in this video I'm going to show you how to create a Gantt chart in Microsoft Project so you can visually see all your tasks with the critical path highlighted as well as a tracking Gantt chart so you can visualize your Project's Baseline compared to your actual percent completion download the entire exercise file for free over at Alvin thepm.com exercise three to learn Microsoft Project the fast and easy way first let's start with a new blank project before we add any tasks to our project let's make sure that Microsoft Project automatically schedules all tasks and their dates based on their dependencies resources and calendar working days to do that move your mouse to the bottom of the screen where it says new tasks manually scheduled left click it and select auto scheduled now we can start adding our tasks to their project plan so that again chart Auto populates to the right hand side of your screen for our example we'll be creating a sample home construction project that's divided into three phases plans and permits contractor agreements Foundation and framing let's add in the task for each of the four phases for the first phase we'll develop the home plans finalize our home specifications and obtain our approvals and the premise to begin Construction in the second phase we'll be researching and finalizing which subcontractor will use during the third phase for foundation we'll prepare the site by leveling the land pouring the footings and building the foundation and for our fourth phase we'll be framing the deck the walls the roof and installing interior frames as a pro tip I've added Milestones underneath each phase so it's visually clear when a significant Milestone has been accomplished on the Gantt chart to the right you'll notice that all the bars are starting at the same time and the durations All State one day with a question mark right after them we'll fix this later but for now to correct the Gan chart we need to establish the correct predecessors for each task since the majority of these tasks occur in a linear sequence order let's use Microsoft Project's shortcut to link all these tasks together first select all the tasks underneath Phase 1 and underneath the task tab click on the Chain button from the schedule group on the Gantt chart Microsoft Project automatically links all five of these tasks to occur one after the other let's repeat this chain linkage for the remaining tasks for phases two through four we'll now need to link the correct predecessors to the starting task within each phase so for the task research subcontractors this can only start after the home plans have been developed so let's add task ID to as a predecessor for receive bids this can only start after the permits have been obtained so let's also add task ID 4 as a predecessor for clearing and leveling the land this can only take place after permits have been obtained and the contracts have been awarded so let's assign task IDs 5 and 10 as predecessors for framing the deck this can only start after the foundation has been built so as a predecessor must be task ID 15. so our Gantt chart is looking pretty good so far but all the bars have the same duration of one day so let's go ahead and update the duration for all of the tasks and input the best case to estimate for having each activity completed you'll notice here that all Milestones have a duration of zero days and that's because a milestone should not have any work assigned to it and it symbolizes an achievement or a significant event in the project itself all right so to see our entire Gantt chart click on The View Tab and select entire project from the zoom group you'll see your overall project plan in the form of a Gantt chart with the Milestones shown as diamonds with their corresponding dates to visualize the critical path on your Gantt chart left click on the tab for Gantt chart format and check mark the box for a critical task which is a part of the bar Styles group under Gantt chart all tasks on the critical path will now be highlighted red so in our project the only task which is not on the critical path is researching the subcontractors by the way if you're getting a lot of value out of this video make sure to smash that like button it truly shows that your support for me and it helps the channel tremendously so I can make even better videos like this Pro tip and as best practice once you've established your project schedule Baseline and you've agreed upon with your team and management you need to set it inside of Microsoft project to do that click on the project tab select set baseline from the schedule group and click on set Baseline let's set our Baseline as is for the entire project and click ok to create a Gantt chart which shows your actual percent completion against your schedule Baseline you'll need to switch modes from Gantt chart to tracking Gantt chart to do that move your mouse to the left hand side where it says Gantt chart right click and select tracking Gantt on your Gantt chart you should now see dark gray bars representing the plan baselines for each task along with the percent pleated for each task now let's say that you've already made some progress on your project and you want to update your schedule so that you're tracking Gantt chart reflects these updates to do that let's first establish our status date click on the project Tab and go to the option for status date which is a part of the status group here for the status date let's input a date of March 16 2023 for the Simplicity of this video let's say that this date is the date that we're updating our project schedule with the most latest progress all right so to update our task we need to switch our table mode from entry to tracking so to do that move your mouse to the top left of box icon left click it to select all the tasks and then right click and choose tracking in the tracking table mode we can now update the tasks that we completed before we do anything let's add a column for duration by right-clicking and inserting a column after the task name Microsoft Project will automatically populate this column with your plan durations that we established earlier in this video for the first task of developed Home Plans let's say that instead of taking 45 days this task actually took 50 days to complete on your Gantt chart you can see the lights red bar being extended by five days longer than the dark gray Baseline bar to mark this task as completed select the task itself and go to the task Tab and select the icon that says 100 complete deleted the bar itself will turn blue and indicate that it's 100 percent completed now what I love about Microsoft Project is that on your tracking Gantt chart you can now see the cascading effect of this five-day delay on your critical path compared to your Project's Baseline the red bars have moved over a few days compared to the dark gray Baseline bars for the second task of review and finalize home specifications let's say that we're now 25 completed to do that select the task itself and go to the task Tab and select the icon for 25 completed the tracking Gantt chart on the right side will automatically update the percent completion for this task it will also show a darker red bar inside the lighter red bar indicating your progress so far now if you'd like to export this tracking Gantt chart to your own PowerPoint slide all you have to do is switch your table mode from tracking to entry by left-clicking the Box icon at the top left corner and choosing entry click on the down arrow and next to the copy button underneath the task Tab and select copy picture leave everything as is and make sure you copy only the selected rows and press ok open up a new PowerPoint slide and press Ctrl V to paste in your entire Gantt chart if you only want to paste the Gantt chart itself without the percent completion bars then inside of Microsoft Project switch from tracking Gantt mode to again chart mode and repeat this copying and pasting step press control plus v into a new PowerPoint slide and you'll have your entire Gantt chart showing the critical path and all of your tasks with the plan start and plan finish dates so now you've created your Gantt chart using Microsoft project if you haven't done so already download the entire exercise file completely for free over at Alvin thepm.com exercise three to create your own Gan chart in Microsoft Project please smash that like button and share this video with a friend if you found it helpful now to learn everything you need to master Microsoft Project the easy way watch this video next and I'll see you in the next video