Keep tabs on your projects with GanttProject

09 Specify task properties
The Task Properties dialog window enables you to specify start and end dates, priority, current progress and notes. You can use the latter as a simple logbook for recording important information about the task. The handy Clock button lets you insert a time stamp for each log entry.

10 Assign task to users
The Resources section lets you assign the task to one or several users. You can use the Unit field to specify resource utilisation for the current task. For example, if you assigned the task to two users, you might want to divide the workload equally between them by setting the Unit value to 50 for each user.

11 Specify dependencies
GanttProject offers two ways to specify dependencies between tasks. The easiest one is to use the mouse to draw a connector between two tasks. Alternatively, you can use the Predecessors section in the Tasks Properties dialog to configure dependencies manually. This way, you can also specify the dependency type and its ‘hardness’.

12 Add milestones
Besides regular tasks, you can define milestones for your project. A milestone marks the completion of a project phase. For example, if you work on a manual for a software application, you can set milestones for each chapter. To add a milestone, create a new task, and tick the Milestone checkbox in the General section of the Task Properties window.

13 Navigate Gantt chart
You can scroll the Gantt chart back and forth by dragging it with the mouse. To zoom in and out you can either use the appropriate buttons in the main toolbar or the mouse scroll wheel. The Center button centres the Gantt chart in relation to the currently selected task, and you can use the Previous and Next buttons to jump back and forth one task at a time.

14 Tweak Gantt chart settings
Choose View>Chart Options and you can use the Gantt chart settings window to tweak the appearance of the chart. Here you can, among other things, enable the current date marker and configure what task information to display. This can help you to get a better overview of the project and its tasks.

15 PERT chart
In addition to Gantt charts, GanttProject supports PERT charts. To view a PERT chart of the current project, choose View>PERT Chart. Developed in the late 1950s for the
US Navy’s Polaris project, the PERT chart is designed to help you to analyse the tasks involved in completing the specific project. All project tasks in the PERT chart are represented as a sequence of steps, and each step contains start and end dates as well as the duration of the particular task. The PERT chart focuses on the sequence of tasks, as opposed to the relations between tasks in the Gantt chart.

16 Identify critical path
GanttProject supports the critical path feature that lets you identify tasks that are crucial to the successful completion of the project. Press the Critical Path button in the main toolbar, and the application highlights the critical path in the Gantt chart in red.