Okay so I simplified it a little bit like you both suggested - I'm very new to Project so I'm still learning how all of the automatic stuff works. one thing I cant figure out is why I don't have the option to display the "start" and "finish" on the gantt chart. I have the option to display the custom starts and finishes but not the standard ones.

any ideas?

Thanks

Double click on a blank area of the gantt chart and you have access to all the types of bar which display. Chose the one called "task" and then go down to the bottom where it says "text" and type start in the left and finish in the right box.
Regards
Miles

I don't really like that option - I don't want dates on my gantt chart- im wondering why it doesn't let me choose "start" and "finish" in the FROM and TO section of the Bar Styles.

Also - I have it selected to "manually scheduled" for "show for...tasks" - but I don't want it to display for anything that doesn't have start and finish dates - it seems to be doing that.