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
by Svetlana Cheusheva, updated on
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 17. Total comments: 426
Hi,
Is it possible to display date and time on the Gantt chart? I have to display a schedule of classes that will take place over a period of 6 weeks.Each class is 1 hour long and there are total of 27 classes.
Thanks
Hello, I was following your step by steps, and I keep running into the same problem.. When I go to add duration to the data, it says that the chart is to complex and if I add the second set of data the first will be deleted.. I don't understand why. Any help would be great. Thanks
Thanks for a great chart, it worked very well. The intructions made sense and were very clear. My question is, how do I add two set of dates for the same category? For example, "coding" and "system test" will occur again for a specified date and duration. How can I add those to the chart? I want to show that coding will occur for a week in May and also for a week in June, how could I show that? I haven't been able to figure that out.
Can we generate a chart with unit as "months" instead of "days"?
Ex: Start Date is 01-Jan-2015, End Date is 01-Feb-2015. So duration for me (in months) = 1.
How to plot the graph using the unit as "Months".
Please help.
Hi,
How can i incorporate the progress in % on the gantt chart?
Thanks
Thanks great tutorial
As an event's student at University this website helped save my life! What could of been hours of stress making a Gantt chart was turned into a few minutes! #lifesaver Highly recommended!
Thanks very much for this.
How do you format the above step by step chart to also show things like percentage complete, plan start, actual start, etc.?
Could you help with that?
How do you get the percentages to display on the bars (like the screenshot at the very top of the page)?
Also, this is a very nice tutorial. Thanks!
Hi Svetlana,
The gantt chart worked fine for me and what I needed it for.
Thanks for the tips.
Jim
This is a great tutorial. Is there a way to change how the date axis displays? We are trying to plot out a timeline for a project but don't have actual dates yet. I would like to just be able to number the months instead.
Thank you.
Hi Karen,
Yes, you can display the months. Please see my response to comment 2 above for the details and a screenshot.
Hi Svetlana,
This is a wonderful tutorial. I worked through it and in no time, I could prepare a decent Gantt chart. I am very grateful to you. Thanks.
Cosmas
Hi Ma'am,
Thank you for extending your knowledge.
May I ask if, is it possible to add percent (%) accomplishment on the bar chart? just like the example image above..
Thanks
Hi,
Thanks for this information. I have a gantt chart set up in exactly the same way as you but I'm having problems with the results aligning with the dates (ie, in the format of Jan-15). I have the major and minor set as 31 and 6 but that doesn't help. Any ideas? It seems to be a problem with February being a shorter month.
For example, for March, although the date for the bars on the chart being 01/03/2015, they are slightly appearing to the left of the March gridline, in the February section of the graphs.
Any ideas greatly received!
Many thanks,
Sally
my duration is not showing 'red' on my chart--I do have multilple tasks starting and ending at the same time--is that why? also, my first task start date is 1/13/2015, but the chart starts 12/7/2014...?
I mean it is possible to make a gantt chart with a vertical and horizontal scroll bar? Big thanks..
Hello Svetlana Cheusheva, I'm new in ms excel and i want to learn more, it possible to make a gantt chart with a vertical and horizontal bar in one chart(project timeline)? if possible can you make a tutorial of its?Big Thank you...
Has anyone figured out how to adjust the "period selected" feature on the Gantt Chart?
How to change the duration period as weeks in the chart?
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! Most helpful Gantt tutorial for Excel 2010 I was able to find anywhere.
Hi Svetlana,
Your tutorial is awesome and was very helpful!!! Thank you so much
Hi just want to ask if it is possible to have the gantt chart show both the planned timeline and actual timeline in the same chart
This is a fantastic tool! My boss loved it and I showed to my mom as well.Her group was looking for a Gantt project management tool. She showed to her boss and now it is the required template for all their projects going forward.
I am sorry the example did not appear as I typed it. Apparently I had to many blank spaces. Here is another example. The G denotes grazing events.
Field 1-GGGGGGG---------------------GGGGGGG---------------------GGGGGGG
Field 2--------GGGGGGG---------------------GGGGGGG---------------------GGGGG
Field 3---------------GGGGGGG---------------------GGGGGGG-------------------
Field 4----------------------GGGGGGG---------------------GGGGGGG------------
I hope this is useful.
Hello,
Thanks for the instructions. They were useful. However it does not do exactly what I want.
I am trying to create a chart that shows a grazing schedule for a natural resource conservation project. I want to show the timing and duration of each event in a field. For example, say I have 4 pasture. They will be grazed in a sequential manner. The duration of each event will be 7 days. When the fourth pasture has been grazed the animals will return to the first pasture. I want it to look something like this.
Field 1- xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
Field 2- xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxx
Field 3- xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
Field 4- xxxxxxx xxxxxxx
Do you have any tips on how this can be done easily? Unfortunately, I am limited to "approved" software. Therefore, it would be best if I can use Excel
I appreciate any assistance you can provide.
Madam Svetlana Cheusheva
First of all thank you for sharing your Experience and Articles with all .The articles you share with the Screen shots is very helpfull to me in doing my work in excel .As of today(11-Jan-2015) when i was in need to know how to make drop down list in excel i google it i got ablebits site and im very happy i can find what all i want to do in excel with more foemating.
