One of the common uses of charts is to compare one value with another. For eg. our sales vs. competitor sales.
Today we will learn a little trick to compare 1 value with another, especially when you have a large set of values to compare. We will learn how to create a chart like this:
Prepare your data
By now you must have realized what the first step for most of our tutorials. It is always prepare your data (or occasionally it is Have you signed up for PHD, but not today). Assuming you have the data in the table format shown to the right, we will also create a 4×2 table to hold the 4 items to be displayed in the chart. First item in the chart is “our sales”, remaining three are competitor figures which will change based on scroll bar position.
We will comeback to how the other three items are computed. So dont worry about them at this point.
Add a Scroll Bar Form Control
Now comes the fun part. Insert a scrollbar control in your workbook. If you are using excel 2003 and earlier, you can find it under view > toolbars > forms and select the scroll bar option and draw it on your worksheet. For excel 2007 you can find it in developer ribbon tab (you need to turn this on first from Office button > Excel Options)
Once you have added a scrollbar control, right click on it and select Format Control option. Here in the “control” tab, adjust the settings of the scrollbar to something like this.
Make sure you have adjusted the minimum and maximum values based on the amount of data you have. In our case we have 10 values to display and at any point we are displaying 3+1 values, so the maximum is 10+3-1 = 8 (why so? think…)
Also, mention a cell link where the scroll bar selection is updated. We will use this cell (F11) to calculate the 3 values to be displayed.
Now, Write the Formulas to Display 3 Values
This is very simple step, especially if you know excel INDEX formula.
What is Index formula and how it works?
Index() is your way of telling excel to fetch a particular item in a list by its position (unlike vlookup or match which lookup a matching item). For eg. INDEX(list, 10) returns the 10th value in that list. INDEX works with both lists and tables, when used on tables, you should also specify which column you want the value from. For eg. INDEX(table, 5,3) returns the 3rd element in 5th row.
Ok, so how do we use it to fetch values for our “data shown” table?
Simple, we use a formula like =INDEX(names_list,F11) to fetch the first competitor name, =INDEX(sales_list,F11) to fetch first competitor sales figures. For the other two, we can use formula like.. =INDEX(names_list,F11+1), =INDEX(names_list,F11+2)
Finally We Make the Comparison Chart
We will insert a simple column chart based on “data shown” table. Adjust the formatting for first column. And position the scroll bar beneath last 3 columns. And you are good to go.
Download Comparison Chart Template & Play With It
I think this is a good way to bring focus to particular data point, especially if it needs to be compared to 100 other values. If you want to know more about the technique, I encourage you to download the workbook and play with it: comparison chart template
Learn Few More Techniques Before Calling it a Day
who says you have to learn only one thing a day? So, learn how to display one chart from many, prepare a matrix chart instead of data tables or make an incell bullet chart
13 Responses to “Gantt Box Chart Tutorial & Template – Download and Try today”
Hi Chandoo
As one of your students I have followed your detailed example through with great success. However, Excel is acting in an unexpected way and I wonder if you could take a look?
http://cid-95d070c79aef808e.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/Gantt%20Box%20Chart.xlsm
On my version, I have to type 40239 (Which equates to 2 Mar 2010) to get the chart to display 31 May 2010 (which should be 40329)!!??
Have I done something wrong or is Excel acting up?
Thx
Oli
PS Your example file in 2007 displays correctly.
Hi,
I like this idea a lot, but I agree the name is a little drab.
As an American I may just be seeing things, but to me the combination of lines and bars on your chart looks like a bunch of cricket bats.
Maybe you could work that into a catchier name. 🙂
Cheers!
Here is some code I use to keep the axis synched.
It may be useful to some of your readers
It is based on a comment I saw on Daily Dose of Excel.
