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Excel Gantt Chart from Multiple Projects

How to use Excel and OnePager Express to combine multiple schedules into a single Gantt chart

If you keep track of projects using an Excel spreadsheet, you need an easy way to present your project schedules to executives and to your team. If you manage a portfolio of projects in Excel, summary presentations become even more important. Trying to force Excel into creating Gantt charts is tedious and time-consuming, and trying to do so for multiple projects is even more complicated.

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This article describes how to create a multi-project Gantt chart in OnePager Express, using data you've already been tracking in an Excel spreadsheet. OnePager Express is the leading project management add-in for Microsoft Excel. If you don't have OnePager Express yet, you can download a free 15-day free trial to see how it works.

Quick-Start Instructions

  1. Start with a set of Excel spreadsheets, one for each of your projects. Each of your spreadsheets should have a column for each task of the project, the name of each task's parent project, start and finish dates, and additional project-specific information.

    An Excel spreadsheet containing informaton about several related projects in a portfolio or program.

    If you don't already have spreadsheets of your own, you can download ours to help you get started more quickly. Make sure that you download all three example Excel files plus the OnePager template file so that you follow the remaining steps:

      Project A.xlsx (Excel File)
      Project B.xlsx (Excel File)
      Project C.xlsx (Excel File)
      Multi-Project Gantt Chart.tat (OnePager Template)

  1. Double-click the OnePager Express icon on your desktop. From the Start screen that appears, choose New.

    OnePager Express Start screen.

  2. Select one of your spreadsheets as the first Excel source file. Then, click the Add/Remove button add as many more Excel project plans as you'd like. Hit OK.

    Import multiple Microsoft Excel spreadsheets into your OnePager Gantt chart.

  3. An import wizard will appear, letting you select the OnePager template that will set the initial style of your chart. To select a template, go to Change > BROWSE FILES and locate the template called Multi-Project Gantt Chart that you downloaded earlier.

    The redesigned import wizard for OnePager Express, configured to import multiple project plans from Microsoft Excel and create a single-page Gantt chart.

  4. Click Next to pick the columns from your spreadsheet that you want to import. Most of the time, you can let OnePager Express figure this out for you:

    The redesigned column mapping wizard for OnePager Express, configured to import multiple project plans from Microsoft Excel and create a single-page Gantt chart.

  5. Click Create new chart. OnePager will import your selected tasks and milestones and create a high-level portfolio view of all three projects:

    How to make a Gantt chart in Excel 2007, 2010, or 2013: This multi-project Gantt chart was created in the OnePager Express add-in to Microsoft Excel.

It's that easy! From here, you can customize your Gantt chart as much as you need to, with different settings for grouping, sorting, and conditional formatting. OnePager Express is the easiest way to create a multi-project report from an Excel spreadsheet.

Get started today by downloading a free trial.

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