What Is a Job Display Mode in the Gantt? EDGEBIC Definition
User Solutions TeamA job display mode in the Gantt is a viewing setting that controls which jobs the chart shows and how they are drawn: All shows every job for a full plant view, Selected narrows to the job or jobs you have picked, and Compare overlays plan against actual. It is a lens on the schedule, not a change to it, so switching modes only changes what you see on screen.
This entry is part of the EDGEBIC by User Solutions glossary series; for the wider vocabulary of scheduling, see the manufacturing glossary. The job display mode decides which jobs appear, while the timeline view mode decides how much time is on screen, so the two settings work together.
How a Job Display Mode Works
The Gantt can hold a great deal at once: every operation of every job across many work centers. That is powerful for planning the whole plant but overwhelming when you want to concentrate on one order or answer one question. The job display mode is the control that trades breadth for focus.
The All mode is the default plant view. Every scheduled job is drawn, giving the planner the complete picture of load, sequence, and contention across the shop. It is the right mode when you are balancing work or looking for conflicts across many orders at once.
The Selected mode filters the chart down to only the job or jobs you have picked. Everything else disappears, so the operations of a single rush order stand alone and its sequence and timing are easy to read. The Compare mode does something different: it keeps the current bars but overlays them against the saved baseline plan, so plan and actual sit side by side and any drift is immediately visible. None of the three modes touches the schedule; each simply redraws it.
A Concrete Example
Imagine a planner whose Gantt shows forty jobs across a dozen work centers, a dense wall of bars. A customer calls about one rush order and the planner needs to see just that order's route through the shop.
The planner selects the rush job and switches the display mode to Selected. Instantly the other thirty-nine jobs vanish and only the rush order's operations remain: its milling step, its drilling step, its assembly, laid out in sequence with their dependencies clear. The planner reads the order's timing in seconds, answers the customer, and switches back to All to restore the full plant view.
Later, in a review meeting, the same job is behind schedule. The planner switches to Compare mode, and now the job's actual bars are drawn against its original baseline. The gap between plan and reality is visible on the chart, so the team can see exactly where the drift began without cross-checking dates by hand.
How EDGEBIC Uses It
The job display mode is a Gantt-level toggle that shapes what the chart presents.
- All mode renders every scheduled job, the plant-wide view for balancing load and spotting contention.
- Selected mode filters to the chosen job or jobs, giving a clean single-order view for focused work.
- Compare mode overlays current actuals on the saved baseline, turning the Gantt into a plan-versus-actual instrument for reviews.
The comparison that Compare mode draws is only as good as the reference it draws against, which is a saved Gantt baseline. Because switching modes never alters the plan, it pairs safely with any other Gantt work you are doing.
A job display mode is a Gantt setting that controls which jobs are shown on the chart. In EDGEBIC there are three modes: All shows every job for a full plant view, Selected shows only the job or jobs you have picked so you can focus on a rush order, and Compare overlays plan against actual so you can see how execution is drifting from the baseline. It changes what you see, not the underlying schedule.
Selected mode narrows the Gantt to only the jobs you have chosen, hiding everything else so the chart is uncluttered while you work one order. Compare mode is about time rather than scope: it overlays the current actuals against the saved plan so you can see where the job has run ahead of or behind its baseline. One filters which jobs appear; the other shows plan versus reality for what is on screen.
No. The job display mode is purely a viewing choice. Switching from All to Selected or Compare changes which bars are drawn and how they are drawn, but it never moves a job, changes a date, or reschedules anything. It is a lens on the plan, so you can look at the whole plant, one order, or plan versus actual without any risk of altering the underlying data.
Expert Q&A: Deep Dive
Q: I need to concentrate on one rush order but the Gantt is a wall of bars. How do I clean it up?
A: Select the job you care about and switch the Gantt to Selected display mode. The chart will then show only that job's operations and hide every other job, so you can read its sequence, dependencies, and timing without the surrounding noise. When you are done, switch back to All to return to the full plant view. Nothing about the schedule changes; you are only changing what the Gantt draws.
Q: How do I see whether a job is running ahead of or behind its original plan?
A: Use the Compare display mode. It overlays the job's current actuals on top of the saved baseline plan, so the bars show planned timing and actual timing together and any drift becomes visible at a glance. This is the mode to reach for in a review meeting, because it answers plan-versus-actual questions directly on the chart instead of forcing you to cross-reference dates by hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
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