Gantt Charts are powerful project management tools to help you run your business more efficiently. This video explains how to use the Vertex42 Gantt Chart to manage a project timeline.
This Gantt Chart template was created by Dr. Wittwer at Vertex42. Purchase the spreadsheet here for use in your business.
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A few more notes about Gantt Charts:
You may not be familiar with the term Gantt chart but you have probably seen them before. A Gantt chart is a project management tool created in 1910 by an engineer named Henry Gantt. This elegantly simple but powerful tool tracks different pieces of a project, their expected start dates and expected end dates. It is a visual way to organize important details of a project and their relationship to each other. If you have ever watched a home renovation show or a show detailing the process of building a custom home you have probably seen a Gantt chart laying out the overview of the process. In such shows, they frquently show an oversized paper version on display in the office of the project manager. It is common for them to go over the chart and tell the viewing audience the expected start and end dates for some of the most important or most interesting parts of the project and then talk about unexpected delays, what caused those delays, and how a delay for one thing impacts other parts of the project. In construction, weather is frequently cited as an unavoidable and frustrating cause of delays. A good project manager does not count on everything going as planned and, instead, plans for inevitable delays.
This tool is kind of like a cross between a horizontal bar chart and a calender. The horizontal bars represent the entire time span over which a particular piece of a project will occur. The different bars begin on the planned start date and end on the planned end date of each corresponding sub goal of the larger project. If you know some item needs to be completed before another can begin, then laying them out in a Gantt chart template will help you see things like how much lead time you need and whether something needs to be rescheduled because something else is taking longer than expected. For example, you don’t want to do finish work, like hanging wallpaper, before you do basics like placing electrical outlets. If the electrical work is taking longer than expected, you can see in advance that you will need to reschedule some of the finish work. This can help prevent snafus and reduce project costs. If your wallpaper hanger shows up on the date you originally scheduled but the electrician is still not done, you will be paying people to stand around doing nothing.
Speaking of project costs, there is no need to let budget considerations get in the way of using this project management tool. You can get a free Gantt chart online. A Gantt chart template can be found for free for Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, or Open Office. A free Gantt chart can readily turn your favorite spreadsheet into a time honored project management tool. For many projects, the types of Gantt chart template you can get for free are more than adequate. If you haven’t used this tool before and have training on how to use it, then free is the way to go so can learn as you go. Learning while doing a real wpord project is the best way to learn anything. But it is also fraught with the risk of costly mistakes with real world consequences. Finding a means to get hands on experience at low cost and low risk is a win-win situation. So if you have to manage a project anyway, this is a good time to start getting experience with the kinds of tools which will help make it less of a headache and increase the odds of success.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Trying out
What video/screen capture tool did you use to do the presentation?
What is the pass work to un-protect the gantt chart document.
Good stuff..Hope this will help me to do my work programme…trying out 1st…
you need to purchase the unlocked version – thanks!
I would really like to purchase the paid version of the Excel file Gantt Chart but I am concerned about something I would like it to do but am not if it will. I downloaded the free version of the excel file and have been using it but came to a point where the original working days was say only 14, but now it has been 24 days and the task is still only 80% complete, your red column indicator for “today’s date” is past the end date grey box for that task but there is no color for representing days over. I would really like to see the today’s column be yellow and the days over be red instead of white. Is that possible? I will purchase the paid version if it is.
Made my work ez
great work…i found certain excel templates similar to this model but this one’s definitely better..I downloaded the free trial version for my next project that I’m heading.Some questions..
1.How do I add Action Owners & Priority of the task…and if possible the hand off/Training hours for a project?
2.What about the option of Inserting the company’s Logo at left top corner in place of name?
3.What’s with the WBS–Work Breakdown Structure used in some templates?How is it different than those?
But nothing takes away ur effort…amazing work..
waiting for the response…
Is it possible to have this chart in a “week time frame” not in days? I really will be able to use it is weekly not daily ….let me know.
Thanks
From a potential customer !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Miguel Avello
Concise and clear. Thanks
1. It’s essential that I format an Excel chart in months – not days. Can this be accomplished with the trial version? If not, can it be accomplished with the purchased version?
2. Will anyone with Excel be able to open a chart file? Or will an emailed recipent need to download your spreadsheet in order to view the chart?
How do we exclude saturday and sunday in the end date calculation? We added all the holidays on the holiday sheet do we have to modify a formula somewhere so it will recognize all the holidays. Once we add in the Analysis ToolPack do we have to do anything else or will it automatically update the working days field?
I woud like to repeat rows as my plan is running across multiple pages. However the sheet is protected. How can I make this change? I really like the program!
I’m trying to purchase Gantt Chart – Vertex 42 for Excel but I can’t seem to be able to get to the correct page. I have click the link “Purchase the spreadsheet here for use in your business.” but it takes me back to the Gantt Chart page.
Also what is the purchase price?
Thanks
Hi, so just click the link that you clicked on earlier, and then scroll down the page you land on. You’ll see a “buy now” link on the right hand side for $39.95. Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions!
Hi, so just click the link that you clicked on earlier, and then scroll down the page you land on. You’ll see a “buy now” link on the right hand side for $39.95. Please feel free to ask if you have any more questions!