Gantt Chart - Parent Row Colors

Brandon Stange · 03/18/21

Hi Everyone,

Relatively new user here. Is there a way to change the bar colors in parent rows of a Gantt chart? As you can see from my screenshot below, the grays are hard to distinguish from one another. Even if it is manual, I would like to be able to change the colors of the timeline bar itself, rather than just the background color. I have tried right-clicking and changing my default profile colors, to no avail. Does anyone know how to do this, or if it can be done? Thanks!

Genevieve P. · 03/19/21

Hi @Brandon Stange

The grey background of the Parent task bars in a Gantt chart has to do with the Parent Rollup Functionality of these rows. There currently isn't a way to customize this colour (see the second-to-last bullet point in this Help Article: Parent Rollup Functionality.)

If you'd like to submit feedback directly to our Product Team about this feature, you can do so through this form, here.

Thanks!

Genevieve

Jasen Nemeth · 03/19/21

I have a similar issue. Also a new user, but couldn't find an answer. I used a Templet Set that came with nicely colored parent rows. However, adding new parent rows beyond the example data doesn't seem to inherit the colors from the grid into the Gantt chart.

Brandon Stange · 03/19/21

Jasen - it looks like we may be out of luck for the time being. Per these two threads, this issue seems to have been persisting for at least a couple years with no fix at this time:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/7415/changing-colors-of-gant-charts

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/4897/changing-the-color-of-a-parent-task-bart-in-gantt-chart

Sandra Guzman · 03/19/21

Hi @Brandon Stange

If you are trying to change the color in your sheet you can simply right click directly on the bar in the gantt chart to expose the color pallete and select the color from there. Right clicking on the row will not display the color palette for the gantt chart. Then once you save - it will displayed every time you access the sheet.

You do have to have Editor or Admin permissions. So it may be that you don't have Editor permissions. You may want to look into your permissions for the sheet you are accessing.

You can find some additional information by clicking on the link below.

https://help.smartsheet.com/articles/516441-changing-the-color-of-gantt-calendar-bars

Hope that helps you with what you are looking for.

All the best,

Sandra

Brandon Stange · 03/19/21

Hi Sandra,

Thanks for the tip! Unfortunately, this only works on the child rows within a given section. I am needing to change the colors of the gray parent rows, which default to gray and are unfortunately not given the same options as the child rows. I like your solution, I am just not able to use it where I need to use it.

Genevieve P. · 03/19/21

Hi @Brandon Stange

The grey background of the Parent task bars in a Gantt chart has to do with the Parent Rollup Functionality of these rows. There currently isn't a way to customize this colour (see the second-to-last bullet point in this Help Article: Parent Rollup Functionality.)

If you'd like to submit feedback directly to our Product Team about this feature, you can do so through this form, here.

Thanks!

Genevieve

sasha · 01/13/22

@Genevieve P. this functionality has been requested in multiple threads for the last 6 years. When is SS going to implement this function??

Suzanne Raphael · 02/01/22

My parent rows are dark blue with white text. The corresponding Gantt rows also being dark blue, but with black text, are completely unreadable. If the Gantt row has to share the background color of the parent rollup, then why doesn't it share the text color? Not cool, Smartsheet, not cool.

jrm523 · 03/09/22

This is very frustrating. This is a very basic request that the Smartsheet community has been requesting for over five years (per posts online) and nothing has been done to improve it. While I am relatively new to Smartsheet, this puts a bad taste in my mouth as it seems there is a bit of the company being tone deaf. 😕

QualityMavin · 02/22/23

This is interesting, I have to say I planned on purchasing a subscription. If that minor a change can't be accommodated it probably isn't worth it.

Teflon · 03/13/24

Has there been any update on this?

jshook9 · 06/03/24

Dear Smartsheet,

Please prioritize implementing this feature - it has always been needed, and even more so now that the Timeline view has been released. Timeline view is best for Parent items in the gantt, and not being able to custom color them is very limiting.

del314 · 10/09/24

Smartsheet, please work on such feature, for a tool that aims to be so user friendly. It doesn't clean up nicely without this. One of the main reason I don't show smartsheet gantts on ppt slides…. what a shame…

Rey Mendez · 01/06/25

Please prioritize adding this feature. This would be very helpful in allowing us to show task bar colors on a rollup level based on criteria defined.

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Gantt Chart - Parent Row Colors

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