Comments on: How to make a Gantt chart in Excel

See how you can quickly make a simple Gantt chart in Excel, where you can download advanced Excel Gantt chart templates or utilize the online Project Management Gantt Chart generator. Continue reading →

Comments page 13. Total comments: 426

  1. That's was Great

  2. How do you name your chart inside the GANTT chart?

  3. Any chance we can modify the color/legend of gantt chart template from MS ?

  4. You have made it easy to create a great looking chart, that I probably could not have figured out myself. Thank you so much!

  5. A warm thank you for all your help, guidance and support through these easy to follow steps.
    It was very easy to follow and the final output was just as I expected.
    Thanks and know we appreciate the effort you took to prepare this tutorial.

  6. Thank you.. you are saving me time at work by helping me keep the boss pacified.. which means I can get home and spend more time with my wife.
    Plus it's sunny outside today.. who wants to spend more time in the office?

  7. Thank you so much for the much needed information! Very helpful indeed in my journey of seeing things in another perspective. More power and God Bless!

  8. Hi there,

    Thank you so much for the tutorial. I have followed all the steps and everything seems to work fine but my x-axis comes up with 'bounds' instead of the dates and I was wondering if you knew how to fix this? I'm using excel 2017 for mac.

    Thank you so much!!

  9. I had been using MarketXLS for this and it's great.

  10. THANKS A MIL FOR THE STEP BY STEP. I COULD DO IT MYSELF EVEN THOUGH IM NOT A PRO IN THE AREA. :)

  11. Hi Svetlana,

    Just stumbled across this article while trying to create a Gantt chart in Excel. This was extremely helpful, straightforward, and useful. Thank you so very much for writing it =) =)

  12. Svetlana, I cannot tell you how helpful this is. Thank you very much for this fantastic document.

  13. Hi There, How do I extend dates past the dates given on the template? For example, if I want a project to go into July, i can't get the blue bar to reflect into July even when I duplicate the week number, day, etc...

    Thank you,

  14. Thank you so much, Svetlana! This short tutorial and the resources listed at the end are fantastic!

  15. I'm not sure if someone else has already asked this, but does anyone know how to write the start/end dates properly? Whenever I type down 31-Jan-17 it automatically changes to 31/01/17.how do I stop this?

    1. Hello Tannglynn,

      When you type a date in a cell, Excel automatically converts it to the default date format. To display dates in your own format, do the following:

      - Select the cells where you want to enter (or have entered) the dates and press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog.
      - On the Number tab, and select Date in the Category list.
      - Under Type, pick a desired date format, and click OK.

      For more information, please see How to change date format in Excel.

  16. Anyone know how to make my tasks name appear in full within the gantt chart?

    2. Not sure if this is what you mean, but to make the column bigger to fit the words you can slide your mouse to the lines separating the rows. Once you do that your on-screen mouse will change to the four arrows and you can pull your column outwards by moving the mouse or your finger if you're on a touch screen device

      1. Alternatively,having seen such kind of four arrows as instructed,just left double click the mouse, then the column will be adjusted automatically to fit the size of the information to be accommodated.

  17. THANK YOU

  18. I need to do a Grantt cash and C-flow?

  19. Thank you very much. Your explanations were very helpful I was able to create my first Gantt Chart on my very first try. :)

  20. Chart is not take actual date on X-Axis. Kindly help to take the actual date.

  21. GOOD DAY
    Is there a way to edit Gantt chart planner in Excel like I want completed task percentage bar to look green but in excel planner its purple in color so I want it to look green.

  22. When I copied my text for my task list on my gantt chart, it looks to be automatically right justified. Is there a way to left justify this text on the gantt chart?

    Thank you

  23. Thank you for this posting - You just saved me.
    I needed a quick fix to not having MS Project in a rush situation.
    Much appreciated.

  24. Repeat of a question asked several times above but not answered--is there a way I can make this work for repeated tasks? The above steps work well for linear tasks, but let's say I need 'documentation' to appear every 60 days in my chart, ie I have more than one start and end dates for a single line item. How do I reflect that?

