Product Documentation
Gantt Designer tries to keep it simple, and on this page are some tips to help you take off.
+ The Screen
The Gantt Designer screen is divided into two halves.
The left half contains the textual data on tasks, and each column represents a task property.
The right half is a graphical representation of the time dimension of each task.
The left and right halves can be resized by moving the splitter that separates the two halves.
+
More information on the splitter
- It can be moved to let the right half cover some columns on the left.
- The left half can only be as wide as the total width of all the displayable columns on the left, or up to 100 pixels from the right border of the window.
- If the width of the left panel is equal to the total width of the columns, then changing the width of a column on the left will also adjust the splitter automatically.
- Double clicking the splitter bar will move it so that the width of the left panel is equal to the total width of the columns on the left, if it is permissible.
- The furthest left the splitter can go is 100 pixels from the left border of the window.
+ Tasks
Each row in the Gantt chart represents a task, or activity or whatever you like to call it.
A task has various properties such as Task Name, Start date, Duration, et cetera.
You can decide which task properties to show by choosing what type of columns to display on the left half of the screen.
On the main menu, click , and then
or to selectively decide what to show.
The properties of a task can be changed by various means, depending on the nature of the property.
For some, eg Task Name, you can simply type into a cell on the left panel.
For others, eg Duration, you can do so by manipulating the time-bar on the right.
There are usually more than one way of editing the same property.
For example the Start Date of a task can be changed by typing directly into its cell on the left,
by clicking its cell and then select from the date picker,
or by dragging its time-bar on the right.
To see all the properties of a task, double-click the task ID number on the left.
Alternatively, you can use on the main menu.
+
Some additional information on tasks
- When you specify the Duration of a task, you are always specifying the number of working days (net duration) to execute your task.
The time bar shown on the right represents the gross duration or elapsed time and will include any holidays and weekends in between.
- The Duration value on the left panel can be displayed in days, weeks, months or years.
In most cultures, when talking about months or years, people are usually referring to calendar months or calendar years, rather than the number of working days in them.
If your usage requires that Duration be shown in longer periods such as months or years, consider whether you should remove all non-working days from the calendar.
- When the Duration column on the left is shown in months or years, this will be the Duration value (ie working days only) divided by 30 or 365 respectively.
No adjustments are made for actual days in the month or leap years.
- If you modify the Duration property, the finish date of the task will be adjusted accordingly.
- If you modify the Finish Date property, the Duration will be adjusted accordingly.
- If you modify the Start Date, Predecessor and Lag at the same time (in the Format Tasks dialog),
the Start Date as entered will be ignored and computed from the Predecessor task's finish date ± Lag.
- The Remarks property of a task is for you to enter any free-text information.
- The following property is not implemented yet: Cost.
+ Rolled-up Tasks
A task can be an "ordinary" task or a rolled-up (summary) task.
A rolled-up task is a task spanning the total duration of all its sub-tasks.
To make a task into a rolled-up task, change the task immediately below it into a sub-task.
To make a task into a sub-task, select it and then click the big right arrow on the toolbar.
The left arrow has the reverse effect of converting a sub-task into an ordinary task.
To convert a rolled-up task into an ordinary task, make sure that the task immediately below it is not a sub-task.
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Some additional information on rolled-up tasks
- The start date of a rolled-up task is automatically taken from the sub-task with the earliest start date.
- The end date of a rolled-up task is taken from the sub-task with the latest finish date.
- The Duration property of a rolled-up task is the number of working days from start to finish (and not the elapsed time as in version 0.9).
This property is not the same as the sum total durations of all its sub-tasks if some sub-tasks overlap in time.
- You cannot manually change the start date, end date or duration of a rolled-up task.
- When first created, the bar shape of a rolled-up task will be the one with two downward pointing ends.
You can change it to any of the other available choices, but please don't confuse yourself.
- When a rolled-up task is converted back to an ordinary task, its bar shape will be the default bar shape.
You can then change to something else.
+ Time-Bars
A time-bar is the visual representation of the start time and duration of a task, and is shown
on the right half of the screen. You have a choice of time-bar types and colors. Just double-click a
time-bar to change.
IMPORTANT! Read the following to avoid grief:
- Drag the body of a time-bar horizontally to change the start date.
- Resize the right end of the time-bar to change the duration of the task.
- Drag the body in a vertical direction to link, ie make this task a predecessor of another task.
