, you can edit the start date, end date and duration of tasks within the Gantt chart:

• To move a project task to a different start date without changing its duration, drag the bar to the required date.
• To change a start date or an end date:
  1. Hover near the start or end of a bar until the stretch control is displayed.
  2. Press and hold the control and stretch the bar to another start or end date.

If you want a project task to be dependent on another project task, you can add a link between the task bars in the Gantt chart. For example, you might want a task to start only when another task has finished.

You can add dependencies between tasks, or between parent tasks and another parent's children. You cannot add dependencies between a parent task and its own children.

To edit a task, double-click the task bar to open Task Editor, where you can update the details of the task, including dependencies and task assignments.

Alternately, within the Gantt chart:

1. Hover over a project task.
2. Click the relevant relationship handle at the start or end of the bar. Example:
3. Drag the link to the relevant relationship handle of another task.

To edit a task, double-click the task bar to open Task Editor, where you can update the details of the task, including dependencies and task assignments.

Alternately, to edit the dependency type or lag This term is either a delay or an overlap between tasks in a dependency relationship. According to the dependency type, lag is added (or subtracted when a negative value) to the start or end time of the successor task.:

1. Double-click the dependency link. The dependency editor opens.
2. In the dependency editor:
   • To use a different dependency type, select from the drop-down list.
   • To increase or reduce the lag, enter or use the control to update the number of days or hours, such as 2d, 16h. You can set a negative lag.
3. Click Apply or press Enter to apply your changes and close the editor.

To show or hide the Gantt scheduler, click .

The Gantt scheduler shows the resources assigned to the current project and displays their assignments and resource requests on all projects on a timeline. This gives you a good overview of what the resources on this project are doing at any given time. You can see the project tasks in the Gantt chart and the assignments and resource requests for each resource on the project in the Gantt scheduler underneath. The Gantt scheduler timeline is synchronized with the timeline displayed on the Gantt chart.

The following color coding is used on the bars displayed in the scheduler:

• Blue border filled with blue: Assignment.
• Blue border filled with white: Resource request.
• Dark yellow border filled with yellow: Unsaved changes.
• Gray border filled with gray: Assignments and resource requests on other projects.

You can create, update, and delete links between a project task displayed in the Gantt chart, and assignments and held resource requests displayed in the Gantt scheduler by using the Resourcing Link field on the Task Assignments tab of the Task Editor. For more information, see Task Editor Tabs, Buttons, and Fields and Adding Resources or Roles to Project Tasks.

Held resource requests reflect the start and end dates of the preferred schedule recorded on the related resource request so you can always see accurate dates.

If an assignment or held resource request is linked to multiple project tasks, the bar on the Gantt scheduler that represents the assignment or held resource request reflects the full date range of those tasks.

If Suppress Auto Link Assignment in the Gantt Global Settings custom setting is selected, any new project task assignments you create are not automatically linked to existing assignments or resource requests. For more information, see Gantt Global Settings.

Provided you have the auto-recalculate-schedule-for-assignments configuration option set to true, if you update the start date or end date on a project task in the Gantt chart, the change is reflected on any linked assignments in the Gantt scheduler. For example, if you extend the end date of a project task in the Gantt chart, the end date of a linked assignment is also extended to match. For more information, see Changes to Assignment Schedules When Project Tasks Are Updated.

Gantt scheduler update calculations do not respect the Retain Past Schedules value in the Project Task Scheduling field of the Task Management Settings custom setting. Retain Past Schedules is, however, taken into account on save. For more information on this custom setting, see Using the Project Task Scheduling Field in the Task Management Settings Custom Setting.

You can assign resources, roles or both to project tasks:

1. Select a project task in the Task Grid. This cannot be a parent task.
2. Click . The Task Assignments tab opens in Task Editor.
3. Click . The Resource Name field opens for editing.

   To add a resource, either:

   • Select a resource from the drop-down list.

   • Type a resource name:
     • If the resource has a valid contact record, the resource is selected.
     • If the resource does not have a valid contact record, the resource is identified as external in the Assignment field.

     If needed, you can reduce the number of resources in this drop-down list to those assigned to or held on the project by selecting one or both of the filter checkboxes.

   To add a role only, or to add a role for the resource, double-click the Role field, and select from the drop-down list.

4. Click Apply.
5. Click Save.

For more information, see Adding Resources or Roles to Project Tasks.

When you have assigned resources to project tasks, you can link to other pages to generate assignments and resource requests for the project task assignments (PTAs).

To generate assignments or resource requests for PTAs, click to open the relevant pages:

• To generate assignments, click the main part of the button to open the default Generate Assignments from Project Task Assignments page.
• To generate unheld or held resource requests, click the drop-down part of the button, and then select an option:
  • Create Resource Requests. This opens the Generate Resource Requests from Project Task Assignments page, where you can create unheld resource requests.
  • Create Held Resource Requests. This opens the Generate Held Resource Requests from Project Task Assignments page.

Assignments or resource requests are created from PTAs that have a role that matches a role on a contact record.

To print your project plan:

1. Click . The Print Setup page opens.
2. The default settings have been designed to produce a usable initial output. To change the output, change these settings. For details of the settings, see Gantt Print Setup.
3. Click Print.