I tried the method, because my Excel somehow did not come with X- error bar in line chart, so I use bar chart instead, I find bar chart could achieve the result better
1)To achieve the distance of actual lines to the projected lines, what you need to do is to format the data series and select option then set the overlapping to 0 or any value that gives you the effect.
2)For the Y – axis, instead of using the “leg” in column B , you can use the “description” directly.

I thaught the idea of generating a #NA error for value of the cell that you don’t need to show in the chart is a top idea, I have never thaught of that.

I indeed gave it some thought for the last row but as I add/remove tasks/projects I need a macro to set it back to regular and change the new last task to those settings.

I might end up doing it but I feel too lazy right now.

for the label as I print the chart and go with it to meetings etc… I need to see all the labels.

though it is in fact visible enough that the last row is covering the full period and indicates the progress, Actually now I will more focus on adding percentage complete over the chart itself for each tasks

I run multiple projects at once so I made one main chart to track multiple other charts
(each projects has a total line showing the overall advancement of the project which is in turn being linked to the main chart showing all the projects advancement)

Though I would like to put the last task label in another color so the total is a bit more visible, but no luck yet, even looking through all of jon’s charts. is there any axis trick to do it or the only way would be to stack a dummy chart on top of it ?

anyway thanks for all the tips found in that thread.

oh and I also combined that with some vba to refresh timelines (axis scales). I didnt use the UDF way though as I truly hate those and you seem to need a permanent calculation going on to make it wor, so it is just a button push which IMO is more than enough as you just need to change your projects from time to time and clicking a button isnt that difficult.

Regards (if anyone want I can do clean version of that gantt workbook and host it somewhere)

I’m from Belgium so sorry for poor English.

I have a problem.

What if someone gives you like 100 taxitours to do.

It’s a little bit the same as the tasks.

1) One start at 6:00 and ends at 8:00

2) another starts at 8:10 and ends at 9:00

3) yet another starts at 6:20 and ends at 8:30

You only need two taxidrivers, cause one driver can do 1 and 2 and another one 3.

But how can you organize this with excel.

I mean a chart where excel puts al drives possible after eachother, so to minimilize drivers.

Please contact me, cause I really don’t know how to solve this problem.

Probably I’ll have to use VBA.

Thank you verry much!!

Don’t send the original Excel workbook. Make a copy of the file, copy the chart as a picture (hold Shift while clicking on the Edit menu and Copy becomes Copy Picture, then choose the On Screen and Picture options), then paste the picture (regular Paste) and delete the original chart.

I tried first in excel but the problem is each time you send it to someone they do manage to mess with something, and it usually isnt that user friendly

Looks nice and clean. Like almost everyone I’ve had a try at it and ended up with using a grid of cells along with conditional formatting. The advantage of this is that you can add a line which totals up all the tasks and generates a resource profile over the project. My example here doesn’t show that, but it is easy to add a resource percentage column and then modify the formula to display that value in the appropriate cells. Take a look here:
http://masamiki.com/project/Excel.htm

As for the question of manufacturing planning on small timescales, Project’s smallest increment is the minute, but you can simply read minutes as seconds and hours as minutes, but really, project is not the best tool for that job. There is software for this type of modeling which would be better suited for it.

It has always disappointed me that project related software tends to have limited and absolute time scales only.

What about planning manufacturing operations of small durations, such as machining or robotic assembly? These and other similar, repetitive and overlapping operations are not unlike activities in a single project, regarding their planning.

I do not know a general project software that would allow 0.27 sec for “positioning” or 2.67 sec for “shaft turning” in an imaginary Swiss watch making process, for example.

Now, your charting tool seems to have scope for this kind of project planning, too.