In this video, I'm going to show you how to create a basic project timeline or Gantt chart in Microsoft Project 2016. Gantt charts are a great way to get a bird's-eye view of your entire project. At the end of this video, I'll also show you an alternative that might be a little bit easier, but first here's how to do it in Project 2016. If this video helps you out, we'd love it if you hit that thumbs up button. To build our project timeline, we first need to have our list of tasks.
It's best to list out your tasks in the order they need to be done so your project stays organized and easy to read. I've already opened a blank project and added the first few tasks for my project. I'll add a few more so you can see the process.
Just click in the Task Name field and type in the name of the task. If you have tasks that are related to each other, it might be a good idea to group them together as subtasks. To do that, just highlight the task rows that are related and click the right indent button in the ribbon.
This will make the highlighted tasks subtasks of the item directly above the highlighted rows in the task list. I'll do that one more time. You don't have to use subtasks, but they can be helpful on larger projects since they allow you to collapse sections of your project down to save some screen real estate. Now that we have all of our tasks entered into the list and organized as subtasks, it's time to give them start and end dates so we can start building the actual project schedule.
Click in the Start Date field and use the date picker to select the start date for the task. You could also manually enter the date into the field. Now, click in the End Date field and use the date picker or manually enter the end date for the task. If you prefer, you could just enter a duration into the duration field and Project will automatically calculate the end date for you. Now that all of our tasks have start and end dates, it's a good time to add some milestones to the project.
Milestones are a great way to make sure your project is running on time as well as signal the end of specific phases of your project. There are a couple ways to add milestones to your project. The first is to just enter a duration of 0 days for a task that is already in the list. Project will automatically convert that task into a milestone.
The other way is to insert a row where you want the milestone to be and click on the milestone button in the ribbon. Okay, our project is looking good so far, only a couple steps left. Since milestones are usually used to mark the end of a phase of the project, it's a good idea to link appropriate tasks to those milestones.
To do that, highlight the tasks that should be linked to the milestone and click the link button in the ribbon. Now you have a basic project that includes all of your tasks. If you're enjoying this video, it would really help us out if you went ahead and hit that thumbs up button.
And while you're doing that, subscribe to our channel so you don't miss any of our videos. Microsoft Project is powerful, but it can be overwhelming if you're new to project management or your projects are on the smaller side and you don't need the huge feature set. If you think you might want a powerful but easier to use solution for your projects, try TeamGantt.
TeamGantt is a web-based project scheduling tool that makes creating your project plan as simple as drag and drop. As a comparison, I'll create a small project in TeamGantt. First, I'll create the tasks by clicking Add Task. Then just hit enter and create the next task.
You can even create groups for tasks, which can really help keep you organized. Once I have all my tasks organized how I want, I'll just drag the taskbars out for as long as each task should take. You can also add dependencies to make sure each task gets pushed back in the event a preceding task takes longer than expected. I also have some coworkers already invited to this project, so I'll go ahead and assign some of these tasks to them.
They'll be notified by email that they've been assigned some new tasks. As progress is made, it's super easy to update the percent complete of a task so everyone on the team knows how things are going. You can also see at a glance how busy the team is so you know whether you can assign more tasks to them.
As timelines change, tasks can be updated by simply dragging the taskbar to make it longer or shorter, or you can just move the whole thing if necessary. You can even leave comments and upload files to tasks or the main project. TeamGantt makes it incredibly easy for project managers and non-project managers alike to plan, schedule, organize, and share their projects. To try TeamGantt for free, go to teamgantt.com slash signup.
I hope you'll give TeamGantt a try, and don't forget to like this video and subscribe to our channel for more great content. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.