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Help with a Gantt Chart report out of access

I am looking to build a Gantt chart in Access for our Project Managers.  I have seen sophisticated ones done from MS Project- we aren' t that sophisticated and we don't have MS Project.   I found a sample Gantt chart that was produced in Access when I was surfing in the internet.  I have attached it below and I have also attached a screenshot of the report.  Not bad - but I am not sure I understand how to read it.   When I hear "budget" I think $- but in this case is the budget = days?  So in the case of task 1, it was thought it would take 15 days but the revised *added* 5 days for a total of 20 days?  Am I reading that correctly?  What do you suppose the 0-20-40-60-80 y-axis values represent?  "Offset"?  Thanks for any light anybody can shed on interpretation as well as other suggestions on how to make a simple, yet efficient Gannt chart.

**Please note:  we are lookling to do this in Access in a report, similar to this one.  I am aware of the many shareware programs avalable as add-ins (i.e. Bandwood) and excel exports.  If we have to go that way- we would, but we were hoping to just do this ourselves..
gannt.gif
Gantt2000.mdb
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Jeffrey Coachman
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snyperj,

<When I hear "budget" I think $- but in this case is the budget = days?>
In Project management, gantt charts almost always represent "Time" not money.
(Each "Task" may have a cost associated with it though)

<So in the case of task 1, it was thought it would take 15 days but the revised *added* 5 days for a total of 20 days? >
Correct

<What do you suppose the 0-20-40-60-80 y-axis values represent>
They represent the total Days in the "Project"
So in this case the project is currently running for about 62 days.

The "Offset" is just a remnant of how an Access chart can be made to simulate a gantt chart.
An "Offset" series is plotted, then hidden.
The gantt chart sits on top of these invisible bars to give the illusion of them "floating" like a true gannt chart.

JeffCoachman
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What purpose does the start date have?  I don't see how task 2 started after the "revised" task 1 budget total, but the other tasks seem to start at the conclusion of the "original" budget amounts for those tasks.
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Jeffrey Coachman
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Actually- it was both  :)
Thanks for the input.
snyperj,

All in all it is a pretty cool little app.

Using hidden Series is and old Excel technique used to create these "Floating Bars"

BTW, don't totally write off MS Project because of the cost.
I can tell by the types of questions you are asking that you would probably be good at it.
;-)
This DB is fairly basic and you may outgrow it in a relatively short period of time.
Here is the MS Link.
There is a 30 day trial available as well as a online demo.
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project/default.aspx

JeffCoachman
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Thanks