Projectal supports two ways of scheduling tasks in projects - Manual Scheduling and Auto Scheduling.

Manual Scheduling

Manual scheduling means you are free to set the start dates and end dates of tasks in your projects. Projectal will not change these task dates.  This gives you the flexibility to schedule each task at the date you want them to start.

To set your project to be in Manually Scheduled mode, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Management screen by clicking Management on the left sidebar.
2. Click the Projects button to display the Projects screen.
3. Click the Edit button on the Projects screen toolbar.
4. This will display the Edit Project screen.
5. Set Schedule Mode to be Manually Scheduled.

Or, you can set your project to be in Manually Scheduled mode via the Tasks screen or Gantt screen: 

1. Click on Projects in the left sidebar.
2. Locate your project and click on the project card.  This will take you to the project's dashboard.
   
3. Click Tasks or Gantt under Projects on the left sidebar.  This will display the project's Tasks screen or Gantt screen.
4. On the Tasks screen or Gantt screen toolbar, click the Project Schedule Mode button to toggle between Manually Scheduled and Auto Scheduled.

Auto Scheduling

Auto scheduling means Projectal takes care of the project schedule for you so that your project is kept at its optimal schedule.

Projectal uses an extensive set of data to make sure your project's schedule is always kept in optimal shape.  This data includes:

• Project: Start Date and Finish Date
• Project: Schedule From value
• Task: Estimated Duration
• Task: Start Date and Finish Date
• Task: Constraint Type and Constraint Date
• Task: Schedule Mode

To set your project to be in Auto Scheduled mode, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Management screen by clicking Management on the left sidebar.
2. Click the Projects button to display the Projects screen.
3. Click the Edit button on the Projects screen toolbar.
4. This will display the Edit Project screen.
5. Set Schedule Mode to be Auto Scheduled.

Or, you can set your project to be in Auto Scheduled mode via the Tasks screen or Gantt screen: 

1. Click on Projects in the left sidebar.
2. Locate your project and click on the project card.  This will take you to the project's dashboard.
   
3. Click Tasks or Gantt under Projects on the left sidebar.  This will display the project's Tasks screen or Gantt screen.
4. On the Tasks screen or Gantt screen toolbar, click the Project Schedule Mode button to toggle between Manually Scheduled and Auto Scheduled.

Task Scheduling vs. Project Scheduling

There may be times where you want your project to be auto scheduled but you don't want certain tasks to be changed by Projectal.

In these cases, you can set the project to be auto scheduled and set certain tasks to be manually scheduled.

When Projectal encounters a task that is set as manually scheduled, then it does not change the task's start or finish dates.  This lets you freely set the task to start or finish on certain dates.

To set a task to be manually scheduled, follow these steps:

1. Click on Projects in the left sidebar.
2. Locate your project and click on the project card.  This will take you to the project's dashboard.
3. Click Tasks or Gantt under Projects on the left sidebar.  This will display the project's Tasks screen or Gantt screen.
4. Locate a task you wish to be manually scheduled and select it and click Edit Task button on the toolbar.
5. On the Edit Task screen, set the Schedule Mode to be Manually Scheduled.

Or, you can set the Schedule Mode for tasks using the Schedule Mode column in the Tasks screen or Gantt screen: 

1. Click on Projects in the left sidebar.
2. Locate your project and click on the project card.  This will take you to the project's dashboard.
   
3. Click Tasks or Gantt under Projects on the left sidebar.  This will display the project's Tasks screen or Gantt screen.
4. On the Tasks screen or Gantt screen toolbar, make sure the Schedule Mode column is displayed.  If not, click on the Option menu in a column header and select Schecule Mode to display the column.
5. Click in a Schedule Mode cell for a task to set the task to be Manually Scheduled or Auto Scheduled.