The ribbon tab by tab

The ribbon, tab by tab

The ribbon at the top of the screen has tabs, and each tab has groups of buttons. This article says, for each button, what it does and where you see the result. How to tackle a job step by step is in the how-to guides; this is where you look up what a button is. A button that only exists or works under a condition has that condition next to it.

How the ribbon behaves

• Tabs — File is on the left, then Home, Planning, Resources, View, Settings, Table, IFC, Report and, only with AI mode on, AI.
• Narrow window — when the ribbon does not fit, buttons shrink to an icon from right to left. The name is then the tooltip on the button. Every button without its own tooltip shows its name.
• Collapse the ribbon — the small arrow at the bottom right of the ribbon turns it into a flat strip with icons only. The Baselines & progress group and the Connection group on the AI tab then disappear behind a single button with a pop-up. Default: expanded. Your choice is remembered.
• Extension buttons — an extension can add its own group at the end of a tab. Such a button does what the extension gave it.

File

Clicking File makes a screen of its own (the Backstage) take over the workspace. It has no ribbon. Back closes it. If you changed something under Project settings and did not apply it, the app first asks what to do with it.

• New — opens the New project window and closes the Backstage. The fields are in New project and Project settings.
• Open — picks a file and opens it as a document. Closes the Backstage.
• Recent — a list of recently opened projects; a click opens one. Only visible when the environment can reopen files: in the desktop app and in browsers that offer file access, such as Chrome and Edge. In other browsers the button is there, but the page stays empty.
• Examples — bundled example schedules, split into Full showcase schedules (badge All features) and Simple examples. A click opens one in a new tab.
• Save — writes the project to the file of this document. If the document has no file yet, you first choose a name and place. A file you opened in a format other than IFC is never overwritten; then Save asks for a name and place for an IFC file.
• Save As — picks a new name or place and saves there as IFC.
• Export — cards per export format, with a description. A click converts the project and saves it, and takes you back to Home. If the schedule has a cycle, the error appears in the Backstage and you stay there. If the project is linked to a resource library, the checkbox Save library file alongside appears below; it only works for the IFC card.
• Import — at the top the card Update progress from a spreadsheet (disabled without tasks), below it the importers that extensions add.
• Print — the button Open print preview takes you to the Report tab.
• Project settings — the metadata and calculation profile of this project. Changes only take effect after Apply. See New project and Project settings and Calculation profiles and conventions.
• App settings — the same settings as the App settings window.
• Extensions — management and installation of extensions; see Installing and managing an extension.
• Library — management of resource libraries; see Managing and sharing resource libraries.
• Help — the built-in documentation, also with F1. The search field searches titles, headings and the text itself. The articles are in four sections: Tutorials, How-to guides, Explanation and Reference. Under Documentation language you choose Follow app language or a language from the list. Dutch and English are the source languages; the other languages have the articles that are already translated. If an article is missing in your language, you read the English version, with a notice. The choice is kept on this device, separately from the language of the app. You can also reach Help from a window or panel: many windows and the panels Properties, Resources and Warnings have a question mark at the top right (Help on this topic), which opens Help on the article about that window or panel. If you entered something in the window that is not saved yet, the app first asks Save, Cancel (discard your input) or Back (stay in the window); then the window closes and Help opens. A few windows, such as Edit task and Level resources, always ask. Without input, Help opens straight away.
• Start tour — closes the Backstage and starts the tour at step 1.
• Close project — closes the active document. If it has unsaved changes, the app asks for confirmation.

Home

Home › File

• New, Save, Open and Save As — the same actions as in File.
• Recent — drop-down with the recent projects; a click opens one. Only visible under the same condition as File › Recent. Without recent files it says No recent files.
• Export — drop-down with the export formats (short names). A click converts the project and saves it.

Home › Edit

• Undo — reverses the last change. Disabled when there is nothing to undo.
• Redo — restores the last undone change. Disabled when there is nothing to redo.
• Delete — deletes the selected tasks, together with their subtasks, as one step. Disabled without a selection.

