Working with the Gantt view

The Gantt view

The Gantt view is a graphical time-plan that displays the timing of projects, activities, deliverables, and milestones alongside their dependencies. It shows the projects Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), the total timeline, timing, and dependencies between projects, activities, deliverables and milestones and their status (progress, consumption, and/or deviation).

To access the Gantt view, go to Workplan and then click Gantt.

Gantt chart essentials
Filter by project
Reporting periods
Browse WBS and fold/unfold branches
Bar status and colour
Report a quick status update
Highlight at-risk items
Customise columns
View settings
Export Gantt chart
Zoom and change time scale

Essentials

The left column is the projects with a collapsible view of all activities, deliverables and milestones, and their details, e.g. ID, title.
The right column shows the timeline as a graphical display of the project and work plan.
The two sides are separated by a sliding bar that can be dragged left or right to increase the view of either side.
"Today" is marked by a vertical orange line in the timeline.
Clicking on any bar or icon will open the sidebar for that item. Each row also has a kebab (⋮) menu with the same actions.
Similar to the Table and Kanban views, you can click Add Activity or Add Event (choose between Deliverable and Milestone) at the page bottom to add new items. Project Managers and Admins can also click Add Report to schedule a new report directly from the Gantt view.
Bars show a status dot and label, together with the completion percentage, directly on the bar.
Project — filter the Gantt view to a single project. See Filter by project and Reporting periods.
Settings — choose what's shown on the bars. See View settings.
Turn on the At-Risk toggle to highlight items that need attention — see Highlight at-risk items.
Export — download the Gantt chart as PDF or Excel. See Export Gantt chart.
The zoom control steps or resets how much of the timeline you see. See Zoom and change time scale.
Year, Month, and Week switch between fixed time-scale presets. See Zoom and change time scale.

When you create, edit, or delete an item, a brief loading placeholder or overlay shows on the affected row while the change saves.
If you pin more than one Gantt tab, each tab remembers its own zoom level, column layout, view settings, and expanded branches independently.

Filter by project

Use the project dropdown in the header to filter the Gantt view by specific projects within your workspace. This helps you focus on particular projects without the distraction of other work.

1: Click the project dropdown in the Gantt header
2: Select the project you want to view
3: The Gantt chart will update to show only items from the selected project

The project's branch automatically expands when you filter to it, so you see the full plan without unfolding it manually.

Reporting periods

Filter the Gantt view to a single project (see above) to see each reporting period marked as a shaded band across the timeline, so you can see report windows at a glance without needing to hover. A pinned row at the bottom of the chart always shows the current reporting period while you scroll through the timeline.

Switch to the Year scale to see several reporting periods at once:

Note: Reporting-period shading only appears once you've filtered to a single project — across multiple projects, each one can have its own reporting periods, so there's nothing consistent to shade.

Browse WBS and fold/unfold branches

The Gantt view displays the projects as a full hierarchical list of projects with sub-activities, which can be expanded to display sub-level activities, deliverables, and milestones.

Projects and work packages with sub-activities (packages) will have a small arrow to their left. Click this arrow to unfold the branch and show the sub-activities, deliverables, or milestones. The corresponding graphical data shown in bars on the right will also expand and collapse accordingly.

Note: When you add a new sub-activity, deliverable, or milestone, its branch automatically unfolds on your own screen so you can see it right away. If someone else is viewing the same Gantt chart at that moment, the branch stays folded for them until they expand it themselves or reload the page.

Projects and work packages with sub-activities

In the list, a container — a project or work package that has further sub-activities — is recognisable by the fold/unfold arrow next to its name.
A container bar (a project or work package with further sub-activities) is the same height as a task bar — the tell isn't thickness, it's the small square-bracket notch at both ends, marking it as a summary of its sub-activities rather than a single task.

Its colour and completion fill work exactly like a task bar's — see Bar status and colour.

Projects and Activities with no sub-activities

A leaf activity (a task with no further sub-activities) has no fold/unfold arrow next to its name — that's the tell that it's an end task, not a container.

A leaf task's bar has no bracket notches at its ends — combined with the missing fold arrow in the list, that's how you tell it apart from a container bar at a glance. See Bar status and colour for what the striping and colours mean.

Deliverables and Milestones

Deliverables are represented by packages (four squares)

Milestones are represented by diamonds

Like activity bars, deliverable and milestone icons follow the same on-schedule/due-soon/overdue colouring — see Bar status and colour.

Tip: Clicking on an activity or deliverable/milestone row or bar/icon in the timeline opens it in the sidebar.

