How to make Gantt bar color dependent on condition: if a task is a child (subtask) of a selected par

I have created a sheet based off of the Team Task List by Priority template.

I have changed the priority task names to reflect the names of our team members. This allows me to group the tasks by tech, so the sheet's description would more accurately be Team Task List by Tech.

I had conditional formatting set up to color-code the Gantt bars so each tech has their own color. I had to make it conditional on the Assigned To column.

The intent was that users would drag and drop the tasks from one parent task (by tech) to another tech's parent task when they wanted to reassign the task to another tech. However, the techs, in practice, are finding it easier to simply chang the tech in the Assigned To column and not move the task.

I want to eliminate the Assigned To column so that techs will be forced to move the task to a different row to reassign them. However, the automatic color coding of the Gantt bars depends on the Assigned To column, so I lose the nice color coding of the Gantt bars by tech.

I would also prefer to simply change the task assignment by choosing the tech's name from the column, as the techs are currently doing, but that defeats the purpose of having the sheet organized by tech grouping.

Is there a way to make the color coding of Gantt bars dependent on row location OR parent/child task relationship? Or am I only able to choose columns?

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Conditional Formatting

Gantt View

Comments

JohnHinkle

I have been trying to come up with a solution for this but I think you will need to keep the Assigned To column if you want your conditional formatting to change the Gantt bar colors based on who is assigned to a task. There isnt a way to reference a parent row and have it reference the new parent row when it is moved. There needs to be something in the row to trigger the conditional formatting. Sometimes getting users to use your workflow and tools can be a challenge, so if your users are willing to do something one way, it may be easier to let them do it (because they might not even do it the other way)

Razmig Varsam

How do I apply a differeny color to the Gantt chart or Calendar per column? On my shmartsheet, I am tracking environment dates for application developement and each path represents a track with deliverables due on a date, i.e. a development, stage, and productoin environment. I want the past due environments to be represented by different colors.

Travis

Hi Razmig, while you cannot color columns in the Gantt chart or Calendar, you can change the color of the bars either by right clicking on the bar and selecting Color Settings or by using conditional formatting which can apply bar colors based on aspects of your sheet (such as if the task is past due).

Gregory Scharfstein

@Travis

When I click on a subtask - I get the color settings options .... but on parent tasks, I do not.

Is it possible to change the color bar for a parent task?

Gregory Scharfstein

@Travis,

Nevermind - I found the answer here: https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/cannot-format-milestones-summary-bars

It seems like one cannot change the color of a parent task in the Gantt chart.

Travis

Correct Gregory, only non parent row Gantt bars can be colored.

Linda Woodworth

I understand that I cannot currently change the parent row color but it doesn't seem logical to me. Is there a chance this could be requested as a future enhancement. I have a summarize project status sheet with a Gantt chart and it would be easier to read and much more impactful if the colors could be changed.