Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Free Download Project Management Spreadsheet Template



 Are you looking for a free, easy to use project management spreadsheet template? You've come to the right place. What are the benefits of using a project management template?


  • Save time by using a pre-designed template to manage your projects and tasks.
  • Helps project managers organize the project deliverables due from each working group, and track progress as it occurs
  • Break down a large, complex project into numerous smaller, more manageable tasks.
  • Consolidate all project tracking information in one location, and even break out individual areas for closer monitoring if necessary.
  • Track each task and remain on schedule by using the project management spreadsheet template.
     The project management template includes: project charter, deliverable definition form, milestone schedule, work breakdown, work plan, change request, change log, risk log, an issue log, and more. Everything you need to successfully manage a project is included within this downloadable spreadsheet. Download today.

    Note: The download link may require you to complete a survey before downloading the spreadsheet. If you would prefer to receive the Excel file as an email attachment please join my free Excel tips email newsletter.

    Click to view my personal business project accounting and tracking spreadsheet tutorial.


    UPDATE: For more templates visit my new page dedicated to project management.

    Tuesday, December 7, 2010

    Download a Gantt Chart Excel Spreadsheet Template


    Are you looking for an Excel template of a Gantt chart? A Gantt chart is a graphical representation of the duration of tasks against the progression of time. This type of chart is a very useful tool for planning and scheduling projects and is helpful when monitoring a project's progress. You can use a Gantt chart to plan how long a project should take by laying out the order in which the specific tasks need to be carried out. Another major advantage of using a Gantt chart is that it lets you see immediately what should have been achieved at any point in time so you can take remedial action to bring a floundering project back on course. I have created a Gantt chart template in Microsoft Excel 2007. Please click the link below to download the spreadsheet.

    EXCEL_Gantt.xls

    *Enter to win a free copy of the Gantt Chart Template Pro.xls - a $39.99 value!

    Visit our new page for more project management templates. 

    Gantt Charts are extremely useful tools for planning and  project management and the Gantt Chart Template Pro from Vertex 42 is one of the best I’ve seen!

    Tuesday, November 30, 2010

    How do you avoid displaying errors in Excel spreadsheet formulas?

    How do you avoid errors in Excel formulas? You don't need an online degree to figure this one out, but I do assume you have a basic understanding of simple logic formulas such as IF(). Sometimes, when you create a new formula you may get an error message in return (Here's a complete list of errors you may see in Excel: #N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, #NULL!). In some cases, you'll want to know when a formula error occurs, but more often than not you would rather avoid these messages. You can do so by using an IF() function to check for an error. Use this standard format:

    =IF(ISERROR(OriginalFormula),"",OriginalFormula)

    For example, the formula below displays a blank if the division results in an error.

    =IF(ISERROR(A1/B1),"",A1/B1)


     

    Thursday, November 18, 2010

    Skip the Weekends Date Formula in Excel

    I have a Date Started data in column A and Date Completed in column B. Column C I want to list how many days it took to complete the project so I subtract A from B (=B2-A2). However, I do not want to include weekends. So, if the start date is Friday and end date is Monday, currently my simple formula would display 4 days. I would like to create a formula that automatically skips over Saturday and Sundays, thus displaying the correct number of days as 2. How can this be accomplished?

    Well, Excel actually has a built in function for this very reason. It is called NETWORKDAYS. It returns the number of whole workdays between two dates. To accomplish my task I simply use this formula, starting in cell C2: =NETWORKDAYS(A2,(B2-1)) Now you can calculate the number of work days there are between the start and end dates of a project by automatically excluding weekends. How cool is that?!

    Friday, November 5, 2010

    How do you change the default number of sheets in a new Excel workbook?

    Every time you open a new workbook in Microsoft Excel, by default, it opens with three worksheets. You can, of course, insert more sheets or delete ones that you don't need. The good news is the unused sheets don't occupy additional memory or increase your file size, but if you are like me, the extra sheets just annoy me for some reason. I like to keep my workbook nice and clean. What can be done about this?

    Well, you can actually change the default value of the number of sheets the Excel automatically opens with. How do you do this?

    For Excel 2003: Go to: Tools>Options and click General in the Options dialog box. Next, change the setting for "Sheets in new workbook". Now all new workbooks will have the number of sheets you specify. I typically change this number to one unless I know I am going to have a monster spreadsheet.

    For Excel 2007: Select the office window button>Excel Options. On the popup menu you will see the section "when creating new workbooks." Change the "include this many sheets" from three to whatever you desire.

    Wednesday, October 27, 2010

    How do you create a delete button for a form with a macro in Excel?

    I managed to create a form to add records to a worksheet. Now what I want to do is add a 'Delete Record' button to the form to delete the last entry (or any other entry for that matter). First, how do you identify the entry you wish to delete? My solution is to use the first column as a reference column. Try using a macro like this:

    Private Sub CommandButton1_Click()

    Dim c As Long

    Dim iRecord As String

    Dim Deleted As Boolean


     

    iRecord = InputBox("Enter Record Number to Delete")

    c = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row

    Deleted = False

    While Not Deleted

    If Cells(c, 1) = iRecord Then

    Rows(c).Delete shift:=xlUp

    Deleted = True

    End If

    c = c - 1

    If c <= 0 Then Deleted = True

    Wend

    End Sub

    Tuesday, October 12, 2010

    How do you flip or reverse a column of data in Excel?

    How do you flip or reverse a column of data in an Excel spreadsheet? Well, if you simply want to reverse a list that's already in alpha or numeric order that is easily accomplished using the built in "Sort: feature (you can also easily transpose columns into rows and vice versa).

    However, often you will find yourself with a column of data that isn't sorted (and may even be in different formats like a mix of numbers and text). How do you simply flip it so the bottommost items are on top and the top is now the bottom of the column of data?

    There are a number of ways to do this, including writing a macro, but the easiest way I can think of is to simply create what I like to call a helper column. First, select the column you want to flip, right click it, and choose Insert to add your new helper column. Add a list of numbers starting with 1 and running down to the number of items in your list. Now select both of those numbers and then double-click the lower right corner of the cell that contains the 2 to quickly fill down the length of your target column.

    Select your helper column and any other columns you want sorted along with it. Go to the Data tab and click the Sort button and use this to Sort by your helper column using A to Z or largest to smallest. That's it. Once completed, you can delete your helper column. Simple, eh?

    Another more advanced method is to use a macro. Try this:

    Sub FlipColumns()

    Dim vTop As Variant

    Dim vEnd As Variant

    Dim iStart As Integer

    Dim iEnd As Integer

    Application.ScreenUpdating = False

    iStart = 1

    iEnd = Selection.Columns.Count

    Do While iStart < iEnd

    vTop = Selection.Columns(iStart)

    vEnd = Selection.Columns(iEnd)

    Selection.Columns(iEnd) = vTop

    Selection.Columns(iStart) = vEnd

    iStart = iStart + 1

    iEnd = iEnd - 1

    Loop

    Application.ScreenUpdating = True

    End Sub