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Submitted by Al on 2010/10/06 14:25

1. I'm trying to change the color of a gantt chart task bar color, right now they are all black. I reviewed the documentation, but wasn't sure of the procedure (see below). When I changed the Bar color field, it changed the back color also. When I select the Show Overview Zoom buttons the bars became purple, if I deselect the Show Overview Zoom buttons the bars remain purple. The purple is fine, but it seems the behavior is rather weird. I would still like to know how to change an individual bar color.

2. I have the gantt chart in week format, is there a way to change the week labels from week number to a date that is shown in the context label, e.g. Week 44 is Oct 3, so show a 3 instead of 44?

From IQ documentation

Formatting items in Gantt views

Grid: Item colour: an option has been added to select which columns are shown in that colour.

Currently, the item back colour is set to all columns. This is sometimes not desired (in particular with the new Gantt chart bar colour). The new option permits setting the list of fields which show the color; it should be left blank to color the whole item:

Grid>>Properties>>Options>>Item color applies to fields:

Additionally, in a Gantt chart: an option has been added to set Gantt item bar colours. The steps necessary are these:

1. Grid>>Properties>>Gantt Chart>>Bar color field : set it to field containing the color (by default, the ItemColor field is used)

2. Set the values for the bar colours (using ItemColor field is easy because IQ has context menus to set this field)

The bars will be coloured.

Comments

Hi Al,

I posted an answer to your questions yesterday, but something happened and they aren't there today. So I'll give it another try.

1) problems with gantt chart bar color

Here's what I did :

1- Grid>>Properties>> This opens the manage grids dialog

2- Chose the grid for which you want to change the gantt bars colors

3- In the grid properties section (left of the dialog) : Gantt Chart>>Bar color field

In the drop down menu, select the field used to color the gantt bars.

You can either create a special field for these gantt bar or use a color field you're already using to color something else (i.e. : itemcolor, etc.).

I chose ItemColor as this reflect my urgency calculations.

4- Close and reopen the grid to activate the changes.

2) I think Pierre has been working on better zooming in the gantt chart. Maybe he can give a few details about this. Currently though (in this version) I don't think that what you're asking for is possible. Might be mistaken though...

Thanks Armando,

That was the approach I was going to take, but I assumed there was a more straight forward way that I was missing. What should the default color be, mine was black then mysteriously turned to purple after changing the Show Overview Zoom buttons option.

I see...

Pierre : could there be a way to just change the default gantt bars color without having to assign a "fixed color" field to each created item? (Using the same principle as selecting grid's default font/colors)

> could there be a way to just change the default gantt bars color

Of course. I'll add this in the gantt options.

My default color is blue... are you saying Al that your bars were black ?

[quote=Pierre_Admin]

> could there be a way to just change the default gantt bars color

Of course. I'll add this in the gantt options.

[/quote]

Thanks !

Once a default color has been set, it would be nice to be to select a task, right click it and select a new color for the selected task. If there are dependencies set for the task, the chain of dependencies would be changed to the new color.

> right click it and select a new color for the selected task.

That you can already. Set the Gantt bar color to ItemColor and voilà !

As for dependant tasks taking the same color, I'm not sure this is a good idea. In you want, you can set sub-tasks to inherit the color of a parent task though field inheritance

I could add a Gantt specific bar color inheritance, if users think that such a grid-specific behaviour is useful...

What I was thinking was right click and a palette of colors pop up to choose from. If so desired, each task bar could be a different color.

[quote=Al]

What I was thinking was right click and a palette of colors pop up to choose from. If so desired, each task bar could be a different color.

[/quote]

And can't this be achieved with the normal itemColor field ?

1- Set your gantt to be colored by the itemcolor field : Manage Grids > Gantt Chart > Bar Color field >

itemColor

2- If you want, set your grid so that only a few fields will be colored (not the full row) : Manage Grids > Options > ItemColor applies to fields (insert your fields, coma separated). I personally have : item, #

Then, in your grid, just select click on the "itemColor" button (Formatting toolbar or in the Item menu > ItemColor), and select a color in the palette.

That should do it... No ?

Thanks Armando

I tried what you suggested, but that turns the whole item row to that selected color. I want just the task bar to change colors, not the background also. See below the item with the 25% task bar blended in with the item color.

Yes, you must set the grid setting >> Options >> Item color applies to fields setting to something (say #,Item) to ensure that the whole row is not colored

See http://mantis.sqlnotes.net/view.php?id=1037 .

Hi Al,
Yes, do as Pierre said.
I explained it too in my last post but maybe I wasn't clear enough :

[quote]
2- If you want, set your grid so that only a few fields will be colored (not the full row) : Manage Grids > Options > ItemColor applies to fields (insert your fields, coma separated). I personally have : item, #
[/quote]

Starting v0.9.25D, if you right-click on a bar, the Item Color context menu becomes Gantt bar color, so you can easily set the bar color (and it can be distinct from the item color)

A new field was created, TaskActBarColor. By default, Gantt charts will use this field