Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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While Microsoft Project is not really part of Office, Visio is, and so it occurred to me that it would be helpful to readers to take a quick look at two Visio diagrams that can help you manage projects. For a very simple project, you can probably make do with a nice Timeline, which we’ve covered previously.

To begin either a Pert or Gantt chart, which are great for higher level diagrams, simply use the Schedule Templates for a New diagram.

Figure 1440

The Shapes window opens Pert Chart shapes in a stencil for you to drag onto your diagram. You can begin typing in any cell of the shape to immediately add your own captions and information.

Figure 1441

The Pert Chart is a detailed flowchart of milestones and key events that you can continue to create by dragging shapes into the diagram and connecting them. In each case you can embellish the diagram by adding connections and information. You can also use the blue arrows on a selected shape to AutoConnect it to a subsequent shape.

Figure 1442

Then you can add a Legend and Callouts to the diagram for additional descriptions of the phases of the project.

Figure 1443

You might find Gantt charts a nice alternative for more detailed visual projects. In many ways Gantt charts combine the features of a Timeline and a spreadsheet into one neat package that gives you an overview of the important milestones of a project over time – along with additional cells for information about duration, resources or other parameters.

When you begin a Gantt chart in Visio from the Schedule Templates (see above), you are greeted not only by a stencil with shapes, but also with an Options window. This is similar to beginning a table in Word or PowerPoint; you need to break down your project into a number of Tasks (which you can add to or subtract from later on). The default is five.

Figure 1444

With the options enabled, the main chart is placed in the diagram. You can easily click in the Task cells to begin to fill them in.

Figure 1445

By adjusting your options to match the time spans, and adding your data, you can create a nice set of timelines that show exactly how the project will proceed. To re-set the options once the chart has been started, just right click it and select Options again.

Figure 1446

Again, using the Word Table analogy, you can right click a column to add a new column for another parameter for a task, or to add a new task itself. You can also use the Gantt Chart toolbar to add new tasks.

Figure 1447

You can add connected "sub-tasks" to existing tasks by creating a new task and then indenting and connecting it. You can obviously Outdent or promote a task as well. Tasks that are connected can be linked as well using the symbol that looks like the infinity sign.

Figure 1448

Besides working within the main chart itself, you can also drag and drop new tasks directly into it from the stencil, and then fill in their details.

You can even add a second Gantt chart to the existing diagram by dragging it in from the stencil and setting its options.

What’s also very cool about the Gantt chart is because it is based on a table of data, you can actually import data from an Excel spreadsheet or even from Project to generate the chart, or export the data from a Gantt chart created in Visio to Project or Excel (or other programs with similar import/export options).

With a Gantt chart created in Visio, explore the Import and Export options in the Gantt chart menu.

Figure 1449

The Import process begins a Wizard that shows you the types of files that can be directly imported or allows you to start the Gantt chart and then add data from a compatible file format.

Figure 1450

Since many Gantt charts are too large to easily fit on even one landscape page, you need to make sure the printer page and drawing page orientations are the same. On the File menu, click Page Setup and then click the Page Size tab to check the drawing page orientation. You can click the Print Setup tab to check the orientation on the printer page.

You can also turn on Page Breaks on the View Menu to see how many pages it will take to print the chart. You should preview the project before printing and then make any adjustments to the page breaks or options.

You can also copy and paste either a Pert or Gantt chart into a PowerPoint slide, or use the Insert Object feature in PowerPoint to add the chart as a Visio object.

This will make the chart potentially interactive — with a Gantt chart you can change the parameters in the various tasks and instantly see in the right panel how the various timelines relate to each other.

If you’re really sharp, you could program the Gantt chart with VBA and use the ShapeSheet properties of the various tasks to instantly change the various values.

In any event, a Pert or Gantt chart is a nice hybrid alternative to the Timeline, because it allows you to place the actual information directly into the various shapes in a way that they are easily seen and read.

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