Ghant Chart - Status date line

JeanineB007

In MS Project desktop, you can display the status date below the timescale in a Gantt Chart view. The steps below explain how to do it:

• Open a blank project plan file and change the current view to the Gantt Chart view if it is not the default one.
• Open the Progress Lines dialog box (Gantt Chart Format tab | Gridlines | Progress Lines ) and adjust the settings as shown below:

See above: Dates and Intervals tab

See above: Line Styles tab

• As soon as you click OK, MS Project displays the warning message below and then click OK again to return to the view. 

This is the view with the status date:

In Project Options dialog box, I keep the checkbox Automatically add new views, tables, filters, and groups to the global turned off. So I need to manually copy the custom view along with its table just created to the global template in order to use it in the other project plans on my desktop. These are the steps:

• View | Other View | Save View | Name: <Gantt_with_Status_Date> | OK
• File | Info | Organizer | Views | Select and copy the custom view Gantt_with_Status_Date to Global.mpt
• File | Info | Organizer | Tables | Select and copy the custom task table Gantt_with_Status_Date_Table to Global.mpt

Note that MS Project automatically creates the custom task table along with the task view and it must also be copied to the global template in order for the view to work.

You can now close the project plan file and start using the new custom view while working on your projects.

Note -- By default, MS Project does not show the status date line. You may want to visit the Gridlines dialog box and change the settings in order to display a vertical status date line (for example, a red one) on the Gantt Chart view. And also you can add the Status Date button to the Quick Access Toolbar in order to modify it quickly.

-- Ismet