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 14. Total comments: 426

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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....

  6. Thank you! It was very useful

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

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

  9. 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!

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

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

  12. 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.

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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

  16. 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

  17. Simple Approach and clear cut examples. Thanks

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

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

  20. 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.

  21. 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.

  22. This was really helpful. Thanks a lot

  23. 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!

  24. 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?

  25. 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? :-(

  26. Very nice.

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

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

  29. thanks

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

  31. This is the most helpful site across the entire internet to make a Gantt Chart. However, today I stumbled on some software that not many are familiar with - Microsoft Project... This looks like something that should be in the Microsoft Office Suite but it is somehow sold separately... Really easy to use... just feed data and it creates a Gantt Chart with additional details like who is to perform the task, how many hours they take, amount of resources used etc. But this site is just super...

  32. can anyone please help me?

    I need to make a gantt chart for the process unavailability in my plant. The shift starts at 8am and ends at 8am on the next day. And there are some 10 process which have their individual break downs. How to make the chart using time as horizontal series?

  33. Hi, I want to show Gantt Chart in Time, The date will be same for all the task/project but for the same date I want different time duration not the days.

  34. excellent

  35. Good day to you!

    I am trying to draw up a Gantt Chart for different building tasks, meaning building trailers, from obtaining the drawings, material, cutting, up to completion... However, I need to block out (stop the next person to be able to enter) the next task-starting date to ensure that the first task is completed 100% before the next task-starting-date may be entered. In other words, the cell must be "unlocked" by the previous "% completion" cell information. Please can someone tell me how to do this?

  36. Good Day to you :)

    I was able to drew Gantt Chart for my school project, after learning from your instructions. However, the dates on the chart displayed on the chart is totally different from the ones I had created on the list. Will you be able to advice me?

    Thank you and with warmest regards,
    Nay Lin

  37. I am stuck on point 6. I am using Excel 2013 and when I click on Format Axis under 'Axis Options' there is no 'Fixed' options to change to. Only min & max. Please can you help?

  38. Can you please help? I have been trying for hours to make the tasks names closer together, as there is a huge gap, in between. Have tried in Format Data Series but there does not seem to be an option there that will allow me to edit (it is greyed out). I have Excel 2013, so options shown above aren't necessarily the same.

    1. it's all good, just figured it out.

  39. when i tried to select the data, it only shows 'sheet1'!.....whereas in your sample if I click select data it will show 'Ghantt'!. why is so?

    1. Hi Pema,

      'sheet1'! is just the name of the sheet where you are selecting data. In my sample workbook, I named the sheet "Gantt chart" and therefore you see this name.

  40. Thank you VERY much for this tutorial. At first I wanted to give up since it looked difficult to me but I followed it step by step and it was very easy to follow because it is well explained.

  41. I have been able to edit a Gannt template into a 2 year construction schedule that has as many as 200+ tasks in rows and dates are shown in columns. Conditional formatting highlights dates and progress of each task. I have frozen panes at cell I-10 to maintain tasks on the left and dates across the top.
    I have created a lookup cell where you can enter a date in that highlights the proposed start of a 3 week look-ahead schedule.

    My 1st issue is when I enter the date to begin my 3 week schedule; it will highlight the proper beginning date column as desired, but I have to manually scroll over to the highlighted column to view the date (potentially 500+ columns to the right). I want Excel to automatically scroll the highlighted start date column to the left; (within viewing area) beside column ‘H’.

    My 2nd issue is that I want to be able to print just the 3 week schedule and frozen panes starting on the highlighted column (basically print the same thing I see on the screen) and down to the bottom of active task rows (this could be as few as 10 and as many as 200 rows).
    I have been able to highlight the cells I want to print and use the “print Selection” printer option as an elementary work around, however I have been unsuccessful in accomplishing the dynamic print issue with the a function or command. I may not have the correct format or function. Is it possible to accomplish this and can you lead me in the right direction?
    Thanks!

  42. Good stuff here. Am on it let me see what I will come up with definitely its a gannt chart but I would really love it to resemble the tutor's.

  43. Madam,

    Thanks a lot for nice article with clear understanding,

    In addition it is requested to further inform about plotting in single line with different colours instead of steps (as above gantt steps) possible with excel chart commands (not with VBA codes).

  44. Thank you so much for this tutorial! But I see the milestones on the first image. Could you please describe how to add a few simple milestone to the same gantt chart?

  45. Completing a research proposal for my MSc and this made it easy and pretty straight forward to produce a timing plan. Thanks!!

  46. thanks for a clear explanation

  47. I tried setting up the date axis but couldn't select the "fixed" option under part 6.2. I'm using Excel for Mac.

    1. Hi Gregg,

      In Excel for Mac there are no Auto and Fixed radio buttons, so you simply type the number in the box.

  48. Brilliant article and I recreated the Gantt easily. How did you ever figure this out!

    Thanks for publishing this as I will be using this method quite regularly!

  49. Great works,

    i have query that i want make a gantt chart where i can track a multiple work done by person on Minute Scale.And Works are over lapping to each other in time frame.
    Please help
    Thanks in Advance

    1. Hello, Karan,

      Please try to count duration in minutes. Hope this helps.

  50. Wow!!! I am so glad I found your site; my gantt chart looks amazing. Thanks to you, I received many kudos. Thanks again Svetlana!

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