COOL things I appreciate about GanttProject

GanttProject Desktop Support
#1

Not sure I’ve seen a thread like this before, but I want to say “thank you!” to the developer for a few things about GanttProject that (in my opinion) make it so much better than others.
I recognize that these sorts of things are opinion, but at the same time, why not call out some of the things that I appreciate? (I mean, I/we gripe about as many issues that are opinion, so…) In no particular order, here are some things that I really like about GanttProject. A bit of a preface: my preferences reflect that I’m more keyboard- than mouse-oriented as I find the keyboard most efficient when no-nonsense cranking out text-related information is needed – learned to edit on ‘vi’; still use excel hotkeys that date back pre 2000’s and are no longer documented and are slowly being phased out; not fond of ‘ribbons’ that are so prevalent these days…

Here are some of them:

  1. Alt+enter to quickly edit task properties
  2. Ctrl+enter to save/exit of task properties
  3. Alt+up and Alt+down to move a task up and down in list
  4. Cursor keys to select a given field in a task, and F2 to edit that field.
  5. Mouse-wheel over the task-list to move up and down through the tasks (you say Duh! Simple I know, but silly that it’s absent in other gantt software!)
  6. Tab to indent a task
  7. Ability to grab and pan the gantt bars to quickly see an area

Okay, just a starter-list. I’ll probably update as I discover/recall more. But it’s amazing how much just these make for efficient data entry and visualization. Any others?

2 Likes
#2
  1. Shift+cursor to highlight blocks of task (precursor to ctrl+c / ctrl+v to then copy and paste that block of tasks)
#3
  1. Alt+rt/left indents/outdents task
#4

You are really The Lord of the Keyboard :slight_smile: Glad that you like the shortcuts. Here are some more:

  • Insert inserts a new task or resource depending on the active chart
  • Ctrl+Mouse Drag moves tasks on the chart
  • Ctrl+End expands the whole subtree, Ctrl+Home collapses (unfortunately shortcuts which expand/collapse a single level seems to be broken now)
1 Like
#5

Okay – Dmitry all three of those are very cool! Time to start training the muscle memory on those immediately!!

#6

(#10-#13 on the list – Dmitry’s above)

  1. ctrl+pgdn/pgup to switch tabs within the Task-Properties dialogue
#7

I agree with wpong3. I just started using GP and find it very intuitive and this thread has pointed out some very useful shortcuts. Another feature that I didn’t find in other packages was the status bar or % complete. A co-worker was using a different package and wanted that feature but it didn’t exist. I kind of stumbled onto it in GP. So simple, just hover over the beginning of the task bar and drag it out to where you need it. Thanks for a great product.

#8

And finally, with the new GanttProject 2.8.7, Ctrl+Space to toggle expanded/collapsed task node in the table, mouse wheel to scroll the chart, Shift+mouse wheel to scroll the chart horizontally and Ctrl+mouse wheel to change zooming.

#9

hello,
Thank a lot for those keyboard shortcuts.
Do you know if there is a keyboard short cut to switch from one tab to an other (general/predecessors/ressources), inside the “task property window” in the 2.8.11 realease?
And Also if it does exist :

  • create dependance between tasks ?
  • remove dependance betweens tasks ?
    Thank in advance !
#10

Ctrl + PgUp/PgDown switches between tab (this is already written above)

1 Like
#11

Thanks a lot.
Sorry for have’nt seen what was written above
Can I find somewere an exaustive list of all keyboard shortcuts and navigations tips ?

#12

Maybe “F10 for ribbon tab access” can make an addition to the list.

I have been using “xls export” alot, as a basis for numerical reports. Since there was no apparent shortcut for the function, I had to click away to get there for quite the being.

Finally stumbled upon F10 for ribbon access. (Phew, that saves me quite a lot of clicks!)

Perhaps it was obvious enough for some? Well, it took a long time for myself to notice, so here goes for the best of the rest!

#13

Just beginning to get familiar with GP.
I tried the shortcut “insert” - result in a start date of “58. February”.
Never seen such a date !

image
image987×407 24.8 KB

GP Version 3.2.3247

#14

You may want to check your date format settings.

#15

… thank you for the reply. I have the following settings, with the locally used data format, used also in some of my excel sheets. Is there anything wrong with it?
“Custom short data format: DD.MMM.yyyy”

PS: I just tried to toggle several times with “dd.MMM.yyyy” - it works fine now.
The result is 27. Feb. 2023

#16

¿Any update on this? I would love to have a quick improvement on expanding a certain level with wheel mouse, same way as Excel does with levels in pivot tables. What do you think?

Shift + Mouse wheel down = expand all levels from current task selected, and sibling tasks also.
Shift + Mouse wheel up = inverse from above, collapses all tasks to the current selected indented level.

#17

Thanks for reminding, expand/collapse actions will be working in the next 3.3 update.