Home › Tasks

• Task — adds a task named New task, with a duration of 5 working days, starting on the project start. (If Enable hour planning is on and the Default unit for new tasks in Project settings is hours, the duration is 5 hours.) If a task is selected and the view is the plain tree, it lands directly below the lowest selected task (tooltip New task directly below the selection). With no selection it goes at the bottom (tooltip New task at the bottom of the list). With a selection but while filtering, grouping or sorting, it also goes at the bottom. A red notification then says that the app cannot place it below your selection, with the Clear button. The new task becomes the only selection, the Gantt jumps to it and its name is ready to overwrite in the Properties panel.
• Milestone ▾ — a drop-down that puts a milestone (duration 0) in the same place as Task. Start milestone and Finish milestone set the kind of milestone; the new milestone is named New milestone and gets work category Other. Inspection point (mandatory) makes a finish milestone with work category Inspection and the flag Mandatory (contractual), named New inspection point.
• Link ▾ — a drop-down with four fixed actions; the main button never changes meaning. See Planning › Relations for the four actions.
• Split task — turns split mode on or off. On: a strip under the ribbon explains that you click on a bar where the break starts and drag right for its length. Disabled when the Gantt is not in view (on the Table, IFC and Report tabs and under the full resource panel); the tooltip then says Only available when the Gantt chart is visible. See Splitting a task.

Home › Schedule

• Calculate — calculates the schedule: dates, float, critical path and resource load. This never happens by itself, unless you turn on Calculate automatically (App settings, tab Planning, heading Calculation). While the schedule is out of date, the status bar says Out of date — recalculate (F5).

Home › Zoom

• Zoom + — zooms the time axis in by 10 pixels per day.
• Zoom - — zooms the time axis out by 10 pixels per day.

Planning

Planning › Schedule

The Calculate button is the same as on Home.

• Move project… — opens the Move project window. Disabled without a project start date. See Moving a project.
• Warnings — shows or hides the Warnings panel in the right-hand column. The button lights up while you can see the panel. Turning it on expands a collapsed column. What is in it is described in Notifications and warnings.

Planning › Relations

The group has the Link ▾ button with four actions and the Split task button (same as on Home). The four actions:

• Draw relation — turns link mode on or off; a check mark appears when it is on, and the main button lights up. On: you drag from one bar to another in the Gantt to create a relation, and a strip under the ribbon says how to stop (Stop or Esc). Disabled when the Gantt is not in view.
• Link selected tasks — creates a Finish-Start relation without lag between two tasks; the one selected first becomes the predecessor. Only available with exactly two tasks selected (otherwise Select exactly two tasks). A duplicate relation or a cycle is refused with a message.
• Add external relation… — opens a window to add an external predecessor or successor to the selected task. Only available with exactly one task selected (otherwise Select exactly one task).
• Refresh all external relations — refreshes the anchors of all external relations and reports in the menu how many were updated or are missing. Only available when the project has external relations (otherwise This project has no external relations).

For the why of relations see Creating relations and Relations and lag.

Planning › Path tracing

• Predecessors — highlights in the Gantt the predecessors of the selected tasks, chain by chain.
• Successors — highlights the successors of the selected tasks.

You can have both on at once; a second click on a button turns that side off again. Driving relations get a stronger tint. See Tracing a path.

Planning › Calendar

• Calendar — opens the Calendars window with the project's calendar library. See Calendar windows.

Planning › Structure

• Codes & fields — opens the Codes & fields window for activity codes and custom fields. See Codes and custom fields.
• WBS auto — turns automatic numbering of the WBS codes on or off. Default: on in a new project. In an opened file without this setting: on if the file is empty or if all codes already match the numbering of the tree, otherwise off. On: the whole tree is renumbered at once, the codes then follow every structure change, and the WBS Code field in the panel and the dialog is disabled.
• Renumber WBS — renumbers the WBS codes once, following the position in the tree (1.2.3). Disabled while WBS auto is on.
• Templates — drop-down with saved WBS templates, each with its number of tasks and relations. A click inserts the template under the selected task, or at the top level without a selection. The bin icon deletes a template. Without templates it says how to save one (right-click a summary task, Save branch as template). See Saving and inserting WBS templates.
• Indent — makes the selected tasks subtasks of the task before them. Disabled without a selection and as soon as you are filtering, grouping or sorting; the tooltip then says Not available while filtering/grouping/sorting.
• Outdent — moves the selected tasks up one level, directly after their current parent. Same conditions as Indent.

Planning › Baselines & progress

• Manage baselines… — opens the baseline window. See Saving and managing a baseline.
• Status date — the date up to which you measure progress. Type a date; the cross (Clear status date) removes it. If the project calendar has working-time blocks, the app calculates in hours and a time field shows next to the date (MS Project often stores 17:00). The time then counts: 12:00 instead of 17:00 gives half a day of different remaining work. Without working-time blocks the app calculates in whole days and there is no time field. Effect: progress is measured up to that date, and the status date line and progress line in the Gantt sit on it. See Progress, status date and baseline.
• Progress mode — a choice between Retained Logic and Progress Override. Default: Retained Logic. Effect: with Retained Logic the remaining work of a started successor follows the relation; with Progress Override the remaining work starts on the status date, without waiting for the predecessor. See Choosing the progress mode.

