How to create Gantt chart in Excel?
When you need to display your timeline of the project management in Excel, the Gantt chart can help you. Most users may know that the Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart often used in project management applications, and from it you can view the timelines of each project managements visually and intuitively (see the following screenshot). And here, I will talk about how to create a Gantt chart in Excel.
Create a Gantt chart in Excel (13 steps)
Create a Gantt chart with an amazing feature (4 steps)
Create a Gantt chart in Excel
You can create a Gantt chart with the following steps:
First, create your own task data range.
1. Create the task data range which include the task name, start date and days duration as follows:
Second, insert a bar chart and add the data series.
2. Insert a bar chart by clicking Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart > Stacked Bar, and a blank chart will be inserted, see screenshots:
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3. Then you need to add the data series to the chart, please select the blank chart and right click, then choose Select Data from the context menu, see screenshot:
4. In the Select Data Source dialog, click Add button under Legend Entries(Series), see screenshot:
5. And then, an Edit Series dialog will appear:
(1.) Under Series name to select the header Start Date cell, B1 in this case.
(2.) Under Series values to highlight your date cells (from cell B2 to cell B7 in this example).
6. Click OK to return to the Select Data Source dialog, then please repeat the step4-step5 to continue adding Duration data series to the chart, and the Started Date and Duration data series are inserted into the chart, you will get the following screenshot:
7. Go on in this Select Data Source dialog box, please click Edit button under Horizontal(Category) Axis Labels, and then in the Axis Label dialog, click to select your task name cells, see screenshots:
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8. Then click OK > OK to close the dialogs, and your data series have been added to the chart successfully. The Start Date bars are blue and the Duration bars are orange, as shown in the following screenshot:
Third, format your bar chart.
9. The tasks in your created bar chart are in reverse order, to flip them, please select the task names and right click, then choose Format Axis, see screenshot:
10. In the Format Axis pane, click Axis Options icon, and then check Categories in reverse order, and the task names have been revered, see screenshot:
11. Then close this pane, next, you need to hide the Start Date bar, select one blue bar and right click, then choose Format Data Series.
12. In the Format Data Series pane, under the Fill & Line section, select No fill and No line options, and you will get the chart as below screenshot shown:
13. In following steps, you need to remove the empty white space at the start of your Gantt chart.
(1.) Select the first Start Date cell in your data range, right click and choose Format Cells, in the Format Cell dialog, click Number tab, and select General in the left pane, remember or write down the numbers under Sample, in this example, it is 43933. Then close this dialog.
(2.) Then select the dates above the bar in the chart, and right click to choose Format Axis, and in the Format Axis pane, under the Axis Options icon:
- In the Minimum text box, input the numbers that you are recorded just now;
- In the Major text box, specify a time duration as you need.
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(3.) And then close the pane, your Gantt chart has been created as follows:
Create a Gantt chart with an amazing feature
Too many steps for creating a Gantt Chart in Excel, but, if you have Kutools for Excel, with its Gantt Chart feature, you can create a Gantt Chart with several clicks.
1. Click Kutools > Charts > Point in Time > Gantt Chart, see screenshot:
2. In the Gantt Chart dialog box, please do the following operations:
- Select the range of cells that contains the task names from the Task Names box;
- And then, choose the list of start date cells under the Start Date/Time box;
- At last, select Duration option, and select the duration cells from the data table.
3. Then, Click Ok button, a prompt box will pop out to remind you a hidden sheet will be created as well, see screenshot:
4. Click Yes button, and a Gantt chart is created immediately based on the start date and duration, see screenshot:
More relative chart articles:
- Create A Bar Chart Overlaying Another Bar Chart In Excel
- When we create a clustered bar or column chart with two data series, the two data series bars will be shown side by side. But, sometimes, we need to use the overlay or overlapped bar chart to compare the two data series more clearly. In this article, I will talk about how to create an overlapped bar chart in Excel.
- Create A Step Chart In Excel
- A step chart is used to show the changes happened at irregular intervals, it is an extended version of a line chart. But, there is no direct way to create it in Excel. This article, I will talk about how to create a step chart step by step in Excel worksheet.
- Highlight Max And Min Data Points In A Chart
- If you have a column chart which you want to highlight the highest or smallest data points with different colors to outstand them as following screenshot shown. How could you identify the highest and smallest values and then highlight the data points in the chart quickly?
- Create Progress Bar Chart In Excel
- In Excel, progress bar chart can help you to monitor progress towards a target as following screenshot shown. But, how could you create a progress bar chart in Excel worksheet?
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