How to Create a Gantt Chart in Excel

Jodi Sorensen's blog - Jul 8 2013 - 12:00am

I like Excel. I use it daily. In companies and homes all over the world, people use Excel for
everything from a makeshift calculator to tracking massive projects. Given the software's omnipresence, its n
wonder so many people try to repurpose it for tasks that Excel was never meant to do.

To demonstrate, I created this How to Create a Gantt chart in Excel tutorial. I'll show you how to create an Exce
Gantt chart, then I'll demonstrate how theSmartsheet online Gantt chart software makes this far easier.

Real time Gantt charts in the cloud. Take a free test drive on us!

What Is a Gantt chart?

Gantt charts make it easy to visualize project management timelines by transforming task names, start dates,
durations, and end dates into cascading horizontal bar charts.
An Excel Gantt chart

How to Create a Gantt chart in Excel

1. Create a Task Table

List each task in your project in start date order from beginning to end. Include the task name, start date, duratio
and end date.

Make your list as complete as possible. Because of Excel's limitations, adding steps or extending out may force
to reformat your entire chart.
2. Build a Bar Chart

On the top menu, select Insert, and then click on the Bar chart icon. When the drop-down menu appears, choose
flat Stacked Bar Chart, highlighted in yellow below. This will insert a blank chart onto your spreadsheet.

Add Start Date data.

1.

Position your mouse over the empty Excel chart and right click. Then, left click on Select Data. The Sele
Data Source window will appear.
2.
Under Legend Entries (Series), click Add. This will take you to the Edit Series window.
3.
Click in the empty Series name: form field first, then click on the table cell that reads Start Date.
4.
Click on the icon at the end of the Series values field. The icon is a small spreadsheet with a red arrow (t
lower icon). This will open the Edit Series window. Click on the first Start Date, 3/1 in my example, and dr
your mouse down to the last Start Date. After the right dates are highlighted, click on the icon at the end of
Edit Series form. The window will close and the previous window will reopen. Select OK. Your start dates
now in the Gantt chart.
Next, add the Durations column using the same procedure you used to add the start dates.
1.
2.
3.

Under Legend Entries (Series), click on Add.

Click in the empty Series name: form field first, then click on the table cell that reads Duration.
Click on the icon at the end of the Series values field. The icon is a small spreadsheet with a red arrow (t
lower icon). This will open the Edit Series window. Click on the first Duration, it is 5 in my example, and d
your mouse down to the last Duration. After the durations are highlighted, click on the icon at the end of th
Edit Series form. The window will close and the previous window will reopen. Select OK. Your durations a
now in your Gantt chart.

Change the dates on the left side of the chart into a list of tasks.
1.
2.
3.

Click on any bar in the chart, then right click, then open Select Data.
Under Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels, click on edit.
Using your mouse, highlight the names of your tasks. Be careful not to include the name of the column
itself, Task.
4.
Click on OK.
5.
Click OK again.
Your Gantt chart ought to look like this:

3. Format Your Gantt chart

What you have is a stacked bar chart. The starting dates are blue and the durations are red.

Notice your tasks are in reverse order. To fix this, click on the list of tasks to select them, then right click over th
list and choose Format Axis. Select the checkbox Categories in reverse order and Close.

To give your Gantt chart more space delete the Start Date, Duration legend on the right. Select it with your mou
then hit delete.
Hide the blue portions of each bar. Clicking on the blue part of any bar will select all of them. Then, right click
choose Format Data Series.
1.
2.

Click on Fill then select No fill.

Click on Border Color then select No line.

You're almost finished. You just need to remove the empty white space at the start of your Gantt chart:
1.

Click on the first Start Date in your data table. Right click over it, select Format Cells, then General. Wri
down the number you see. In my case it is 41334 Hit Cancel because you do not want to actually make or a
change here.
2.
In the Gantt chart, select the dates above the bars, right click and choose Format Axis.
3.
Change Minimum to Fixed and enter the number you recorded.
4.
Change Major unit to Fixed and enter 2, for every other day. You can play with this to see what works be
for you.

5.

Select Close.

If you want to make your Gantt chart look a little nicer, remove most of the white space between the bars.
1.
2.
3.

Click on the top red bar.

Right click and select Format Data Series.
Set Separated to 100% and Gap Width to 0%.

You are finished. Your Gantt chart should look like this:

This is a lot to remember.

While your Excel Gantt chart may look clean, it is not exactly serviceable.

The chart does not resize when you add new tasks.
Its hard to read. There is no grid or daily labeling.
You cannot change a start date, duration or end date and have the other values adjust automatically.
You cannot share the chart with others or give them viewer, editor, or administrator status.
You cannot publish an Excel Gantt chart as an interactive web page which your team members can read
update.

It is possible to create more complete Gantt charts in Excel, however, they are more complicated to setup and
maintain. The things that make Gantt charts useful, sharable, and collaborative cannot be accomplished with Ex

Create a Gantt chart in Excel

Show All

APPLIES TO
Microsoft Excel 2002
There are many ways to create a Gantt chart. For example, Microsoft Project, a task-planning program,
makes it easy to track and chart project timelines with a built-in Gantt chart view. Another option is to use
Excel. Excel does not contain a built-in Gantt chart format; however, you can create a Gantt chart in Excel by
customizing the stacked bar chart type.
This article shows you how to create a Gantt chart like the following example.

Step 1: Enter the sample data

Step 2: Create a stacked bar chart
Step 3: Make the chart look like a Gantt chart

After completing these steps, you should have a chart that looks similar to the example. You may need to
resize the chart using the mouse to see all of the labels present in the chart. Additional formatting can be
added as needed.

Gantt Chart
Excel does not offer Gantt as chart type, but it's easy to create a Gantt chart by customizing the stacked bar chart type. Below you can find
our Gantt chart data.

To create a Gantt chart, execute the following steps.

1. On the Insert tab, click Bar and select Stacked Bar.

2. Right click on the empty chart and click Select Data.

3. Click Add and add the two Series (Start Date and Duration).

4. Click Edit under Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels and select the range A4:A11.

5. Click OK.

6. Click the legend on the right side and press Delete.

7. The tasks (Foundation, Walls, etc.) are in reverse order. Right click the tasks on the chart, click Format Axis and check 'Categories in
reverse order'.

8. Click Close.

9. Right click the red bars, click Format Data Series, Fill, No fill.

10. Click Close.

Dates and times are stored as numbers in Excel and count the number of days since January 0, 1900. 1-jun-2012 is the same as 41061. 13jul-2012 is the same as 41103.

11. Right click the dates on the chart, click Format Axis and set the Minimum to 41061, Maximum to 41103 + duration last task = 41103 + 2 =
41105 and Major unit to 7.

12. Click Close.

Result. A Gantt chart in Excel.