What is Simple Gantt?

Overview

Simple Gantt is an Excel workbook for creating simple Gantt charts.

It was created and published with the aim of reducing the time and hassle of creating Gantt charts and schedules from scratch in Excel.

We have prepared a 15-second fast-forward video to show you what it can do, so please watch it first.

Download Simple Gantt

Japanese version

SimpleGantt2021_JA.xlsx

English version

SimpleGantt2021_EN.xlsx

You can use it for things like this.

  • Automate the creation of project management charts to some extent
  • Automate shift chart creation to some extent.

Background of the project

There are many web services for task management and project management these days, and Gantt charts can now be easily created online.

In our office, we also use such web services, but there are still cases where Excel is preferred for some projects.

In such cases, it is a hassle to create a schedule from scratch or to manually modify the created schedule.

This Excel book was created to reduce this hassle as much as possible so that the task of creating a schedule does not take up too much of your time.

Terms of Use

  • You can use this Excel file for commercial and non-commercial purposes free of charge.
  • The copyright of this Excel file belongs to Zatta Production, but you can use it without any copyright notice.
  • You may customize the Excel and redistribute it as you like.
  • However, please include the URL of this site when you redistribute this Excel.

Features of Simple Gantt

  • Simple Gantt is created using functions and conditional formatting, without using Excel VBA.
  • Therefore, intermediate Excel users will be able to customize our Excel to their liking.
  • Enter a start date and end date, select a color, and the cells in the date range and task category will be colored.
  • If you set the status to "Closed", the row for that task will be grayed out.
  • If you set the status to "Divider", the task row will be black. This is useful for grouping tasks.
  • You can register holidays, and the registered holidays will be reflected in the calendar.
  • Saturdays and Sundays will be colored in the calendar.
  • The number of business days from the start date to the end date of the task will be displayed. This number of business days will also exclude the holidays registered above.

Cautions for use

  • Please note that since conditional formatting is used, normal copy and paste (Ctrl + C & Ctrl + V) will also copy and paste the formatting and conditional formatting.
  • When copying and pasting, it is recommended that you "Paste as Value" the copied cell.

Usage.

Define holidays

The first step is to define the holidays to be reflected in the schedule.
By defining holidays, such as national holidays, company holidays, etc. in advance, the Gantt chart will reflect the fact that these days are holidays.

The settings are made in the sheet "Holiday". **Enter the day of the holiday in the first line of the sheet and the name of the holiday in the second line. **.

Initially, the Japanese holidays for the year 2021 are entered.
If you need to add or modify them, please reorder or add them.

In the initial state, the third line contains the WEEKDAY function that returns the day of the week for the date entered in the second line.
If you want to add a holiday, copy and paste this WEEKDAY function into the third line of the added column.
Note that the third is not required.
It is just for the purpose of checking the day of the week for the entered holiday.

The holidays you enter in this "Holiday" sheet will be shown in yellow as holidays in the calendar of the "Schedule" sheet.
It will also be excluded from the number of business days calculated from the "Start" and "End" dates you enter in the "Schedule" sheet.

Please also refer to the following video.

Enter the start date of the project

From now on, unless otherwise stated, the explanation will be based on the work in the "Schedule" sheet.

Enter the start date for starting the Gantt chart in the cell L3.
Then the subsequent calendars will be updated.
Rows with Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays defined in the "Holiday" sheet will be automatically colored.

Please also refer to the following video.

List the tasks

We recommend that you list and group the tasks required for your project in advance.
This will make it easier to register them in Simple Gantt.
Document creation services such as Notion and Dynalist are useful for listing and organizing tasks.

Create a line separating groups of tasks.

Tasks can be grouped in the following parent-child relationship.

  • Parent category (column D / we'll make a colored divider)
    • Child Category (Column D)
    • Tasks

The names of the parent category and the child category are both entered in column D.

Therefore, the parent-child relationship cannot be determined just by entering the names.

So, please select the status Divider in column B of the parent category.
Then the row will be colored black and can be used as a separator.

*See the reference video we'll show later.

Enter the child categories

In column D, enter the child category of the task.

*Reference video will be shown later.

Enter the task name

In column E, enter the task name.

*Reference video will be shown later.

Enter the Assignee

In column F, enter the name of the assigned person.

You can enter the assignee freely, or you can choose from a drop-down list.

The name of the person in charge of the drop-down list should be entered in the "Name" column of the "DropdownList" sheet.

*See the reference video we'll show later.

Enter the start and end dates.

Enter the start date of the task in column G and the end date in column H.
Then, the number of business days for the start and end dates will be automatically displayed in column I, "Business Days".
This number of business days will exclude Saturdays and Sundays, as well as holidays defined in the "Holiday" sheet.

*See the reference video we'll show later.

Reflecting start and end dates in the calendar

When you enter the start and end dates, they will not be reflected in the calendar.
To reflect them, select your favorite color from the drop-down menu in column C "Color". By default, the following five colors are available.

  • Blue
  • Green
  • Yellow
  • Orange
  • Red

If you want to change or add more colors, modify the conditional formatting.

If you also want to add or change the drop-down list of colors, please enter them in the "Color" column of the "DropdownList" sheet.

*See the reference video we'll show later.

Select the status of a task

Choose the status of each task from the drop-down list in column B "Status". By default, the following five are available.

  • Not proceeding
  • On hold
  • In Process
  • Closed
  • Divider

The Divider is not the status of the task. This should be selected in the row that will be the parent category of the task as described above. If you don't need the parent category to categorize your tasks, you are not required to use this Divider status.

Also, if you select the status of Closed, the row will be grayed out.

If you want to add or change the status drop-down list, enter it in the "Status" column of the "DropdownList" sheet.

For grouping tasks and entering task names, please also refer to the following video.

Enter progress and notes

If you want to enter the progress of a task, enter a number in column J, "Progress". It will be displayed as a percentage.

If you want to leave a memo, please enter it in column K "Note".

Show Tasks by Assignee

If you want to display tasks by assignee, select the desired assignee from the F5 [Assignee] filter.


That's all for the usege.

We hope this helps you to create a Gantt chart in Excel.

You can download it from here.

< Japanese version >
SimpleGantt2021_JA.xlsx

< English version >
SimpleGantt2021_EN.xlsx


Author Info
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Director of web and marketing

Kota Shimizu

I've been working in web, video, and magazine production fields, experienced planning, design, photography, coding, marketing, and business improvement. I'm an omnivorous director who can handle anything in a widely.