Thanks
Mohammed Shabbir Ali
congratulations! you've got many followers bcoz of your gantt chart simple and practical explanations.My question no is How can i reflect percentage completion in the gantt chart that we just created. Thank you and more power!
Excellent demonstration and great for people like me.
Thanks for posting this
Thank you so much for the instructions! They were really clear and easy to follow!
Thanks a lot! its very easy to understand
I love the chart approach! I leveraged a slightly different approach and created an article explaining how I accomplished something similar using conditional formatting. Article with free download are available from http://www.mlynn.org/2013/01/project-management-with-microsoft-excel/
Having had it 'suggested' that I include a GANTT chart in my latest university assignment, I first of all panicked! Then, I downloaded a GANTT tool, then I had to get the hubby to uninstall all the rubbish that came with it, then I uninstalled the tool itself as it was terrible. After stressing a bit more I did a quick search online and found this guide. I can now happily report that I have a GANTT chart ready to submit. It might have taken me hours but I'm impressed :-) thank you.
If a task ends on a certain date and restarts after an interval of few days, how can we do it using the same method. I tried duplicating the task in a new row and it worked, but I want to have the interval shown in the same row. Can anybody help?
Hello Ahmar,
I am sorry, it is not possible to fulfill your task using the standard Excel features. Most likely you would need some special program.
Thanks for the instructions! However, I'm having a problem in Excel 2011 for Mac - after I've selected the Start series, when I click on Add I get a warning under the data range window saying the Chart Data Range is "too complex to be displayed" and that adding a second series will delete the first (which it does). I've googled around and other people seem to have this problem but no-one has a solution. Please help! Thanks
Oops, never mind, I was confused at first by the differences in the Mac version of the Select Data window but now I see how to select the data range in the box in the lower half. I see that the image you show also has that message about being too complex.
This is really helpfull stuff. kudos :)
Very good information! Excelville has an easy to use template "Easy Gantt Chart Project Scheduler" that also does a good job without using Visual Basic.
Omgg thankyou very much!!!
please how do u enter a sub task in Excel 2013
If you mean including a subtask in a Gantt chart that has its own execution flow, sorry I am not aware of any way to do this.
This was absolutely brilliant. I used it to do an assignment and I couldn't have done it without you! Thank you!
Hello. How can I create a Gantt Chart style Portfolio Dashboard which would display multiple projects on top of one another, with test windows/milestones moving across each individual timeline?
Example;
Project 1 start 1/1/15, end 5/30/15. RD1 2/15-2/20, RD2 3/15-3/30, Go-live 5/1/15.
So Project 1 would show a solid bar all the way across and RD1, RD2, and Go-live would sit on top of that solid bar. Thus, if you changed any of the milestones/test windows (RD1, RD2, Go-live), they would auto-adjust along that specific project timeline.
From here, you would have as many or as few projects stacked on top of one another, essentially creating a Gantt style portfolio dashboard.
Can this be done in Excel?
Thanks in advance,
Jim
Hello Jim,
Unfortunately, there is no way to do this in Excel. You can place three charts one under another, but it is not a very good solution. In your case it would be easier and more convenient to use special software for managing and building Gantt charts.
I changed dates in my chart and the bars no longer show on my Gantt chart. The select data still shows start date and duration data. Do I have to create the chart every time I change data?
This was a great way to create and display a Gannt chart. Thanks
Hello Sue,
This is really strange. The Gantt chart I created as an example for this article updates just fine, you can download it at the end of the article and see for yourself.
Is it possible to do "track changes" inside Gantt Project/ free software - the concern is working with multiple users and maintaining integrity in who's updating what sections/ making changes to sections within project
Thanks a bunch!I was struggling to make a Gantt chart for days and your simple instructions saved me...and my job!
Just one question, i added a few more tasks after completing the chart and selected the data accordingly but the chart does not show the bars for the new tasks. Could you help me out with that?
Thanks once again
In Excel 2013, how do you do Gantt chart, so that it shows what has been done so far?
Hi. I want to make a chart that represents the start date and duration days. How is it possible?
Hi Ram,
As I understand, this is exactly what a Gantt chart displays. If you want something different, please explain in more detail.
Hi, am also trying to build the gantt chart by following the instructions but in my case the duration squeezes too much merely i can see that.. :(
need urgent help
Hi Waqas,
It's very hard to say what the problem might be without seeing your chart. Did you try the suggestions described in "Step 6. Improve the design of your Excel Gantt chart"?
Anyway, you can download the Gantt chart example described in this article, and try it on your data:
http://www.ablebits.com/_img-blog/gantt-chart/xls/gannt-chart.xlsx
Thank you so so so so much for that Template Gant chart! it amazing! thanks Svetlana :)
how to download it
Hi Pathik,
I am not sure what exactly you want to download. If you are asking about the Gantt chart example described in this article, here you go:
http://www.ablebits.com/_img-blog/gantt-chart/xls/gannt-chart.xlsx
Just completed the Gantt Chart for my PhD studies with your help. Thanks
thank you!!! you are a life saver!!!
Hi Svetlana,
Thank you for such clear description to generate the Gantt chart. It fitted my requirements perfectly.
Regards
Vikas