Dependencies

Arrows between activities show the dependencies between them.
The arrows begin at the defined predecessors and point to the successors.

Tip: Click a successor to open the sidebar, switch to the 'Edit' tab and set the successor.

Bar status and colour

Bars, and deliverable/milestone icons, use the same colour language everywhere in the Gantt view.

Planned vs actual

Striped bars (or light grey icons) show the planned schedule or achievement date.
Solid bars (or dark grey icons) show the actual schedule, according to the latest status update.

Status colours

The fill colour follows the item's status — the same three colours apply to activities, work packages, deliverables, and milestones alike:

Green (on schedule) — completed or on track. The bar fills with green as progress increases (no green = 0%, full green = 100%).

Red (overdue) — past the planned end. Fills with deep red according to progress.

Orange (due soon) — ends within the next 30 days. Fills with deep orange according to progress.

When a deliverable or milestone slips

If an event's actual date differs from its planned date, a thin line with an arrowhead connects the faded (planned) icon to the solid (actual) icon, pointing toward whichever comes later — so you can see the postponement (or, if it's earlier, the pull-forward) at a glance without opening the item.

Deviations

Numbers to the right of activities, deliverables, and milestones show deviations from the plan in days.

Earlier deviations are shown as a negative number of days in green.
Later deviations are shown as a positive number in red.

Note: The deviation is defined by the plan end or achievement month (last day of the month) minus the forecast end or achievement date.

The same M2.1 slip from above also shows this — note the "+91 days" in red next to the connector, since the report is later than planned:

Reports

Document icons containing a check mark, towards the bottom of the timeline, indicate scheduled reports by their due date. See Reporting periods for how reporting-period bands and the pinned summary row work.

Hovering over the icon reveals the reporting period it belongs to, drawn as a labelled bar next to it:

Tip: To update a report's details, reporting period, or due date, click on the report icon to open it in the sidebar.

Report a quick status update

Hover over an activity or event's bar to reveal a small Add Update icon. Click it to jump straight into the status-update sidebar, without opening the full item first — a fast way to report progress without leaving the Gantt view. This is shown only where reporting updates are enabled for that item.

Click it to open the update sidebar directly:

See Report a status update (progress reporting) for the full walkthrough of every field in the update sidebar.

Highlight at-risk items

Turn on the At-Risk toggle in the Gantt toolbar to highlight all overdue and due-soon activities, deliverables, and milestones in red, across both the list and the timeline. On-schedule and completed items stay unchanged. Click the toggle again to turn the highlight off.

Customise columns

Show, hide, resize, and reorder the columns in the left-hand list to match how you work. Your changes are remembered the next time you open the Gantt view. The ID column stays frozen in place while you scroll horizontally, and finalized rows show a lock icon.

Show or hide columns

Click the + icon at the top left of the list, then check or uncheck a column — e.g. Title, Participant, Activity Type, Status, or Priority.

Resize a column

Drag a column's edge left or right to make it narrower or wider.

Reorder columns

Drag a column header left or right to move it to a new position.

View settings

Click Settings in the toolbar to control what's shown on the bars and in the timeline:

Titles — show titles next to the bars; choose which item types (Projects, Activities, Deliverables, Milestones, Reports) get a title.
Delay indication — show the deviation in days between the planned and actual schedule next to each bar.
Reporting periods — shade the timeline background per reporting period (shown when a single project is in view).
Dependencies — show the dependency lines between linked tasks.
Assignees — show assignee avatars next to each bar.
Status — show the status dot and label inside each bar.
Completion % — show the percentage completion inside each bar.
Planned bars — show the grey planned bars behind the actual bars (and around summary bars) where the schedule deviates from the plan.

A legend explaining every bar colour, icon, and marker is shown alongside these settings.

Export Gantt chart

Click Export at the top right and choose a format:

PDF — exports the current view as a multi-page A3 landscape PDF, trimmed to your project's actual timeline (no blank pages before or after), with a legend and bar labels included. Ideal for reporting or sharing outside EMDESK.
Excel — exports the work plan as a spreadsheet with exactly the columns currently visible on screen, in the same order.

Zoom and change time scale

Adjust how much of the timeline you see at once:

Continuous zoom

Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and scroll, or pinch on a trackpad, to zoom in or out around your cursor position. Use the − / + buttons in the toolbar to step the zoom level, or click the percentage readout to reset to 100%.

Fit to view

Click Fit to view to zoom out until the whole project fits on screen.

Year / Month / Week presets, and zooming in further

Switch between the Year, Month, and Week tabs for fixed presets, or zoom in further for more detail.