For my new project I had to create a plan, I guess all the project managers need one… and the best way to represent the plan is in Gantt chart. So that your boss will know when each milestone will be achieved in the timeline.
I searched in the web for free Gantt chart tools and couldn’t find any good ones, and we didn't had budget to buy one.

Then I decided to use the almighty excel to create one. It was very easy to create one, excel support charts, what else you need. Excel is really powerful isn't it..I remember when I used to share accommodation with my friends I used excel spreadsheet to calculate our common expenses, though some of them argue there is mistake in the formula they are paying more :)

So to cut the crap out, the Excel Project Plan Gantt chart is available here for download. In short the features include
1. Gantt chart of the project plan
2. Need only minimal inputs(project start date, tasks and task estimates)
3. The formula takes care of Weekends(NOT holidays) while calculating dates.
3. Fully customizable. you are free to change the formula to suit your purpose. you can even convert it into an excel template Gantt chart if you like.

Rest you can see yourself in the spreadsheet.

Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions in this blog.

Some of the references I have used are below

1. Using Excel to Create a Gantt Chart by Michele McDonough
http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/3418.aspx

2. and of course office online excel help

-Rujith

Exporting or import excel data to/from xml is pretty simple and straight forward after office 2003. You dont have to write any code or macros for the straight forward export. I have found an add-in which was very useful for me when I was doing couple of exports.

The good thing about this add-in is you dont have specify any schema to get the data, simply select the range, and select if the first row is the column heading thats it, you get the xml data within couple of clicks. Well its not just that, it can help you to create XSD files for XML maps, rename the <Root> and <Row> elements, or refresh all of the XML maps in a workbook.

I highly recommend this add-in if you are using any kind of xml import or export using Excel 2003.

Read more about the add-in here

-Rujith