GanttFlow Editor Basics: Saving, Loading, Zooming, and Shortcuts

The everyday mechanics

This page covers the parts of the editor that aren't about any one feature: keeping your work saved, moving around the timeline, and the shortcuts that make both faster. If you're looking for how a specific feature like dependencies, baselines, or templates works, the guides linked throughout cover those in depth. This one is the reference for what you'll actually touch every time you sit down to edit a chart.

Saving, in more detail

GanttFlow's saving model has three layers, and knowing which one applies avoids the most common source of confusion: "where did my project go."

Browser autosave, every plan. As you make changes, GanttFlow saves your current project to the browser you're using, automatically, with no button to press. This is what protects you against an accidentally closed tab or a browser crash. It is tied to the specific browser and device; it will not follow you to a different computer or a different browser on the same computer.

Cloud sync, Pro only. Cloud sync keeps a project available across every device and browser where you're signed in, so starting an edit on a laptop and finishing it on a desktop shows the same up-to-date state on both. This is the layer to rely on if you regularly switch machines.

Manual JSON export, Pro. "Save project file (JSON)" writes the current project to a file you control directly. This is the layer for anything the other two don't cover: sharing a project with someone who doesn't have your login, keeping a dated snapshot before a big restructuring, or moving a project outside GanttFlow entirely for your own backup.

Opening and sharing project files

"Open project file" loads a .json file that was exported from GanttFlow, and it works on every plan, regardless of which plan exported it or which plan is opening it. This makes a JSON export the practical way for a Pro user to hand a project to someone else, whether that's a colleague on a Free plan, a client, or their own backup; the person opening it doesn't need to be signed in to the same account or plan.

One detail worth knowing: opening a file that uses a Pro-only feature, such as baselines, sub-lanes, or a premium font, will show that feature in the loaded chart, but a Free-plan viewer won't be able to add more of it or edit what's already there beyond what Free normally allows. The file opens either way; the editing capability depends on the plan doing the opening, not the plan that created the file.

Zooming and the timeline scale

Zoom controls how much of the calendar is visible at once, from single days up to multi-year spans, and Fit to window is usually the fastest way to find a reasonable starting point: it calculates the level that shows every current task without scrolling.

Zoom is a display setting, not a change to the underlying task data. Nothing about a task's actual dates, dependencies, or progress changes when you zoom in or out; only how much of the timeline is visible changes. For the full detail on choosing zoom and header rows deliberately for different audiences, see zooming a Gantt chart from days to quarters.

Undo, redo, and what they don't cover

Ctrl+Z steps back through your recent edits one at a time, within the current session. Ctrl+Shift+Z or Ctrl+Y steps forward again. This covers the everyday case of immediately reversing a mistake: a wrong drag, an accidental delete, a Shift-drag that cascaded further than intended.

What undo does not provide is a version history. It has no named checkpoints, no dated snapshots, and no way to jump back to "how the chart looked last Tuesday" once enough further edits have happened in between. If you want a state you can reliably return to regardless of how much further editing happens afterward, export a JSON file at that point rather than relying on undo to still be able to reach it later.

Keyboard shortcuts

Pressing ? at any point while working in the editor opens a full overlay listing every available shortcut, which is the most reliable way to discover the complete current set rather than relying on a page like this one staying exactly in sync with every shortcut the editor supports.

A few worth knowing about specifically, because they aren't obvious from the toolbar alone:

• Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Shift+Z (or Cmd equivalents on Mac): undo and redo, covered above.
• Shift-drag on a task bar: moves the task and everything linked downstream by the same date offset, rather than moving only the selected task. See rescheduling without breaking dependencies for the full behavior.
• ?: opens the shortcuts overlay itself, from anywhere in the editor.

Common points of confusion

"I can't find my project on a new device." This almost always means the project only exists in browser autosave, which doesn't follow you to a different browser or device. Cloud sync (Pro) or a manual JSON export are the two ways to make a project portable.

"My undo stopped working." Undo has no unlimited history; very old actions from earlier in a long session may no longer be reachable. If a specific state matters enough to guarantee getting back to it, export it as JSON rather than relying on undo reaching that far back later.

"I opened a file and some things are locked." This means the file uses a Pro-only feature and you're viewing it on a Free plan. The file loaded correctly; the editing capability is limited by the viewing plan, not by anything wrong with the file itself.

Ready to see it come together? Start from the Product Delivery template instead of a blank chart, then use zoom and the shortcuts overlay above as you shape it into your own plan.