Hi friends, readers & fans of Chandoo.org,
I want to share a happy news with you all.
On Saturday (1st of February), we bought a new car. It is Toyota Innova. Pictures below (click to enlarge.)
Thank you & Excel
Before I tell you why I bought another car or how it is, first let me tell you this – Thank you. You constantly inspire me to learn more and share my knowledge. You support my little business in numerous ways – by joining our courses, purchasing our templates and recommending our site. With out your support and love, I would not even thought about buying a comfortable and lovely car like this. Thank you.
And I want to thank Microsoft Excel too. It is the reason why today my family is living a happy, healthy and peaceful life. Thank you Excel.
Why another car?
Long time readers of Chandoo.org remember that we already have a car. And if you know me, you know that I like to consume less and lead a frugal life. So adding another car to our family seemed like a conflicting choice. But we (my wife Jo & I) rationalized this by,
- Our current car doesn’t have any security features (no airbags, ABS etc.) So when we go on long drives, we have this nagging thoughts in our minds.
- Our current car is good for 4 people. As we frequently travel with other family members or friends, going out became an exercise in human squeezing.
- Driving Alto is fun, but driving it for anything more than an hour proved to a back-breaking punishment.
After spending few weeks short-listing car models, we narrowed down to our choice to Toyota Innova. Almost everyone we asked said, ‘Get Innova, it is boringly reliable’. It matched our expectations.
A little more about our car
- Our car is Innova ZX variant.
- It can seat 7 people (2,2 and 3)
- It has good safety features (2 airbags, ABS etc.)
- It drives like a car instead of MPV. Very convenient and comfortable.
- It has all the features you would expect in a car of this size.
- We paid roughly Rs. 1,800,000 (US $28,000) for this. No loan of course (I do not like buying things that I cannot afford.)
Thank you once again
Almost everyday I wake up with a smile, spend the day learning, feeling passionate about my work and go to sleep thinking nothing but how fortunate and blessed my family & I are. All thanks to you. Thanks to your kind support, generous attitude and love for learning, we have a home, car and all the comforts anyone can ask for. Thank you.
And thank you Microsoft & Excel for making my life exciting every day.
More personal stories:
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?