On Firday, we proposed a new chart for showing project plans. I chose an ugly name for it and called it Gantt Box Chart.
Essentially, a gantt box chart is what you get when a gantt chart and box plot go to a bar, get drunk and decide to make out. It shows the project plan like any other gantt chart, and it shows the distribution of activity end dates, like any other box plot.
You can see an example gantt box chart for a fictional software project above.
Today, we will learn how to create a similar chart in Excel. Get a steaming cup of coffee or whatever keeps you going and follow these simple steps to make a gantt box chart.
[Read this post if you want to know what GBC is and how to read it]
1. Set up your data:
Just like any other chart in excel, a gantt box chart too requires well structured data. In our case, we need 5 things.
- Activity name
- Start Date
- Best Case End Date
- Realistic (or Plan) End Date
- Worst Case End Date
Getting all the 3 variations of End dates can be tricky. But if you are managing projects for long, you might already know how to get these dates. Otherwise, here is one approach, proposed by Joel Spolsky, called as Evidence Based Scheduling that can help you.
We will also need 3 additional helper columns where we need to calculate some numbers so that our gantt box chart can be constructed without resorting to magic wands. These are,
- BC: Number of days between Start Date and Best Case End Date
- R: Number of days between Best Case End Date and Realistic Date
- W: Number of days between Realistic Date and Worst Case End Date
2. Create a Stacked Bar Chart
Add a new stacked bar chart. The series to be stacked are,
- Best case end date
- R
- W
Use the “Activity Name” column for category axis labels.
Now, our chart should look like:
3. Say your favorite curse word and Reverse the categories
Ok, time for a minor annoyance. Excel has magically showed the first activity of project at bottom. So, we need to reverse the category axis values before any further.
Just select the category axis, go to format axis (press CTRL+1) and click the little box that says “order reverse in Categories”.
Now, the chart should look like this:
4. Add Error Bars to Best Case Series
Now, add error bars to the best case series of the chart so that it looks like a line is drawn connecting best case date to start date of each activity. To do that, follow these steps:
- Select “best case end date” series.
- Add Error Bars (from format ribbon)
- Specify the type of error bar as “Negative only”
- Select “Custom” for error bar values
- Now, point the error bar values to the helper column “BC”
- Format the error bar in such a way that no cap is shown and it is thick.
At this point, our gantt box chart should look like this:
5. Finally, format the chart
Now, our gantt box chart is almost ready. But it is still ugly. We need not hire a Hollywood grade make-up man to beautify this. We just need a few clicks.
- Remove legend
- Add vertical and horizontal grid lines. Make them subtle.
- Change text colors to soothing ones.
- Remove fills from all series in stacked bar chart.
- Apply borders to 2nd and 3rd series to create a box effect.
- Format the date axis,
- Adjust the starting point (unfortunately you have to enter the number equivalent of date, like 1-May-2010 as 40299)
- Adjust major unit – I used 14 days, you can try something else depending on overall project length.
- Set the axis number formatting to d-mmm or mmm or myy or something else that works for you.
- Add a chart title
That is all. Our Gantt Box Chart is finally ready. Now, go figure why your project is not on track and do something about it.
Displaying Completed Activities:
The easiest way to show completed activities is to change all 3 end dates to the same date: that of the actual end date. This way, you just see a line when an activity is done and a box when there are variations in end dates.
Of course, you can use another helper column to show a vertical line or a symbol of your choice to denote the end point as well. I leave it to you to figure out that portion.
Download the Gantt Box Chart Template:
I have prepared an excel template for creating Gantt Box Charts quickly. Go ahead and download the version that you want.
Excel 2007+ version | Excel 2003 version
Here is a mirror with both files as a zip. Go on, be awesome 🙂
Share your experiences of using Gantt Box Chart:
If you like this chart and implementing it in one of your projects, do tell me how it went. Or just share your thoughts on this implementation and any suggestions. Go ahead and share.
Templates & Tutorials on Project Management:
- Excel Gantt Chart Template
- Project Milestones – Timeline Template
- Project Status Dashboard Template
- More resources on using Excel for Project Management
Project Management Template Set – Get a copy today
I have made a set of 24 templates that take care of various activities in a project right from planning to time sheets to issues to project status reporting thru dashboards. These templates have been bought by more than 500 project managers all over the world and they are saving hours of time every week using these templates.
