I’ve tried quite a few project management programs over the years. Most have been overly complicated and bloated with features I just didn’t care about.
Web 2.0 brought us some solid new options. I use Basecamp for most projects these days, and I love it. But it lacks the ability to show me a visual overview for the timeline of a project.
Enter Tom’s Planner. This is a simple, elegant web-based app for creating Gantt Charts. You name your own project categories and steps and choose your own colors and labels for the bars. The interface is very intuitive once you get in the habit of right-clicking for many of the functions (which they helpfully remind you to do when you get started). Right click to start a time period, give it a color, then click and drag to set the proper length of time. New colors automatically show up in a key at the bottom, where you can name them.
You can also easily edit the timelines one at a time or as a group — just click and drag to select a bunch of rows and move them. You can add your own logo to the chart.
Charts can be exported to MS Project, .png, or published online. The charts themselves are saved on your hard drive as ASCII files, which seemed a little odd, but the contextual help made it a breeze. You can print directly from the chart, but the options don’t include US paper sizes. I’m guessing that will be updated at some point.
They’ve got a bunch of templates for you to work from if you’d rather not start from scratch, including templates for web design, gardening, construction, and a handful of others.
I jumped in and used it for a real project right off the bat. Not only was I thrilled to be able to so easily create a schedule, it turned out to be a great way to show clients exactly why a simple website can take over a month. My client loved the professional presentation of the schedule, and I didn’t have to do any more explaining about time for content gathering and feedback.
And in my dreams…
… Tom’s Planner would sync with Basecamp. I could click on a time period on the Gantt Chart and automatically update milestones in Basecamp. Maybe some day :)
Tom’s Planner is in Beta right now. At some point they’ll implement a monthly charge, but if you sign up now you’re guaranteed a free year. So go sign up right now.
