Gantt charts are a very popular way to visually depict project plans. Today, let us learn how to use Excel to make quick & easy Project Plan Gantt Chart.
This is what we will be creating,
Step 1: Set up project plan grid
First step is simple.
In a blank worksheet, set up an empty grid like this:
Key things to note:
- Project start date goes in to cell C3
- Project dates appear from cell D5 & D6 onwards, one day per column.
- Make the grid as big as you want. I choose 20 activities x 120 days.
Step 2: Fill up dates
Now, lets load the dates in to the plan. The first day of the project is known (it is in cell C3.)
- Select D5 and point it to C3 by typing =C3
- Set D6 to the same value as D5 by typing = D6
- Now, both D5 & D6 contain the same date. (Why 2 dates? You will understand in a minute!)
- In next column (E), we want the next working day.
- So in E5 type =WORKDAY(D5, 1)
- Now, select D5:E5, format them so only DAY portion of date is shown. To do this, press CTRL+1 after selecting them, in Number tab, select Custom and type d, click ok.
- Select D6, format it so only the first letter of the month is shown instead of entire date. To do this, set number format code as MMMMM.
- Drag E5 sideways for all the dates.
- Drag D6 sideways for all the dates.
- Our dates are ready!
Here is a demo of all the steps:
Step 3: Enter project plan data
Now that our grid is ready, enter the data. This is simple. Just type 1 whenever an activity is happening on a date. For example, if Activity 1 happens on 18th & 19th of February, type 1 in both cells.
Step 4: Calculating Duration
This is really simple. In the duration column, select first cell and type =COUNT(D7:DS7)
Note: Make sure you change the cell references based on the number of columns and where your data is!
Drag down the formula to get duration for all activities.
Step 5: Apply conditional formatting
Now that all the plan data is ready, lets tell Excel to highlight all 1’s so that we get a Gantt chart. Quick & Easy!
- Select the entire grid (excluding activity names, durations & dates)
- Go to Home > Conditional formatting > New rule (Related: Introduction to conditional formatting)
- Specify a rule to fill color in all cells with 1.
- Also, set cell formatting to ;;; so that the contents (ie 1s) are not visible. (Related: Making cell contents invisible)
- See the conditional formatting rule I have used below:
Bonus trick: Visually separate weeks with a border
Since our plan has many weeks, it would be cool to show a vertical line between every week. To do this:
- Select the grid again.
- Add a new conditional formatting rule
- Select the type of rule as “Use a formula…”
- Use this formula =WEEKDAY(D$5) = 6
- Set up formatting so that right-side vertical border is shown when the rule is met.
- You are done!
That’s all, our quick Gantt chart is ready
That is all. Your quick project plan is ready. Go ahead and show it off. Use it for an upcoming project and impress your boss.
Download the quick Gantt chart template
Click here to download the template. It contains instructions on how to modify the template. Go ahead and example the formulas, conditional formatting rules to understand more.
How do you like this quick & easy template?
Although I have a lot of complex project plan templates, often I rely something quick & easy like this. It simply works and lets me focus on the project at hand.
What about you? Do you use quick templates like this? Please share your experiences and ideas using comments.
More on Project Management using Excel
Are you a project manager or analyst? Here are a few more examples, templates & resources for you.
- Excel Project Management page – huge collection of tips, resources and downloads.
- Gantt charts using Excel
- Project status dashboard using Excel
- Project Portfolio dashboard using Excel
If you are a project manager or analyst, you would be working with Gantt charts, status reports, issue trackers & project dashboards every day. If you are tired of creating these from scratch, get my Excel Project Management template pack.
It contains 25+ Excel templates for various needs of project management – right from planning to tracking to reporting. All beautifully designed and easy to customize so that you can be an awesome project manager.
Click here to know more and get your copy today.
21 Responses to “How to Filter Odd or Even Rows only? [Quick Tips]”
Infact, instead of using =ISEVEN(B3), how about to use =ISEVEN(ROW())
So it takes away any chance of wrong referencing.
I like Daily Dose of Excel
I like it.
Just a heads up, you do need to have the Analysis ToolPak add-in activated to use the ISEVEN / ISODD functions. An alternative to ISEVEN would be:
=MOD(ROW(),2)=0
rather than use a formula, couldn't you enter "true" in first cell and "false" in the second and drag it down and than filter on true or false.
Just for clarification, is Ashish looking to filter by even or odd Characters or rows?
so many functions to learn!
Nice support by chandoo and team as a helpdesk. Give us more to learn and make us awesome. Always be helpful.......
In case you want to delete instead of filter,
IF your data is in Sheet1 column A
Put this in Sheet2 column A and drag down
=OFFSET(Sheet1!A$1,(ROWS($1:1)-1)*2,,)
(This is to delete even rows)
To delete odd rows :
=OFFSET(Sheet1!A$2,(ROWS($1:1)-1)*2,,)
If your numbered cells did not correspond to rows, the answer would be even simpler:
=MOD([cell address],2), then filter by 0 to see evens or 1 to see odds.
I sometimes do this using an even simpler method. I add a new column called "Sign" and put the value of 1 in the first row, say cell C2 if C1 contains the header. Then in C3 I put the formula =-1 * C2, which I copy and paste into the rest of the rows (so C4 has =-1 * C3 and so forth). Now I can just apply a filter and pick either +1 or -1 to see half the rows.
Another way, which works if I want three possibilities: in C2 I put the value 1, in C3 I put the value 2, in C4 I put the value 3, then in C5 I put the formula =C2 then I copy C5 and paste into all the remaining rows (so C6 gets =C3, C7 gets =C4, etc.). Now I can apply a filter and pick the value 1, 2, or 3 to see a third of the rows.
Extending this approach to more than 3 cases is left as an exercise for the reader.
Another way =MOD(ROW();2). In this case, must to choose betwen 1 and 0.
[...] How to Filter Even or Odd rows only [...]
very different style Odd or Even Rows very easy way to visit this site
http://www.handycss.com/tips/odd-or-even-rows/
Thanks for the tip, it worked like magic, saved having to delete row by row in my database.
Thanks!
Thankssssssssssssssss
Hi Chandoo- First of all thanks for the trick. It helped me a lot. Here I have one more challenge. Having filtered the data based on odd. I want to paste data in another sheet adjacent to it. How can I do that?
For Example-
A 1 odd
B 3 odd
C 4 even
D 6 even
I have fileted the above data for odd and want to copy the "This is odd number" text in adjacent/next sheet here. How can I do that. After doing this my data should look like this
A 1 odd This is odd number
B 3 odd This is odd number
C 4 even
D 6 even
Hi! Could you please help me find a formula to filter by language?
Thank you!
Chandoo SIR,
I HAVE A DATA IN EXCEL ROWS LIKE BELOW IS THERE ANY FORMULA OR A WAY WHERE I CAN INSTRUCT I CAN MAKE CHANGES , MEANS I WANT TO WRITE ONLY , THE FIG IS FRESH, BUT IN BELOW ROW IT WILL AUTOMATICALLY TAKE THE SOME WORDS FROM FIGS AND MAKE IN PLURAL FORM , WHILE USING '' ARE'' LIKE BELOW
The fig is fresh - row 1
Figs are fresh - row 2
The Pomegranate is red - row 3
Pomegranates are red - row 4
=IF(EVEN(A1)=A1,"EVEN - do something","ODD - do something else") with iferron (for blank Cell)