Setting general display options

You use the General tab of the Format Bar Chart dialog to specify a variety of bar chart display options.

From the Show group choose whether to display:

The bar chart pane.
Constraint flags. You can also turn the display of constraint flags on and off instantly using a display switch.
All bars in one-task-per-line mode.
Summary tasks, expanded tasks and hammocks using their standard appearance, as normal tasks, or as subheadings.

Select the Draw a vertical line at project start check box if you would like a vertical line to be displayed marking the project start date.

You can choose a colour for the chart background if you do not want to work with the default. Click the Chart background colour field, then choose the colour from the selector that appears.

Using dark colours may make the bar chart more difficult to see.

When you apply colouring to bars that indicate the project hierarchy - ie those that contain summary or expanded tasks - you can choose where that colouring appears using the Use summary row colouring on check boxes. Select the Spreadsheet check box to apply the colouring to the spreadsheet and select the Bar chart check box to apply it to the bar chart.

If you have selected the Spreadsheet check box, select the Display hierarchy banding when not sorting check box if you want the hierarchical appearance colouring to continue vertically down the far left hand side of the spreadsheet, or clear the check box to restrict this colouring to the horizontal bars themselves. If you select this check box, a popup appears asking if you want to change your project hierarchy appearance settings now. Click Yes to do this using the Hierarchy Appearance dialog, or click No if you are happy with your current hierarchical appearance settings.

You can configure your hierarchical appearance settings at any time by clicking Hierarchy Appearance in the Format group on the Format tab, or by right-clicking a chart or summary group icon in the project view and selecting Appearance.