Tips from Support: Let Loose with 40 Shades of Not-So-Gray

Since our latest Smartsheet update, you may have noticed your Gantt charts are even more customizable – we’ve added new Gantt chart bar colors.  Now, with 40 different colors at your fingertips to choose from, it’s even easier to turn your Gantt charts into a vibrant, compelling visual story.

Visualize Your Processes with Gantt Charts

Gantt charts are a quickly referenceable visual timeline and are useful for so many things.  These new colors can help you in a variety of ways: use bright red to show tasks that are overdue, or specific colors to show tasks assigned to a particular person. 

Here are a few quick examples of what some Smartsheet customers are using Gantt charts for to make their lives easier:

• Project Planning: Gantt charts are the pulse of EMyth’s company reimagining strategy.  Seven workstreams lie at the core of this re-imagination, including transition planning, corporate re-branding, and website re-design.  Gantt charts quickly give anyone on the EMyth team an update of where pieces of these projects lie – if the timeline is on track or if something is lagging behind.
• Construction Timelines: Motion Federal Credit Union tracks the construction and opening of new branches in Smartsheet so that employees from all departments have a central location to get updates on construction progress and plans for grand openings.  With a Gantt chart to quickly check and get timeline updates, expected completion due dates vs. actual dates are all easy to see.
• Denote (and Track) Individual’s Responsibilities: The Steven’s Pass Alpine Ski Club uses Smartsheet to organize hundreds of athletes and volunteers.  Color coordinated Gantt charts help the team quickly check in on volunteer activities, athletes’ race commitments, and staff responsibilities.

Bring Your Gantt to Life, Color Your World

To get started using these new colors in your Gantt charts, you can either manually change the color on each individual bar or save time by automating colors with Conditional Formatting.

To individually change bar color, right-click (or ctrl+click if you’re using a Mac trackpad or a single-button mouse) on the bar and select Color Settings to choose your desired color.  You can multi-select multiple bars by clicking on the first bar and then using Shift+click or Ctrl+click (Command+click for Mac users) then choosing Color Settings for the selected bars.

NOTE: Parent or summary rows will always remain as a gray bar.  These bars represent the rollup of all of the child or task row dates below them.

Automating this process with Conditional Formatting will apply certain colors to bars within a chart instantly.

Let’s use Conditional Formatting to turn all of the tasks assigned to Chris show as green:

• Click on the Conditional Formatting button on the toolbar.
• Select the ‘Add New Rule’ button to configure your formatting rule.
• Click ‘this format’ and select ‘Gantt/Calendar’ in the drop-down menu to apply the formatting and new color to the bars in your Gantt chart.

Adding more color will make it even easier to keep your team focused on what needs to get done and pick out their responsibilities within the framework of a project as a whole.

Til next week, dig in and explore!

- Support Team