Function SynchGanttAxis(Cname, lower, upper)
'Sets the X min and X max for Category axis
Application.Volatile
On Error Resume Next
'
'Top Horizontal Axis
With ActiveSheet.Shapes(Cname).Chart.Axes(xlCategory, 1)
.MinimumScale = lower
.MaximumScale = upper
End With
'Bottom Horizontal Axis
With ActiveSheet.Shapes(Cname).Chart.Axes(xlValue, 2)
.MinimumScale = lower
.MaximumScale = upper
End With
End Function
Function SynchVerticalAxis(Cname, lower, upper)
Application.Volatile
On Error Resume Next
' Excel 2007 only
'Right hand vertical axis
With ActiveSheet.Shapes(Cname).Chart.Axes(xlValue, 1)
.MinimumScale = 0
.MaximumScale = upper
End With
End Function
@Oli.. Can you check your file again.. I see 40329...
@Dave: Even I saw things.. the bars actually looked like lollipops. How about calling this lollipop chart - now that would be yummy and goes along the tradition of naming charts after eatables (bar, pie, donut...)
@Bob: Superb stuff... thanks for sharing 🙂
Hi Chandoo
This looks really good and I think it can also be applied to show project phases / milestones.
Question: Thinking further could this be amended to display a project lifecycle (Idea through to Implementation say 7 phases) on one bar / row? Just imagine 20 projects within a programme all on one chart one bar each showing their respective lifecycle stages i.e. on one page.
Idea: As the Gantt Box Chart this is quite intensive to set up re formatting etc how about the added extra of once you have completed this to "Save as template" i.e. saves the formatting and layout of the chart as a template so you can apply to future charts. Simple to do and will save the time formatting etc again and again and again.
Therefore tip: Click on your chart demo and then click on Save As template icon (2007) - edit file name and click on save. Ready to use / apply via Templates in Change Chart Type window.
Thanks and be very interested if the lifecycle question can be resolved
Mike
How embarrassing.
I was obviously suffering from numerical dyslexia. I was one of those days.
@Mike H: You can easily make this chart to work like a generic project lifecycle plan chart. All you have to do is,
1. in a separate sheet define the steps of lifecycle and various dates in a table (with 5 columns for each of the projects you have).
2. now use a control cell to input the project name you want to show in the chart
3. based on the input, use OFFSET Formulas to get the correct data
4. Rest is same as the tutorial above
For more info on the dynamic charting visit http://chandoo.org/wp/tag/dynamic-charts/ and http://chandoo.org/wp?s=OFFSET
Your solution is really smart but in the en Excel isn't meant to do stuff like this. I, as a former PM, always thought is was frustrating that you had to do stuff like this for something simple like a Gantt chart. So I built Tom's Planner. And would like to plug it here. I think it really solves the problem you are trying to solve in the most efficient way. Check out http://www.tomsplanner.com for a free account or play around with the demo.
Hi there,
Chandoo - this is really a very nice and helpfull chart - I adopted it, so I can report a forecast or the delay of a certain task (coming from my role as an auditor for projects).
One topic I´m currently struggeling with: I do have a project lasting for lets say 12 month. For a management reporting, I want to have kind of snapshot, lets say one month back and 2 month in the future. I tried with the offset formula, but failed. Any idea?
Thx
Lopi
[...] Ein viel geliebter Klassiker ist die Erstellung von GANTT-Diagrammen mit Excel. Wir hatten das Thema wiederholt schon hier. Chandoo.org hat sich mal wieder mit einer neuen Variante hervorgetan: Das GANTT-Box-Chart. [...]
[...] [...]
Hi Chandoo - fantastic xls. One thing I can't figure out how to do is adjust the alignment of the vertical axis. I would like to left align so that I could indent to represent sub tasks. Can that be done? Or is there a better way?
I've been trying to work out if there's a way to show weekends on the graph. The closest thing I've got is to add them on a secondary axis, but then I haven't been able to keep both axis lined up together! Any ideas?
Following on from this - is it possible to show things like holidays?