Go ahead and a get a copy of my project management templates.
15 Responses to “Compare 2 Lists Visually and Highlight Matches”
Hi,
I solved this in a little different way.
We have 2 lists, one starts at A1 and other at B1, both are vertical arrays.
First thing is define 2 named ranges, list1 and list2:
list1 refers to "=OFFSET(Sheet1!$A$1;0;0;SUMPRODUCT(--(Sheet1!$A$1:$A$1000""));1)"
list2 refers to "=OFFSET(Sheet1!$A$1;0;0;SUMPRODUCT(--(Sheet1!$B$1:$B$1000""));1)"
this way lists will be dynamically sized when you had or remove elements (you can't have blanks and you can't have more than 1000 elements).
Then I use conditional formatting in column A when this formula is true:
"=NOT(ISERROR(MATCH(A1;list2;0)))"
and "=NOT(ISERROR(MATCH(B1;list1;0)))" to list2.
This way we eliminate the need for auxiliary columns or lists.
Hope you like my way! 😀
Nunes
Simple conditional formatting formula.
Assuming lists vertical lists starting in A1 & B1
To highlight just one column (assume B for example)
Conditional formatting>New Rule>by formula
=MATCH(B1,$A$1:$A$99,0)
Set the cell fill to what ever color you prefer & press OK
To highlight both columns repeat with this formula for cell in column A
=MATCH(A1,$B$1:$B$99,0)
This approach doesn't require named fields or addtl columns
glw
Say I had 1 list in A2:A20 and another in B2:B20.
To format all the items in column A that are repeated in column B I would use the following Conditional Formatting rule.
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,$B$2:$B$20,1,false)),true,false)
All the duplicates are highlighted. It us a very simple example of comparison.
I may be missing something here, but I usually highlight both my lists by holding ctrl eg A1:A20 E10:E40 then choose conditional formatting from the ribbon and then highlight duplicates, and this does it?
Lee, I was perplexed as well. I do the same thing you do with the conditional formating. A drag and click to highlight range and choose highlight duplicates does the trick for me.
I believe these methods are to check if an item from one list also appears in the other list. So if an item mentioned many times in one list if also mentioned in the other list or not.
The Conditional Formatting highlight duplicates feature will do this, but it will also highlight an item if it appears multiple times in the one column or list.
Hi, I would just like to know (if you are willing to share) which image editing program you use to make your image like above, like they are torn apart from bottom? I've been looking for long.
@i48998
Chandoo is on Holidays, but Chandoo uses Paint.Net
Paint.net is a free download available at http://www.paint.net/
.
I use CorelDraw/PhotoPaint
.
We both use the Snipping Tool (a freebe with Win Vista/10)
.
We both use Camtasia for doing screen captures to make animated GIFs where you see animation.
Here is how I would accomplish
(1) Define Names: List_1, List_2
(2) =ISNA(MATCH(D4,List_2,0))-1 (Conditional Format formula List_1)
(3) =ISNA(MATCH(D4,List_1,0))-1 (Conditional Format formula List_2)
ISNA will return 1 if NO Match and O if Match by adding a -1 will make: NO Match 0 and Match a -1 which is True
Hi all
this my first Post here
i think we can take Unique List for tow list to know what is not Duplicate By this Array formula
=IFERROR(INDEX($D$6:$D$33,SMALL(IF(ISERROR(MATCH($D$6:$D$33,$B$6:$B$33,0)),ROW($D$6:$D$33)-ROW($D$6)+1),ROWS($J$5:J5))),"")
and this one for Duplicate Value
=IFERROR(INDEX($D$6:$D$33,SMALL(IF(ISNUMBER(MATCH($D$6:$D$33,$B$6:$B$33,0)),ROW($D$6:$D$33)-ROW($D$6)+1),ROWS($J$5:J5))),"")
Don't forget to Enter This Formula by Pressing Ctrl+Shift+Enter
without wanting to ruthlessly self promote here, I do have an addin that does neatly compare two ranges, not just in columns, so you might want to check that out.
