Calendar project planning in PowerPoint

PowerPoint 365
When you create a presentation of the project, task, or innovation, it will be useful to show the project schedule calendar. You can create a Gantt chart, for example, in Excel, and just add it to your PowerPoint presentation (see How to create a perfect Gantt chart).

But, for many cases, a proper Gantt chart is too complicated and it is unnecessary to spend the time on details. Instead, you can create a simple calendar view for an overview of the proposed calendar plan:

Calendar for one month in PowerPoint 2016
Calendar multi-week in PowerPoint 2016

To create a calendar plan, do the following:

   I.   Create a background calendar:

To create a simple calendar, analyze the period that you would like to show and add the appropriate table to your slide:

   II.   Create tasks for the project:

   1.   On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, choose the Shapes dropdown list:

Shapes in PowerPoint 2016

   2.   In the Shapes list, select the shape that you want to use for the task. It can be:

  • the simple rectangle:
Rectangle shapes in PowerPoint 2016
  • any kind of arrows:
Arrows shapes in PowerPoint 2016

In this example, Arrow: Chevron was chosen:

Arrows: Chevron shape in PowerPoint 2016

   3.   From the Shapes dropdown list, you can choose any other shape for events. For example, the sun shape to show holidays:

Sun shape in PowerPoint 2016

   4.   Add as many shapes to the slide as you need.

   5.   Change the format for every shape like you prefer:

   5.1.   Right-click on the selected shape (or several selected shapes) you want to change and select the Format Shape... in the popup menu.

   5.2.   On the Format Shape pane, on the Shape Options tab, in the Fill & Line group:

  • In the Fill section, choose the color you like:
    Format shape pane in PowerPoint 2016
  • In the Line section, choose the color for the shape's borders.

   6.   To add the text to the shape, just double-click in it and enter the text.

Note: For some small or specific shapes, when you try to add the text, it can't be shown correctly because of margins or orientation:

Shape with text in PowerPoint 2016

To change margins or orientation for the text in shape, do the following:

   1.   Right-click on the shape (or several selected shapes) and choose Format Shape... in the popup menu:

Format shape in popup in PowerPoint 2016

   2.   On the Format Shape pane, on the Text Options tab, in the Textbox group, in the Text Box section, change margins (for example to 0):

Format Shape pane in PowerPoint 2016

For some situations, it is necessary to change the Text direction or uncheck the Wrap text in shape checkbox:

Shape with text in PowerPoint 2016

Now, you have the calendar plan that you can show to your colleagues or partners.

See also this tip in French: Calendrier de planification du projet dans PowerPoint.

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