How can I visually show Phase dates on a calendar rather than just total dates like Gantt

Annaleah Morrow

We have several important phases for each project (i.e., Plan phase begin, plan phase end, test phase begin, test phase end, etc.). The Calendar app only lets you show the overall project dates in Gantt, and then we can shade. How would you suggest automating pulling the phases into child lines with just the phase dates - or another way to visualize the overall project with the phases color coded? I don't seem to have the Calendar App.

We have the dates color coded, but would like to see these in a calendar so it's easy to see where things are happening within a month/quarter.

tcleaning

@Annaleah Morrow click the plus icon on the left hand rail when you are in Smartsheet, this will take you to the template gallery. I'm using the "Project with Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS)" template as an example. Grid view is in the first photo but when you flip to Gantt view you can see the tasks/phases in order. 3rd Photo is timeline view. So instead of having your phases/tasks across in columns they need to be individual rows with a start and end date filled in to have Gantt and Timeline view work properly.

tcleaning

Hi @Annaleah Morrow, typically we would switch the data structure. So instead of 1 row with lots of columns, create some like 3 columns in your case- column 1- Phase or task, column 2- start date, column 3 end date. So you are going down in your sheet for the dates. You could then use calendar, gantt or timeline view and use conditional formatting to color code the rows.

The way it's currently set up is how Smartsheet best sets up dates. Try downloading one of the project plan or marketing templates and switch between the views i mentioned to see it in action.

Cheers

Annaleah Morrow

Hi, @tcleaning . Thank you for the suggestion. Could you help clarify? I currently have columns for each version of each phase start and end date. Gantt works, except you can only choose one start and end date - so it shows the 'full' project rather than the individual blocks for each phase. Timeline view doesn't work as well because it only shows the primary as the label, and it also only shows the full project. I'm sorry I didn't follow which structure you're suggesting.

tcleaning

@Annaleah Morrow click the plus icon on the left hand rail when you are in Smartsheet, this will take you to the template gallery. I'm using the "Project with Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS)" template as an example. Grid view is in the first photo but when you flip to Gantt view you can see the tasks/phases in order. 3rd Photo is timeline view. So instead of having your phases/tasks across in columns they need to be individual rows with a start and end date filled in to have Gantt and Timeline view work properly.

Annaleah Morrow

I get it now. Thank you for the visual. I actually have that information on another sheet in that format, so I'll play with the structure. Thank you!