Having said that this is a pretty neat solution if you dont want to be going down the VBA or purchase route. I like it
however, could you not do something with the remove duplicates feature in Excel 2010 and then compare the resulting data set?
Hi, Chandoo! I've found yesterday your Excel website... What can I say? It's just awesome, Excellent. Being a developer for 30 years, more than 15 with Office products, and wow!, how many things I discovered in a couple of hours, and what pretty resolved.
I decided to take the long path of the newbies and read all your examples and write down by myself all of them, and when I arrived to this (the comparison of two lists) I think I've found a problem:
a) in "Step 4: Apply conditional formatting to Second List - Use the same logic, but this time the rule becomes =COUNTIF(count1s,$H6)" it should say "Step 4: Apply conditional formatting to Second List - Use the same logic, but this time the rule becomes =COUNTIF(count1s,$H6)>0", but this is a typing error that I believe all of us here might have discovered and corrected
b) the very problem: I wrote down two different lists, in different ranges, and with different number of elements, I specified the equivalent conditional formats, et non voilá!, I didn't get what expected. So I downloaded your example book, I checked range names, formulaes, conditional formats and all OK. So I copied -just values- from my book to yours, and I still couldn't achieve the goal.
I'm using Excel 2010 in spanish, I'm from Buenos Aires (Argentina), and my book is at your disposition whenever you considerate it appropiate.
Thanks in advance for your time, and again my congratulations for your work here.
Best regards.
SirJB7
Comparison of 2 lists visually with highlights
Author: SirJB7 / Date: 11-Dic-2011
Pros: no duplicated tables, no matrix formulaes, no named ranges, no VBA code, just conditional formatting
Cons: not found yet, comments and observations welcome
Features:
a) standard problem: highlights in orange/yellow elements existing in the other list
b) optimized problem: idem a) plus highlights in red/violet first occurrence of elements existing in the other list
Sheet contents:
a) conditional format, 1 rule per list (2 methods used)
A1:A20, first list
B1:B20, second list
a1) range A1:A20, condition =NO(ESERROR(BUSCARV(A1;B$1:B$20;1;FALSO))), format Orange ---> in english: =NOT(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A1,B$1:B$20,1,FALSE)))
a2) range B1:B20, condition =CONTAR.SI(A$1:A$20;B1)>0, format Yellow ---> in english: =COUNTIF(A$1:A$20,B1)>0
b) conditional format, 2 rules per list (2 methods used)
D1:D20, first list
E1:E20, second list
b1) range E1:E20, condition 1 =Y(NO(ESERROR(BUSCARV(D1;E$1:E$20;1;FALSO)));COINCIDIR(D1;D$1:D$20;0)=FILA(D1)), format Red ---> in english: =AND(NOT(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(D1,E$1:E$20,1,FALSE))),MATCH(D1,D$1:D$20,0)=ROW(D1))
same range, condition 2 and format 2, same as a1)
b2) range E1:E20, condition =Y(CONTAR.SI(D$1:D$20;E1)>0;COINCIDIR(E1;E$1:E$20;0)=FILA(E1)), format Violet ---> in english: =AND(COUNTIF(D$1:D$20,E1)>0,MATCH(E1,E$1:E$20,0)=ROW(E1))
same range, condition 2 and format 2, same as a2)
Personally I like the a2) and b2) solutions, I think the formulaes are prettier.
I still don't know the rules of this website and forum, but it any precept is infringed I'm willing to share the workbook with the solution. If it breaks a rule, I apologize and promise that won't happen again.
Best regards for all!
Dear All i have a complicated situation...
1. I have two sheets of data Sheet1 and Sheet2 (from various sources) - Both of these contain data matching and Not matching as well..
2. Now for me i need to build an excel where in i need to get sheet 3 with values that are present in a column of Sheet 1.
What ever Sheet 1 doesn't have i dont want those rows from sheet 2 to be populated into Sheet3.
Can any one help me out.
Hi Team
The above example is to compare partial name from 2 different columns.
If I want to cross check it in a single column. I have both correct and partial correct/match entries in a column. Is there any way I can find both the entries in the column.
Regards