Forum Discussion
Gantt chart help with late, but active task formatting
I have a master project file, where I have several sub projects linked in and I'm having multiple issues, but one thing at a time.
First up, I have Baseline Start and Baseline finish set up to capture the forecasted starting and completion dates of the task. Then I have Actual Start and Actual Finish set up to capture the actual dates for those events.
In the gantt, I THOUGHT Project would show my estimated timeline in one color (let's say blue), and then another color would designate the actual timeline (say green).
So an example would be I have Task 1 that I estimate will run from Baseline Start of 2/1/23 to Baseline Finish of 2/28/23. I'd have a blue line in the gantt connecting those 2 dates. However Task 1 doesn't actually start until 2/10/23 as identified by the Actual Start date of 2/10/23 being entered. So starting on 2/10/23 a green line would appear, and as each day passed, it would grow to match that day until the Actual Finish value is entered. This doesn't happen. What am I missing?
As a final "wish list" item, if we surpass the Baseline Finish date of 2/28/23, I'd like that line to turn from green to red, either in entirety, or at least from the Baseline Finish date onward.
How can I do what I'm looking for here? What am I missing?
The green Gantt bar you mention (i.e. Actual Progress) will indeed grow--but you have to tell it "how much to grow" by making entries in the % Complete column for this task. Alternatively, you can use the "Update Project" feature in the ribbon to mark selected tasks (or all tasks) as complete through a specified date. That too will grow your green Progress bars.
- Ok, so it only moves as you update the % complete. Makes sense.
I don't understand "Update Project". I don't want it to do either of the options it presents, completing or re-scheduling.
As Dr_Edward_Hanna pointed out, you need to tell Project how much progress has been made. That will address your first desire to have expanding progress. However to get your "final wish" you will need to create a custom field and special Gantt bar style to make it happen.
First, create a custom Flag field (e.g. Flag1) using the following formula:
IIf([% Complete]<100 And [Current Date]>=[Baseline Finish],"yes","no")
Second, create a custom Gantt bar Style such as the following:
You could do a normal progress bar up to the Baseline Finish and then have it turn red after if the task still isn't complete, but doing so gets more complex.
Hope this helps.
John
John-project, I tried everything that you show, but it's not working....not sure what I missed.
Further troubleshooting shows that the flag never evaluates to "Yes" (overdue). So there's something wrong with that, though what that is I'm unsure of.
- I noticed that 2 of the bars in the "late" snip (Start and End) were still black, though Middle was red. I tried changing all 3 to red and Start and End will not "stick"?
- Freeboro --
Pardon me for bumping into this thread. What happens if you insert the Status column in the Gantt Chart view? Do you see the word "Late" in the Status column for tasks that are late? Just a thought. Hope this helps.- All are welcome! LOL
I don't follow what you mean?
