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 (%) measure to fill each task bar according to how complete it is. Values can be percentages (45) or fractions (0.45).

Progress scale

Format → Progress → Progress scale

Tells the visual how to read your progress values. Both conventions are common in models, and the wrong reading turns 45% complete into 1%:

Setting	Reads 0.45 as	Reads 45 as
Auto (default)	45%	45%
0–1	45%	100% (capped)
0–100	0%	45%

Auto looks at the column's format string first — a percentage format means the values are fractions — then falls back to the data type and the values themselves. Set the scale explicitly when Auto guesses wrong, which typically happens with a fractional measure that has no percentage format applied.

note

The setting applies to Planned progress as well, so both measures should use the same convention.

Progress style

Format → Progress → 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.

Planned vs. actual

Add a Planned progress measure alongside the actual Progress (%) measure to compare where a task is against where it should be. Planned progress is drawn as a tick mark across the bar at the planned position. Tasks behind plan show the progress fill stopping short of the tick, and tasks ahead of plan show it running past.

On very narrow bars there's no room for the tick, so it isn't drawn. The planned value is still shown in the tooltip.

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 (%) 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.

note

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, 11 pt

note

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

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

Appearance & layout

Format → Appearance

The Appearance card is organized into groups.

Task list width and font

Format → Project hierarchy

Drag the right edge of the task list to resize it between 200 and 600 px; double-click the edge to reset it to 300 px. Editors can also type an exact Column width.

A width an editor sets is saved with the report. When a viewer resizes the column it lasts for their session only, and the column returns to your width on refresh.

Only the task list column is resizable. The Row numbers column, when shown, is added on top of the width you set, and the extra columns and owner column keep a fixed width.

The task list has its own font family, size, bold and italic, separate from the rest of the chart. It also applies to the row numbers, extra columns and link menu, and the color swatches, expand arrows, checkmarks and link icons scale with the font size, so larger text stays aligned.

The timeline's date labels have their own font under Format → Appearance → Header — see The top bar.

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.

The General group also holds the calendar settings: First day of week, Shade weekends and Weekend days. See Timeline & navigation → Weeks and weekends.

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

Related

• Time scale and starting view → Timeline & navigation
• Every setting in one place → Formatting reference