Progress, colors & appearance
This page covers how the chart looks: progress tracking on the bars, colors and the legend, owner circles, bar sizing, labels and fonts, and the overall appearance (dark mode and grid lines).
Progress tracking
Add a Progress bar measure (0–100) to fill each task bar according to how complete it is.
Progress style
Format → Appearance → Timeline → Progress style
Choose how the fill is drawn:
- Overlay — a darker progress fill drawn on top of the bar (default).
- Strip — a thinner progress strip inside the bar.
📷 Screenshot: Two task bars side by side, one using Overlay style and one using Strip style, to compare.
Planned vs. actual
Add a Planned progress measure alongside the actual Progress bar to compare where a task is against where it should be. This makes tasks that are behind (or ahead of) plan easy to spot.
📷 Screenshot: A task bar showing both actual and planned progress, illustrating a task that is behind plan.
Progress percentage label
Format → Data labels → Show progress percentage
When on, the actual progress percentage is shown before the task's data label (e.g. 50% · Design). Requires a Progress bar field. On by default.
Completion checkmarks
Tasks at 100% show a green checkmark in the task list. Toggle via Format → Project hierarchy → Show completion checkmarks (see Tasks → Completion checkmarks).
Colors
Data colors
Format → Data colors
- Default color — the color used when there's no Legend field, and for parent tasks whose children have mixed colors. Default:
#118DFF(blue). - When a Legend field is present, each legend value gets its own color swatch here that you can override individually.
📷 Screenshot: The Data colors card with the Default color picker and a list of per-legend-value color swatches.
Colors are resolved automatically for accessibility: in high-contrast mode, Power BI's system colors take over regardless of these settings.
Legend
Add a Legend field to color tasks by a category. The legend itself is controlled under Format → Legend.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show | Shows or hides the legend. | On |
| Position | Top, Bottom, Left, Right, and their centered variants. | Bottom center |
| Title | Shows or hides the legend title. | Off |
| Legend name | Overrides the automatic title text. | (auto) |
| Color | Legend text color. | Theme default |
| Font | Font family and text size. | Segoe UI, 10 pt |
📷 Screenshot: The chart with the legend positioned at the bottom center, and the Legend card open in the Format pane.
The legend only appears when a Legend field is populated.
Owner circles
Add an Owner field to show each task owner as initials in a colored circle. Colors are assigned consistently per owner automatically.
Bars
Format → Bars
Control the size and shape of the task and summary bars.
| Setting | What it does | Range | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Task bar height | Height of task bars, in pixels. | 8–60 | 26 |
| Project bar height | Height of project/summary bars, in pixels. | 4–30 | 6 |
| Bar spacing | Vertical space above and below each bar within its row, in pixels. | 2–16 | 6 |
| Project bar corner radius | Rounding of summary bar corners, in pixels. | 0–15 | 3 |
| Task bar corner radius | Rounding of task bar corners, in pixels. | 0–15 | 3 |
📷 Screenshot: The Bars card open, with a chart showing tall task bars and thin summary bars.
Data labels
Format → Data labels
The labels shown to the right of each bar.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show task labels | Shows the task name to the right of each bar. | Off |
| Show progress percentage | Prefixes the label with the progress % (e.g. 50% · Design). | On |
| Show project duration | Shows the duration in days to the right of each top-level project bar. | On |
| Font | Family, size (7–24 pt), bold, italic, underline. | Segoe UI, 10 pt |
📷 Screenshot: Task bars with names and progress percentages shown as data labels, and a project bar showing its duration in days.
Appearance & layout
Format → Appearance
The Appearance card is organized into groups.
Dark mode
Appearance → General → Dark mode
Switches the chart shell (backgrounds, text, grid lines) to a dark color scheme. Off by default. Ignored when Power BI high-contrast mode is active.
📷 Screenshot: The same Gantt shown in light mode and dark mode side by side.
Grid lines & row banding
| Setting | Group | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vertical grid lines | Vertical grid | Vertical lines on the timeline. | On |
| Row banding | Horizontal grid | Alternating row shading. | Off |
| Project grid lines | Horizontal grid | Horizontal lines between top-level project rows. | On |
| Task grid lines | Horizontal grid | Horizontal lines between task and sub-task rows. | Off |
📷 Screenshot: The Appearance card expanded showing the General, Top bar, Timeline, Vertical grid, and Horizontal grid groups.
Related
- Time scale and starting view → Timeline & navigation
- Every setting in one place → Formatting reference