This article quickly demonstrates how to display Float, Free Float and Negative Float within a Microsoft Project Plan.

Assume we have the following activities:

Clearly, task C will have som significant float associated with it. Total Slack (the amount of time that the task can be delayed before delaying the entire project) and Free Slack (the total time that the task can be delayed before delaying it’s successors).

Right Clicking the Gantt Chart, and selecting “Bar Styles” will produce the following screen:

Here, we have inserted 3 lines, one for Total Float, One for Negative Float and one for Free Float. The bars are drawn according to the relative end points which are:

Float: Drawn from the Finish of the Activity to it’s Total Float Duration

Negative Float: Drawn from the Negative Slack duration point to the Start of the activity

Free Float: Drawn from from the Finish of an activity to the Free Float duration point

Altering the appearance for all tasks produces the following information in the Gantt View:

Note that in this example we have constrained Task E to show how negative float will be displayed.