How to create and manage a Gantt chart in Smartsheet

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Usage SmartSheet’s Gantt chart maker to visually show tasks due dates, durations, dependencies, begin dates and more.

February 12, 2021, Brazil. In this photo illustration the Smartsheet logo seen displayed on a smartphone screen. Image: Rafael Henrique/Adobe Stock Gantt charts are an excellent method to visualize the progress of your tasks in such a way that assists find any bottlenecks, but establishing a Gantt chart can often be difficult and time consuming. With Smartsheet, you can quickly and quickly construct a Gantt chart from scratch. Below, we’ll take you through all the steps to construct your very first Gantt chart in Smartsheet.

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How to produce a Gantt chart in Smartsheet

From the main screen in Smartsheet, you will wish to click the + indication from the left-hand menu (Figure A). This will bring up the project selection page.

Figure A

Click the+icon. From here, you will wish to select a Gantt chart (Figure B ). This will instantly create a

sheet with all the dependencies pre-made. Figure B

Select Gantt chart from the choices.

Name your sheet and click continue (Figure C). Figure C

Call your sheet. Setting up parent rows in Smartsheet At this point you will now have the full design required to start creating your Gantt chart. To begin, start filling out fields related to your jobs. In this case, we will set up the parent rows as Phase 1 through Phase 3. Click a row to start including these (Figure D).

Figure D

Start entering your moms and dad rows

. Creating child rows in Smartsheet Next, ideal click on a moms and dad row and choose Insert row listed below (Figure E). This is where you can begin to get in tasks or child rows related to the parent row.

Figure E

Select Insert row below. After you go into text into a kid row, click the Indent icon( Figure F)to complete this entry as a kid row. Figure F Click the Indent icon. You can do this for as many jobs as you have. Just right click on the kid row and select Insert Row Below to keep including more if required.

Now you will wish to color code your rows to make your Gantt chart easier to check out. Highlight a moms and dad row and then choose a color from the header menu color tool (Figure G).

Figure G

Color code your rows. Must-read developer protection Normally, you want your parent rows to be a darker shade, then the child rows are a lighter shade of that very same color. This makes the workflow of your Gantt chart easy to understand with simply a look.

Getting in dates and reliances into your Smartsheet Gantt chart

Now, we will begin getting in the data that will make your Gantt chart start to come to life.

SEE: Feature comparison: Time tracking software and systems (TechRepublic Premium)

Select a task and after that under the Duration tab for that row, get in a number of days required to complete that job (Figure H).

Figure H

Enter the days needed for that job. Next, pick the Start Date tab and enter when this task is to be begun. Clicking on the small calendar icon will bring up a calendar dialogue to make things much easier (Figure I). Notification that the chart will immediately fill in the end date based on your previous entries.

Figure I

Utilize the calendar to select a date. If you now look at the right-hand man panel, you will see the Gantt chart start to take form. Your tasks are now being revealed on a timeline and show their lengths and time to completion (Figure J).

Figure J

Tasks immediately added to Gantt chart. Producing dependences in your Smartsheet

Gantt chart To begin to produce dependencies, choose a task. Then, under the Predecessor tab, get in the row variety of the task you want this based on (Figure K).

Figure K

Produce a dependency. This will make that job based on the row you have actually previously picked. If you take a look at your Gantt chart on the right, you will see an arrow now showing that dependence (Figure L).

Figure L

Reliance is instantly shown on the Gantt chart. The default setting for these dependencies is a Finished-Start relationship. There is also a default lag time of one work day between the surface of one job to the start

of the other. Tailoring your Smartsheet Gantt charts

Once you have actually entered your dates, dependences and conclusion times, you can further tailor those with simple drag-and-drop motions.

From the right panel showing the Gantt chart timeline, you can drag any bar to change the dates or length instead of inputting them by hand in the specific cells as we did in the past. Smartsheet will immediately change the remainder of the entries to fit the new changes.

You can also change dependences this way also. Click the line currently connecting two tasks (Figure L) and simply drag it to another job. This action can be a little finicky as you have to click straight on the line.

You can further edit reliances by clicking the little pencil icon in the cells under the predecessor tab.

Click on this pencil and a new dialogue will open (Figure M). Here you can pick to change dependence settings for each component. For instance, you can alter from Finished-Start to Start-Start.

Figure M

Click to modify reliance settings. You can likewise alter the default lag time in that exact same dialogue.

How to manage your Gantt Chart

As your Gantt chart grows and becomes more complicated, Smartsheet offers an Important Path view to assist you find essential crossroads and other problems with your job.

To access this, go to the top-right corner and click the Critical Path view icon (Figure N).

Figure N

Trigger Important Path view.

With this button activated you can now right-click on any job bar in your Gantt chart then select to see the Driving path, which will reveal what impacts a row start date.

You can likewise right click a moms and dad task and pick the Summary course. This will reveal all child jobs that impact the parent task. This is an useful tool to keep an eye out for possible issues that may keep your task from remaining on schedule.

With that last action, you ought to now have all the knowledge you need to develop your first Gantt chart within Smartsheet. Using the steps above, you can create a chart of any intricacy to fit your next task.

For more ways to increase your job management skills, benefit from these courses from TechRepublic Academy.

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