Project Sheet, Gantt Chart & Dependencies

Project Sheet
In Smartsheet, a project sheet has two additional features enabled: a Gantt chart and task dependencies.  You can create a project sheet in several ways:

  • Add New - Click on the Add New tab (with a green plus) and select New Project Sheet from the menu.  This creates a new sheet with the Gantt turned on and dependencies enabled.

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  • Import a MS Project file - Click on the Add New tab and select Import MS Project File.  This will create a new sheet with the original MS Project data and the Gantt turned on.
  • Add Gantt & Dependencies to an existing Sheet - You can convert any Smartsheet into a project sheet by enabling the Gantt chart and dependencies features.  To add the Gantt chart, click on the View button in the left toolbar (below Undo/Redo) and select Gantt or click on any column menu and select Show Gantt.  To enable dependencies, open the Gantt settings form or click on any column menu and select Edit Dependency Settings.  NOTE: a sheet must have at least two date columns to display the Gantt view.

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Gantt Bar Colors

  • Manual - Right click on any Gantt bar and select Color Settings to manually change the color of a Gantt bar.
  • Multi-select - To change the color of multiple bars at once, press and hold the Ctrl or Shift key while you click on multiple bars, right click on a bar, and choose a color to apply to all of the selected bars.
  • Rules-based colors - Click on the Conditional Formatting button in the left toolbar to set up rules for Gantt bar colors.  This enables you to set bar color based on Assigned To name, Task Status or other criteria.

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Gantt Chart Drag and Drop

  • Drag the bar in the Gantt chart left/right to change the dates for that task
  • Drag the left edge of the bar to change the start date; drag the right edge to change the finish date
  • Select a bar and drag down or up until you reach another task bar to create a dependency (click on the Edit icon in the Predecessor cell to change the dependency type or to enter lag days)
  • The Gantt can be resized by placing your cursor on the left border of the Gantt and dragging it horizontally.
  • HINT:  to maximize the viewable area of the Gantt, you can hide the left format toolbar using the arrow button halfway down the toolbar.  You can also go to Full Screen View by clicking on the arrow in the upper right corner of the sheet.

Gantt Chart Settings
Click on the gear icon to open the Edit Gantt Settings form:

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  • Select which date should be displayed as the Start date and which should be the End date
  • If you want to show a % Complete indicator within the task bars, select the column which contains % Complete information in your sheet.
  • You can select which column value is displayed to the right of the task bars.
  • Select the Primary timeline display (Weeks, Months, Quarters, Years) and date format and the Secondary timeline display (Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters) and date format
  • By default, a week is shown starting on Sunday and ending on Saturday.
  • Select the start month for the fiscal year to ensure alignment of project updates with fiscal year milestones.

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  • Right click on the Zoom In or Zoom Out icons in the Gantt header to quickly change the timeline display.
  • NOTE: see section below for more information on Dependencies

Printing a Gantt Chart

  • Use the Print button in the left toolbar to print out your Gantt or use the File button to export it to PDF.
  • NOTE: by default, only the Task Name column will be included in the printout.  In the PDF settings form, click the Task Name link to select other columns to be printed (or select None if you only want to print the Gantt chart area)

Gantt Permissions

  • Editors and Viewers can not save changes to the Gantt settings.  They can resize the Gantt and even close it, but their changes are not saved.

Dependencies

  • Enabling dependencies on your project sheet activates the following features:
  • Relationship between Duration, Start, and Finish - enter any two of these values on a task and the third is automatically calculated
  • Predecessors - enter the row number of a predecessor task (or click on the Edit icon) to define more advanced dependencies

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  • Summary Task Rollup - Duration, Start, Finish and % Complete values are automatically calculated for summary tasks based on any indented sub-tasks
  • Exclude weekends - check this box to exclude weekend days from duration calculations
  • Dependencies can be enabled/disabled on any sheet by turning on the Gantt chart and using the Edit Gantt Settings form or by clicking on any column menu and selecting Edit Dependency Settings.  If dependencies are disabled on a sheet, the features described are not be available.

Holidays, Non-Working Days

On the Gantt settings form, the Working Days section enables you to set the working/non-working days for your project week, as well as any holidays.

  • Non-working days and holidays will not be included in duration calculations.
  • Working days can be set differently for each project sheet.  Holidays can be copied (Ctrl+c) and pasted (Ctrl+v) from one sheet to another.
  • Team & Enterprise accounts can set a default Workday setting for all project sheets in the Account Settings form.

Milestones

  • Enter a task duration of zero ('0') to create a milestone.  Milestones are displayed with a diamond image in the Gantt chart 
  • Milestones, like tasks, can serve as predecessors to other tasks