Timline Chart (Access 2000)

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I was wondering if you can make a timeline chart in Access 2000 that would show for example, different projects going on from a start date to an end date. This would be a floating bar chart that would let you see how the different projects overlap each other. If you can’t make the chart in Access, then would it be possible to do it in Excel and import into Access maybe?

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I assume that you are aware that there are dedicated project planning applications such as Microsoft Project.

If each project in your table has one start date and one end date, it is not difficult to create a bar chart. Create a query with project name (or ID), start date and duration (=end date – start date). Then create a stacked bar chart based on the query, and set the first series (corresponding to the start date) to transparent. That way, you will see a bar from start date to end date.

If projects can have multiple start and end dates, you will probably need some VBA code to format the chart as a timeline bar chart.

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Thanks, This helped alot.

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There is a sample DB available for displaying timelines on a report: Author Dev Ashish

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On looking at Dev’s sample DB I note the following data:

Event ID Event Name Event Type ID Status Start Date End Date
4 Develop the best app in the world High In Process 01/12/1999 01/22/1999
5 Some more of the same stuff High In Process 01/12/1999 01/22/1999

As items 4 and 5 have the same dates, shouldn’t they appear parallel to each other on the report?

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Yes, I think so too. Perhaps I’ll try to find out what’s wrong with the code later.
In the meantime, I have attached a database with the same table as the one you used, with a chart along the ideas I sketched earlier in this thread. It displays a timeline-like chart without any code.

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Hi Rupert,

There is an error in the code that sets the Left and Width properties of the “bar”. The width is not reset between records, so if the left coordinate is large, you may get an overflow. It can be corrected by resetting the Width to 0 before setting Left:

With Me.boxGrowForDate
.Width = 0
.Left = Me.boxMaxDays.Left + (intStartDayDiff * sngFactor)
.Width = intDayDiff * sngFactor
End With

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