Release the mouse cursor (the dot) somewhere in the successor task time-bar.
- Click and hold the left edge of the time-bar, and then move your mouse left or right to change the percentage complete value of a task.
+ Linking Tasks
Tasks can be linked so that the start time of a (successor) task is dependent on the finishing time
of another (predecessor) task.
If the predecessor task is delayed, the start time of the successor task will automatically be adjusted
accordingly.
There can be a time Lag between the finish date of the predecessor task to the start time of the
successor task. The Lag will be maintained even as the predecessor task is modified.
Moving the start date of a successor task manually by dragging its time-bar has the same effect as adjusting its Lag value.
Essentially, moving a predecessor task or changing its duration will change the start time of all its successor tasks computed
from the finish date of the predecessor task ± Lag. Hence, do not link tasks if this behavior is not what you have in mind.
+ Holidays
Configure your holidays under .
Holidays are stored in HOLIDAYS.XML
located in the same folder as the Gantt Designer software, usually C:\Program Files\Timios\Gantt Designer.
If you have no write access to that location, then the file will be kept in your My Documents folder.
+ Zooming
There is no zooming feature per se.
However, you can adjust how much you can see per screen or per page but adjusting the width of each day column.
Simply click the date header on the right half once or click Format Timescale...
You can adjust the Day Column Width from 1 to 15 units.
Some Common Questions
Click on question to display or hide the answer.
Q0. I have registered but it still tells me I am not!
In the few cases where users face registration problems, the following are the most common causes.
Please verify the following:
- Are you using Gantt Designer version 1.0?
If you have downloaded from some partner web sites, you could still be downloading verion 0.9.
Go to and the Build number should begin with 1.0.
- Have you got your computer name correct?
Most of the error cases come from users who have the wrong idea of what the computer name is.
The computer name is the existing name of your computer, created by the person who installed your Windows operating system software.
The computer name is not a name you think up during registration.
If you are not sure what your computer name is, click here.
- Make sure you store the key file in the same folder as the one containing the Gantt Designer software.
- Make sure your key file has the name key.dat.
Some mailer software renames attachments, so look out for that.
You may have your Windows Explorer configured to hide filename extensions, so verify that the filename is indeed key.dat.
Q1. I have registered, but I don't receive any mail with the registration key.
It takes a few minutes for the registration key to be generated and mailed to you.
The key file is named key.dat and it is an attachment in the registration mail.
When we send the registration mail to you, we bcc the same mail to two other backup
accounts hosted by two different mail servers located in two different corners of the world.
This gives us the feedback and assurance that the key file is sent and delivered to you correctly,
and we are able to discover quickly if there are any problems with our key generation server or mail server.
If we discover any delivery problems, we will immediately re-send the key files to the affected parties.
So far, this has happened only once.
If you do not receive the registration mail and key file in a few minutes after registration:
- Check whether you have you have entered the correct email address?
- Are you using an email address which requires the sender to manually verify himself (eg BlueBottle).
Please do not use such email addresses as it may take us up to a day to receive notification from your mail server and to act on it.
- Check your spam filter or junk mail folder to see if our registration mail has been treated as spam.
- If you receive the registration mail but not the key attachment, please check whether your mail server
is blocking certain types of file attachments.
The registration key has a filename extension of .dat.
Q2. How do I enter or change task data?
There are multiple ways of entering or modifying task data.
Use that which suits you best:
- You can type directly into a cell.
What you can type depends on the task property the cell is holding.
If it is a date cell, it will only accept meaningful dates,
if it is a number cell it will only accept numbers.
- Clicking a cell (a second time) will enter Edit mode.
What happens next depends on the type of data is in the cell.
If it is a date cell, a date picker will show up.
If it is a number cell, a numeric up-down control will show up.
- Hit Enter to edit the current cell by typing.
- Press F2 while in Ready mode and the input box at the top just below the toolbar will become active for the current cell.
- Click on the input box at the top.
Pressing Escape while editing will usually return the cell to its original value.
Q3. Why are there two little black squares at the top next to the splitter bar?
The two large dots in the header row left of the splitter indicate that some part
of the left panel is hidden.
You can view the hidden parts by moving the horizontal scroll bar on the bottom of the left panel.
Q4. I seem to have difficulty linking tasks by dragging with the mouse.
Dragging a time-bar horizontally will move its start date.
Dragging it vertically turns on linking mode.
To start linking, drag slowly initially in a vertical direction until you see the linking line and cursor.
