There are a lot of Excel Gantt chart templates out there.
So how do you know which one is the best one?
Well, I'm glad you asked.
Much like a good template does most
of the heavy lifting for your Gantt chart,
we've done the heavy lifting for you
and created the best Gantt chart templates for you
to download and use for free.
Using a pre-made template can save you lots of time
by having all the tedious work already done
so all you have to do is enter your specific project
information and you're off and running.
We've made these templates as easy to use
and as powerful as possible.
In this video, I'll show you how to get the most out
of these templates and make managing your projects as
painless as possible.
If this video helps you out, it would be great
if you returned the favor by clicking that thumbs up button.
And make sure to subscribe to our channel
for more videos like this.
First things first, there are three separate templates
in this one Excel workbook.
The first is the most basic, and includes only Task Name, Start
Date, End Date, and Duration.
The second is a bit more complex and includes Task Name,
Start Date, End Date, Duration, Days Complete, Days Remaining,
and Percent Complete.
The final template has all the same columns as the second,
but differs by which of those cells are manually entered
and which are calculated.
More on that in a second.
Now that you know the difference between the three templates,
let's talk about what's the same.
Any cells that have a white background and black text
require a manual entry of some type.
That will either be a Task Name or a Date, a number,
or a percentage.
Cells with a light gray background and orange text
are cells that are calculated based on your manual entries.
There's a key on each sheet to make it easy to remember.
If you've already seen our video on how to create a basic Gantt
chart in Excel, you know what the Start Date in Number Form
is all about.
If you haven't, don't worry.
It's really simple.
Excel stores dates as numbers rather than
in month-month/day-day/year-year format.
In the Chart Settings, there's a field called Minimum Bound.
This is the first date that the Gantt chart itself will show.
You could type the Start Date of the first task
into the Minimum Bound field, or use the number in the Start
Date and Number Form cell.
Both options will accomplish the same thing,
since the Minimum Bound field will automatically convert
a date into its encoded number.
If you're interested in a simpler and more powerful
solution to managing and scheduling your projects,
click the Start Building for Free button
at the top of the template to go right to teamgantt.com where
you can create your account for free
and start building simple, beautiful, and easy-to-share
web-based Gantt charts.
Using the basic manual Gantt chart template is simple.
Just replace the existing Task Names with your own task names,
update the Start and End Dates, and you've
got your Gantt chart.
This basic version doesn't show you
any real information about your tasks or how complete they are.
This is fine for small and simple projects,
but if you need something a little more robust,
try one of the other templates in the workbook.
The Manual End Date Gantt chart template
looks a little different than the basic version.
In this one, you have three new columns-- Days Complete,
Days Remaining, and Percent Complete.
Duration is still automatically calculated for you
by subtracting the Start Date from the End Date.
In addition, the Days Complete and Days Remaining columns
are also calculated for you.
The only cells you need to enter anything into
are the Start Date, End Date, and Percent Complete.
These extra columns allow the chart
to show you some more detail completion
information about your tasks.
As each task is completed, you can update the Percent Complete
and watch the taskbar begin to fill up.
It's a great way to quickly see how complete your tasks are.
The Manual Duration template is nearly identical to the Manual
End Date template, except that in this case
the End Date is automatically calculated
and the Duration column is manually entered.
The End Date is calculated by adding the Duration
to the Start Date.
Some people prefer to work with task durations,
and some projects work better when
you can give a task a duration rather than an end date.
It can also be a little quicker and easier
to update if your timeline changes and your tasks
need to be lengthened.
Days Complete and Days Remaining are still
automatically calculated.
And Percent Complete is still manually entered.
They Gantt chart will update the exact same way.
We just wanted to give you more than one way
to work based on your personal or project needs.
There's no denying that Excel can
work for some very basic project management needs,
but it has its limits.
Lots of limits.
There's no dependencies, milestones,
or resource management.
It's cumbersome to move tasks around.
And if your project gets much larger than a few tasks,
it can get pretty unwieldy.
Luckily, there's a better way.
TeamGantt as a web-based project scheduling
tool that makes creating your project
plan as simple as drag and drop.
Just enter your Task Names and drag the taskbars
out for as long as each task should take.
You can add dependencies to your task, upload documents,
and leave comments, assign tasks to coworkers and teammates,
even see how busy your whole team is
so you know if you can assign more work to them.
And sharing your project plans is simple and flexible, too.
You can embed a read only version of your plan
into a web page, export your plan as a PDF,
or even print your whole plan.
We've worked hard to make TeamGantt
as simple as possible.
We love it, and we think you will, too.
Go to teamgantt.com/signup to start planning for free today.
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Thanks for watching.