Using the date zone

The date zone is a group of lines at the head of each bar chart displaying dates and time unit numbers. It helps you to see when tasks are scheduled to take place. The date zone also controls the horizontal scale of the chart and any vertical grid lines.

By default the date zone contains four lines displaying days, weeks, months and years. If you are unsure what a line in the date zone represents, pause the mouse pointer over it and a popup appears showing the name of the line under the pointer.

Notice that a line showing Week Start has the week number at the right of the tick mark, whereas a line showing Week End has the week number at the left of the tick mark.

You can add and remove specific date zone lines and control the way in which the units are numbered. You can edit the date zone either directly in the bar chart window, or using the Date Zone Properties dialog.

The date zone settings are saved with the bar chart, not within the view, so charts sharing the same view can have different date zone lines and scales.

You can click and drag in the date zone to scroll the bar chart from left to right: hover the mouse pointer over a blank area of the date zone (ie not over a tick line) and click. When the cursor changes to a hand , you can drag left or right to scroll the bar chart.

You can turn the display of the date zone on and off instantly using a display switch.