Q5. How do I swap the position of task with another?
First select the task by clicking the task number on the left border.
Then you can drag the task number up or down to relocate it.
To move multiple tasks together, first select multiple rows.
Do this by holding the mouse button down on the first task and then moving the mouse to highlight
all the tasks you want to select.
Q6. How do I change the display order of the columns?
Select a column by clicking on its header.
Then drag it left or right.
Q7. Can I link to a rolled-up task?
When you link to a rolled-up (summary) task, the link will be established to the first sub-task.
If your first sub-task does not have the earliest start date and you want the link to be to the start of the rolled-up task,
then link directly to the sub-task with the earliest start date to achieve the effect.
Q8. Why does the length of a time-bar shrink and expand when I move it?
When you move a time-bar, you are changing its start date.
Changing a task's start date can change the total elapsed time of a task because the number of
non-working days (weekends or holidays) that falls during the duration of the task can now be different.
The length of the time-bar indicates the gross elapsed time of the task, including
non-working days.
The Duration property of a task however shows the actual number of working days required for the task.
Q9. Can I change the date by typing in the Start date cell?
Yes, you can type in the date directly in the Start date cell using one of your local date formats.
For example, if you are in France and you type "4/3", the date will be
4 mars in the current year.
Typing the same value in the US will give you
April 3.
To change AM/PM value, use the date picker (click on a date cell) or drag the task time-bar.
Q10. How do I remove a link between two tasks?
Right click the successor task time-bar and select Remove Link.
Q11. How do I import a chart into an Office document?
You can Copy and Paste a chart into any other Windows application that accepts Pasting of a bitmap.
Just press Ctrl-C or click on the main menu.
The following have been tested to work with Gantt Designer: WordPad, Word, Outlook, Excel and PowerPoint.
Tip: There is no advantage to copy more date columns than what your host document can display.
As it is very easy and fast to copy and paste, consider pasting multiple sections of a chart for better presentation effect.
Q12. How do I import a chart into a web page?
You first need to Print To Image and then insert the image file into your web page with a <img> tag.
For best results (maximum image quality in the smallest size) save to the PNG format.
Q13. How do I make pasted charts crisp and sharp?
Many client hosting applications, eg Word, will resize your pasted image if it is too big to fit within the current margins.
Resizing a bitmap introduces greeking which may result in less than ideal results.
To correct this, there is usually a feature in your client application to resize the pasted image back to its original size.
For example in Word you can double click the image, go to the Size tab and make sure the Width and Height fields are at 100%.
Tip: Select an area that will fit within your client application margins.
Q14. What are WIPxxx files I see when I am trying to save my chart?
By default, your
work
in
progress is saved to a file named
chartname.WIP
nnn.gnt, where
nnn is a random number.
Should something go wrong with the program, you may be able to recover your work done by opening up the WIP file.
However, only registered users can open WIP files.
Do not save over these files. They are, by default, deleted when there are no errors.
To change the settings of this back-up feature, go to and the Others tab.
Note: Version 1.0 Gantt Designer cannot open Version 0.9 WIP files.
Q15. How can I tell if I am a registered user?
See to see your status.
To register, click
here.
Note that the registration key is valid only on the computer whose name is given during registration.
If you want to have the registered software running on more than one computer, you must register separately for each.
Q15. How do I print everything onto one page?
Under the print options, make sure F
it total print area into 1 page: is checked. Depending on the aspect
ratio of your total print area, either one of wid
e or
tall will allow your whole Gantt chart to be printed
in one page.
Note that under the Fit total print area option, we do not change the aspect ratio of your chart.
Q15. Why is it that sometimes only a small portion of my chart is printed?
This is due to a feature in the Microsoft printing system.
It happens sometimes, usually when the printer is not a physically printer that is directly connected to your PC.
Examples are networked printers or PDF print programs.
However, there is a workaround that seems to work all the time.
When you come across such a printer that gives this problem, after you click Print...,
in the Print dialog box click the printer Properties... button.
Then in your printer Properties dialog box, check and uncheck some options.
For example toggle the Portrait/Landscape option and then toggle it back again to what you really want.
Such actions appear to "wake up" the print driver into informing the printing system about the actual printer page sizes.
From our experience, you need to do this once per Gantt Designer session for affected printers.
More Questions?
If you cannot find the answer to your question here, you can pose your questions at the Users' Forum
or send a mail to the email address that sent you the registration key.