GANTT Chart Labels

[cassidym]

Is there a way to label the project or task bars on the Gantt chart in
Project?

Am new to Project and am trying to set up a Gantt chart for my user
that displays the details of several projects under an overall Testing
project. My user wants this more so he can look at the chart and see
where things are and what's happening that week (month etc). IOW, this
chart won't be used so much to plan and drive the projects but more as
a visual display of where various projects are.

Since the projects occur over months and years, I'd like to place
labels on some (or all) of the task bars as quick visual queues to the
user so he doesn't have to look over at the Gantt chart table to figure
out which task bar he is looking at in the Gantt chart itself.

Make sense? Would appreciate any advice.

Mike C

 

[John]

Is there a way to label the project or task bars on the Gantt chart in
Project?

Am new to Project and am trying to set up a Gantt chart for my user
that displays the details of several projects under an overall Testing
project. My user wants this more so he can look at the chart and see
where things are and what's happening that week (month etc). IOW, this
chart won't be used so much to plan and drive the projects but more as
a visual display of where various projects are.

Since the projects occur over months and years, I'd like to place
labels on some (or all) of the task bars as quick visual queues to the
user so he doesn't have to look over at the Gantt chart table to figure
out which task bar he is looking at in the Gantt chart itself.

Make sense? Would appreciate any advice.

Mike C

Mike,
If you are only using Project for its Gantt Chart graphic, you probably
wasted your money, there are much better graphics applications.
Nonetheless, labels in and around Gantt bars is set under Format/Bar
Styles. Use the "Text" tab in the Bar Styles window to indicate both
which Project field to use for the info and where to put it. A spare
text field (i.e. Text1-30 can be used to enter the info).

Note that using the menu item Format/Bar Styles is for formatting all
bars in a given category the same way. You can also individually format
Gantt Bars under Format/Bar. That will override any global formatting
via Bar Styles for that specific bar. Be advised though that there is a
limit on the number of custom formats that can be applied. I don't
remember the exact limit but I think it's around 1000.

John
Project MVP

 

[cassidym]

John, thanks much. That works great.

I wouldn't have bought Project for this task but it was already on our
internal network so there was no charge.

What other graphics programs would be more suitable?

Thanks again

Mike C

 

[John]

John, thanks much. That works great.

I wouldn't have bought Project for this task but it was already on our
internal network so there was no charge.

What other graphics programs would be more suitable?

Thanks again

Mike C

Mike,
You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.

I'm not an expert on the various graphics applications for use with
Windows but you might take a look at Visio. Hopefully someone else will
chime in with other suggestions.

John
Project MVP