In the collapsed ribbon these three sit behind one flag button titled Baselines & progress.

Planning › Progress

• Export progress sheet — makes an .xlsx sheet with the tasks, to fill in progress outside the app. Disabled without tasks.
• Update progress from a spreadsheet — opens the import window for a returned sheet. Disabled without tasks. See Importing progress from a spreadsheet.

This group is also on Table and Report.

Resources

Resources › Manage

• Resources — opens the full resource panel; it takes over the workspace. Lights up while you see that panel. See Resource panel.
• Resource dock — docks the compact resource panel in the right-hand column, next to the Gantt. Lights up while the dock is visible; a second click closes it. The dock shows only name, colour, a warning on overload and Max units, and with a task selection only the resources of those tasks.
• New resource — opens the full resource panel with an empty draft row for a new resource. Nothing is created until you enter a name; clicking away leaves nothing behind. The resource goes into the library or into the project, depending on the view.

Resources › Assignment

• Assign ▾ — assigns a resource to the selected task. Only available with exactly one task selected that is a leaf task and not a milestone; otherwise the button is grey. In the menu you first set Units/day (default 1) and Curve (default Uniform); a click on a resource assigns it with those values. The menu lists only resources that are not yet on the task. See Assigning resources with a curve.

Resources › Histogram

• Histogram — shows or hides the histogram strip under the Gantt. Default: off. Your choice is remembered.
• Previous and Next — step through the resources in the picker of the histogram strip, with All resources as an extra step in the round. Disabled when the histogram is off or the project has no resources.

Resources › Leveling

• Level… — opens the Level resources window. See Leveling.
• Clear leveling — removes the delays and breaks that leveling applied. Disabled when no task has a leveling result.

Resources › Overallocation

• Overallocation — not a button but a counter: the number of resources with at least one overloaded day, or None. Red with a warning icon as soon as there is one. The number refreshes after Calculate and after changes to resources and assignments; if you change the dates of tasks, that only counts after Calculate.

View

View › Time Scale

• Zoom + and Zoom - — zoom the time axis in or out by 10 pixels per day.
• Reset — sets the zoom back to the default of 30 pixels per day.
• Fit to project — zooms and scrolls so the whole project fits in view.
• Scale choice — a list with Year, Quarter, Month, Week, Day and, only with Enable hour planning on, Hour. A choice sets a fixed zoom; the value shown follows the current zoom, and below it that zoom is shown in pixels per day.

View › Display

• Columns…, Filter…, Group… and Sort… — only visible when Show classic view buttons is on (App settings, tab Advanced, heading Legacy features). Default: off. Columns… takes you to Table and opens the column picker there. Filter… opens the filter window straight away as long as there is no saved filter; with saved filters it opens a menu with Filter…, Clear (only when a filter is active) and the saved filters. Group… allows two levels. Sort… allows more levels. A button lights up when that view setting is active. In the current ribbon you do this with layout buttons; see Creating and using a layout.

View › Outline

• Collapse — collapses the selected summary tasks; without a selection all of them. In a grouped view it collapses all groups and a selection has no effect.
• Expand — the reverse.

View › Layout

• Layout buttons — each layout is a switch with an icon and a name. Resource diagram is included. One click turns the layout on, another click turns it off and brings back the view from before the click. Layouts with different parts can be on together. Right-click a layout: Edit…, Duplicate and Delete (after confirmation). An included layout can only be duplicated.
• New layout — opens the layout window for a new layout.

View › Presentation

• Presentation — turns presentation mode on or off (Esc to stop, in the desktop app also F11): only the Gantt fills the screen. See Presenting on a large screen.
• Split view — splits the Gantt into two time windows that both start with your current zoom and position (split 50 percent), or makes it one again. Default: off. See Using split view and the mini-map.
• Mini-map — shows or hides the mini-map. Default: off. Your choice is remembered.

View › Panels

• Properties — shows or hides the Properties panel in the right-hand column. Default: on. See Task dialog and properties panel.

The Resources, Resource dock and Histogram buttons are the same as on Resources, and Warnings is the same as on Planning.

The right-hand column. The column to the right of the Gantt is there as soon as at least one of the panels Properties, Resource dock or Warnings is on. If none is on, there is no column. If a full panel takes over the workspace, for example the full resource panel, the column disappears. Only on the Table tab does it stay.

