Building Primavera Gantt Charts using Excel and OnePager Express

OnePager Express from Chronicle Graphics can import your Primavera P6 schedule and create full-color, dynamic Gantt charts and project reports in a matter of minutes. If you don’t already have OnePager Express, you can download a 15-day free trial to see how it works.

Here's how to get started:

1. Open your Primavera P6 project schedule. It will look something like the example below. Notice that the default Gantt chart in Primavera P6 is difficult to read, and can't really be filtered, color-coded, or annotated to make it easy for your audience to understand:
   
2. Export your Primavera P6 project schedule to Excel. This will allow you to import it into OnePager Express in just a minute:
   
3. When you export from Primavera P6 to Excel, you have a lot of options. OnePager Express is flexible and can work with as much or as little schedule information as you'd like. For starters, we recommend exporting "Activity ID," "Activity Name," "Start" and "Finish," but in the example below, you'll see that you can export more schedule information if you want to include it in your OnePager Express Gantt chart.
   In this case, we created a "OnePager Express" template to use with future Primavera P6 exports.
4. Once you've completed your export to Excel, your spreadsheet will look something like this. This spreadsheet has been formatted a little to make it easier to read, but the default Primavera P6 export will work just fine as well:
   Note that we've added a column called "Show It" which allows you to filter your project. This way, OnePager Express will only display a subset of the overall project schedule.
5. Next, double-click the OnePager Express icon on your desktop. From the Start screen that pops up, choose New. Choose your Excel spreadsheet as the source file for your Gantt chart, and the following wizard will appear:
   OnePager Express gives you the ability to give your project report a name, and to specify a snapshot or status date. As you update your Primavera P6 plan in future weeks or months, you can update your OnePager Express chart with a new snapshot of your project.
6. The next page of the wizard will give you the ability to specify which columns exported from Primavera P6 you would like to use in your OnePager Express chart:
   
7. Finally, click the Create new project view button, and OnePager Express will create a dynamic project report based on the data you exported from Primavera P6:
   From here, you can copy and paste your Gantt chart into PowerPoint, or make edits to the layout of your report. You can also update your report to reflect changes that take place in your Primavera P6 project over time.

OnePager Express is the easiest way to summarize or present a Primavera P6 project. Because OnePager Express is a data-driven application, there are endless possibilities as to the types of charts and reports you can create from your Primavera P6 project plan.

Get started today by downloading a free trial or attending one of our demonstration webinars.