A Gantt chart shows each task of a project as a bar along a calendar. Excel doesn’t have a Gantt chart type, but a stacked bar chart with the first series hidden gives you one in about ten minutes.
Table of Contents
Step 1: Task list and durations
List each task with its start and end date. Work out the duration in days, counting both the start and end day:
=D3-C3+1(End date minus start date, plus 1.)
Step 2: Stacked bar chart of the start dates
Select the Task and Start Date columns and go to Insert → Bar Chart → Stacked Bar.
The tasks appear upside down. Right-click the task labels → Format Axis → tick Categories in reverse order.
Step 3: Add the durations
Right-click the chart → Select Data → Add. Use the Duration header for the series name and the duration cells for the values.
Step 4: Hide the start bars
Click any blue (start date) bar and set Fill → No Fill. Only the duration bars remain, each starting on its task’s start date.
Step 5: Fit the date axis
Right-click the dates along the top → Format Axis. Set Minimum to the project start date and Maximum to the end date. Type them as dates; Excel converts them to numbers.
Set Major units to 7 for weekly gridlines.
Step 6: Labels and colours
Right-click the bars → Add Data Labels to show the duration, and change the fill colour as you like.
Tips
- Turn the task list into an Excel Table (Ctrl + T) so new tasks join the chart automatically.
- To count working days only, use
=NETWORKDAYS(C3,D3)for the duration label, but keep calendar days for the bar length. - For a quick in-cell version, use conditional formatting on a grid of dates: shade a cell when its date is between the task’s start and end.