Create a Gantt Chart in empower for PowerPoint

empower Charts is a useful add-in tool for creating various types of charts and visuals in PowerPoint, but is it suitable for creating Gantt charts? empower Charts does create standard charts like bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, etc., but it can also whip up complex project management visuals like Gantt charts.

Follow these steps to create a new Gantt chart in PowerPoint using the empower add-in:

1. First, confirm that the empower add-in for PowerPoint is installed on your system. Do you know that a free 30-day trial version can be downloaded from the empower website? Once empower is installed, open PowerPoint, and you will see the new empower tab of the Ribbon, shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.
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   Figure 1: empower tab of the Ribbon
2. Now, add a new slide and change its layout to Title and Content, so that you end up with a slide, as shown in Figure 2, below. Click to select the Content placeholder.
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   Figure 2: New slide with Title and Content layout
3. Now, access the empower tab of the Ribbon, and click the Gantt button, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3, below.
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   Figure 3: Click the Gantt button
4. Doing so brings up the empower Charts dialog box, as shown in Figure 4, below. We won’t change any settings now, so you can click the OK button, highlighted in red within Figure 4.
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   Figure 4: Gantt chart dialog box in empower
5. You will now see a new Gantt chart added to your slide placeholder, as shown in Figure 5, below.
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   Figure 5: Blank Gantt chart
6. Do note that this is an entirely blank chart with no sample data. You need to input everything on your own. Let us start with adjusting the timeline for this chart. To do so, click on the timeline at the top. Doing so brings up a floating toolbar, shown in Figure 6, below. Click on the extreme left on this toolbar on the area that shows the span of dates in the timeline.
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   Figure 6: Date span in timeline
7. Doing so brings up the empower Charts’ Date dialog box, as shown in Figure 7, below. Yes, this box looks like there are many options, but when you start using it, you’ll find that these options are simple. The large area on the left, highlighted in red in Figure 7 is the calendar, which shows the duration of the timeline. The area on the right, highlighted in blue in Figure 7 lets you choose from other options, such as regional settings, date format, and headers settings.
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   Figure 7: empower Charts’ Date dialog box

empower Charts can work in a pinch, but it lacks the specific features for managing dependencies, task durations, and other elements critical to Gantt charts.