• Width — drag the divider between the workspace and the column. One width applies to all panels in the column.
• Split — if two panels are on, drag the border between them. If one is on, that panel fills the whole column.
• Collapse — the button Collapse side column in the header hides the column. A narrow strip with the button Expand side column brings it back, with the same panels as before.
• Close — every panel has a cross in its header. It is the same switch as the ribbon button.
• Full panel — in the resource dock, the button Full panel opens the full resource panel.

View › Baselines & progress

This group has the same name as the one on Planning, but holds the drawing options of the Gantt.

• Baseline overlay — shows the active baseline as a thin bar under each task bar. Default: on. Without an active baseline there is nothing to see.
• Progress line — draws a line on the status date that bulges out per task to its progress. Default: on. Without a status date there is nothing to see. When the progress line is on, that line is also the marker of the status date.
• Status date line — draws a dashed line on the status date. Default: on. You only see it when the progress line is off, because otherwise that line takes its place. The label with the date in the header stays as long as at least one of the two is on. The label follows your date notation, for example 20-09-2006. If the app calculates in hours, line and label sit at the time of day and the label also shows the time, for example 20-09-2006 17:00.
• Bar colors — chooses how the bars are coloured: Critical path (default), Per task — automatic or By category with a choice of field. If that field is not in this project, the menu says that Work category is used temporarily. Outside Critical path, a red outline marks the critical path. The choice also applies to the report.
• Resource accent — draws a thin strip in the resource colour under each leaf bar, divided in proportion to the units per day. Default: off.
• Float band — draws the green band after a non-critical bar, up to the task's late finish. Default: on.
• Relationship lines — shows or hides the relationship lines between tasks. Default: on. The choice belongs to the document and to the layout.

Settings

Settings › Project

• Project settings — opens the Project settings window: the metadata of the project and, in the block Calculation profile and options, how the project calculates. See New project and Project settings.
• App settings — opens the App settings window with the tabs Appearance, Planning and Advanced. The same settings are under File › App settings.

Settings › Calendar

The Calendar button is the same as on Planning.

Settings › Keyboard Shortcuts

• Keyboard Shortcuts — opens the Keyboard Shortcuts window.

Table

The Table tab shows the tasks as a full table instead of the Gantt. The groups File, Edit, Tasks, Schedule and Path tracing are the same as on Home and Planning and act on the same selection. There is no Zoom group, because zooming only scales the time axis of the Gantt. The buttons Split task and Draw relation are disabled here: there is no Gantt.

Table › Columns

• Columns… — opens the column picker of this table. The same picker opens with the plus in the table header. The tooltip says Choose the columns of the Table view. See Adjusting table columns and Table columns.

IFC

The tab shows the IFC panel in the workspace. The ribbon has no buttons here, only the line of text IFC - Industry Foundation Classes, in the schema of the project (default IFC 4.3 ADD2).

Report

Report › Report

• Print — only on this tab, where it does nothing because Report is already open; the report choices are in the report screen.

AI

The AI tab only exists when Enable AI mode is on (App settings, tab Advanced, heading AI mode). Default: off. Turning it off removes the tab and stops the bridge. An AI assistant works with your schedule through an MCP bridge that you start here. See Connecting an AI assistant (MCP).

AI › Server

• Start bridge and Stop bridge — start or stop the MCP bridge. Next to it is the status: Off, Live on port …, Port … in use (with the reason) or Error. Disabled in the web version; the tooltip says The bridge only works in the desktop app. The same status shows as a dot with AI in the status bar.

AI › Connection

• Port — the port of the bridge. Default: 3877. Only editable when the status is Off (tooltip Only editable while the server is stopped.).
• Token — the password of the bridge, shown hidden. Small buttons Show token/Hide token, Copy and New token. New token asks for confirmation first, because a new token breaks all existing connections; if the bridge is running, it restarts with the new token.
• Connect — shows the connection details: endpoint, token, a configuration snippet and a connection prompt that you paste into your AI agent.

AI › Safety

• Pause / Resume — temporarily refuses all changes by the AI; reading stays allowed and the bridge stays live. The button lights up red while paused.
• Read-only — refuses all mutating tools while this is on.
• Auto-backup: on / Auto-backup: off — automatically writes an IFC backup before the first AI change per document. Default: on.
• Back up now — writes a backup straight away and reports the file name. Desktop app only.
• Open backup folder — opens the folder with the backups. Desktop app only.

AI › Activity

• Activity panel — shows or hides the AI activity panel with the calls to the bridge, with their arguments and response.