    1. I am wondering about that too but looks like Svetlana is choosing to not respond to that.

  25. Adding more task didn't affect the chart. how's it done? thanks

    1. This is happening to me as well. When I change the dates from the original chart it is reflected in the bars, but when I add tasks they are not being added to the Gannt chart....

  26. Thank you! It was very useful

  27. Thank you for the support, this was very helpful

  28. how about in tablet or phone how to combine the task?

  29. I just wanted to say thank you for such a fabulous and easy to use tutorial. In my 12 years as a legal assistant, I've never been asked to create a Gantt chart until today, and I impressed my boss! Thanks for helping me not look like an idiot...because let's get real, I didn't even know what this was until today!

  30. How do I add an additional task once the chart has been completed and in use?

  31. Hi there,
    My current gantt is entered in days. How can I change that to reflect weeks?
    Please respond urgently
    Thank you

  32. Hi there,
    I have a couple inquires for making a timeline on Microsoft Excel.
    If a project has multiple task that occur at the same time, how should I reflect it on the gantt chart? I know its quite easy for me to do it on a smartsheet but how would I do it on excel.

    Second question, If I do create the chart on Smart sheet, is there a way I can export it to an excel sheet format?

    1. Hi,
      I just met with the same problem - created my chart in Smartsheets and wanted to convert it to Excel. Unfortunately there is no option like that, but simple Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V works. Just select the table from Smartshhets, copy paste it into Excel and follow the steps of the guidelines on this page.

  33. Hi there,

    My current gantt is entered in days. How can I change that to reflect weeks?
    Please respond urgently

    Thank you

    1. try exiting in weeks. so it will reflect the weeks that you have wasted.

  34. I am trying to create a Gantt Chart or another chart that will display multiple items across the same line over about a five year period. The months need to be able to be expanded to display the days of the month as well so the start and end dates of each data point can be displayed when needed. is there a template already made that will capture data in this manner?

    Thank you,

    James

    1. Hi James,

      I think going from a five year view to a day view will surpass excels capabilities. I myself used to make gantts in excel but I said enough. I came to this comment section because I used to do this.

      I want to understand more about how people are using gantts and why, to build an easier way to do them. No selling. Just want to learn more to build the right thing.

      Are you up for a 20 min chat?

      Adrian.

  35. Hi,

    I was wondering whether its possible to include the "Work done by" column also to be included in the chart. becasue since various works are done by different personals of the company, it would be better.

    Thank you for your support

  36. Hi,

    I was wondering whether itspossible to inlude the "Work done by" column also to be included in the chart. Cz sincevarious works are done by different personals of the company, it would be better.

    Thank you for your support

  37. Simple Approach and clear cut examples. Thanks

  38. Great walk-through, thank you! Now I would like to take the chart and make it a separate tab.

  39. Thank you very much for a very nice tutorial on the topic. Really grateful to you!

  40. How can I used number of days instead of dates? Starting from day 1 to day 100 for example. and can I also have a one line instead of stack bar? on the line it is has the days from 1 to 100. Thanks. I will appreciate the help.

  41. Hi - I can't see anything saying 'fixed' in format axis -is it the version im using? its excel 2016 - Thanks

    1. Hi Lottie,

      In Excel 2013 and Excel 2016, are no Auto and Fixed radio buttons, so you simply type the number in the box.

  42. This was really helpful. Thanks a lot

  43. Re the above comment- sorry ignore the gaps example its selecting fixed axis options that is the problem for me in 2016 :)

    1. Hi Andrew,

      In Excel 2013 and Excel 2016, are no Auto and Fixed radio buttons, and you simply type the number in the box to make a certain unit fixed.

      I've added this note to the tutorial, thanks for pointing it out!

  44. Really nice tutorial - thank you.

    However Excel 2016 has a few changes (like closing the gap between bars) - any chance of an update for this version?

  45. Hi - I am trying to add an item but it is not accepting this when i go to my select data - how do i add my tasks to include them in my gant chart? :-(

  46. Very nice.

  47. Great article, spot on. Thanks for sharing.

  48. I will be using your tips, n this will help me save a lot of time... Thank you very much.

  49. thanks

  50. How can I add same repeated task at different dates in Gantt chart??

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