How to Work with Multiple Projects in Gantt

Introduction

The Global Easy Gantt lets you manage multiple projects in a single timeline view. You can adjust project timing, explore details, monitor progress, and control visibility. This guide shows how to use the global Gantt chart effectively when working with multiple projects.

Global Gantt is not designed to control every detail of your projects. It gives you a general overview of your project portfolio and the related milestones.

Target Audience

User
Administrator

Prerequisites

Easy Gantt module is enabled
User has permissions to view or edit multiple projects
Projects have defined start and due dates

Steps

1. Open the Global Gantt View

Go to Global → Easy Gantt from the top menu
This opens the global level where all accessible projects are displayed

2. View and Identify Projects

Each project appears as a horizontal bar on the timeline
The bar’s start and end are based on the project’s start and due dates

3. Move Entire Projects

Use drag & drop to move project bars on the timeline
This updates dates for the project, subprojects, tasks, and milestones
Shared milestones are not moved
No notifications are sent when a project is moved
The date changes are not recorded in the task history

4. Drill Down into Projects

Click the “+” icon next to a project name
View and expand its milestones, or its tasks if necessary
Avoid expanding the tasks of all projects at once, because it slows down the Gantt chart

5. Understand Project Completion

Each project bar shows its weighted % completion:

% = ((% done of Task 1 × estimated time 1) + (% done of Task 2 × estimated time 2)) ÷ total estimated time

If no estimated time is left, the project is shown as 100% complete.

6. Align % Done Column with Gantt Bar

Go to Administration → Settings → Projects
Set calculation formula to: Weighted average of % done with weights on estimated time

Gantt Settings

Click the Gantt settings icon in the Gantt chart to control how projects, tasks, progress and scheduling data are displayed.

Show holidays

Displays holidays from your calendar directly on the Gantt chart. This helps you avoid scheduling tasks on non-working days. Holidays are taken from your personal calendar settings.

Show project progress

Shows the completed percentage on each project bar, so you can assess a project’s overall progress at a glance. For large projects, this can slow down loading of the Gantt chart.

Show soonest start

Shows the earliest valid dates of tasks, as defined by their relations or parent task. This helps you identify scheduling constraints caused by dependencies.

Default zoom

Sets the default zoom level of the Gantt chart, for example Days, Weeks or Months, so the chart always opens in a consistent view.

Fixed delay

Keeps consistent gaps between tasks when schedules change. Recalculate fixed delay runs the recalculation immediately.

Critical path

Highlights the tasks that directly affect the project completion date. Options:

Disabled: the critical path is not shown
Last: shows the tasks that must be completed last and should not be delayed
Longest: highlights the longest sequence of dependent tasks, which determines the minimum project duration

Lowest progress tasks

Displays the tasks with the worst progress date, which is the date matching the done ratio bar of a task in the Gantt chart. This helps you spot lagging tasks that need attention.

Show task spent time ratio

Displays the spent time ratio instead of progress on task bars, so you can see the actual effort spent compared with the estimate.

Show project milestones

Displays project milestones in the project bar, so key deadlines and deliverables stay visible on the timeline.

Tools

The Tools menu in Global Gantt offers these features:

Edit: enables editing the Gantt chart
Cash Flow: displays budget information of the selected projects
Resources: shows information from Resource management
Show tasks with lowest progress date
Only delayed projects

Conclusion

Working with multiple projects in Global Gantt is efficient and visual. You can shift projects in time, view overall progress, and manage scheduling at a high level, which makes managing your project portfolio easier and more accurate.