GanttProject can export documents to Microsoft Project format and import existing documents. If you need custom processing of the project data, export to CSV or Excel is available. Reports and printable charts can be produced with export to PDF and PNG.
Microsoft Excel has a Bar chart feature that can be formatted to make an Excel Gantt chart. If you need to create and update a Gantt chart for recurring communications to clients and executives, it may be simpler and faster to create it in PowerPoint.
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On this page, you can find each of these two options documented in separate sections. First, we will give you step-by-step instructions for making a Gantt chart in Excel by starting with a Bar chart. Then, we will also show you how to instantly create an executive Gantt chart in PowerPoint by pasting or importing data from an .xls file.
On the left side of Excel's Data Source window, you will see a table named Legend Entries (Series). Click on the Add button to bring up Excel's Edit Series window where you will begin adding the task data to your Gantt chart.
Click on the icon and Excel will open a smaller Edit Series window. Now simply click the first start date in your task table and drag your mouse down to the last start date. This highlights all of the start dates for your tasks and inputs them into your Gantt chart. Make sure you have not mistakenly highlighted the header or any extra cells.
Stay in the Select Data Source window and re-click the Add button to bring up Excel's Edit Series window. Here is where you will add the duration data to your Gantt chart.
To exit, click again on the small spreadsheet icon with the black arrow, which will return you to the previous window. Select OK and you should now be back in the Select Data Source window. Click OK again to update your Gantt chart which should now look something like this:
On the right side of Excel's Data Source window, you will see a table named Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels. Select the Edit button to bring up a smaller Axis Label windows.
Click OK and then OK again to exit the Select Data Source window. Now your Gantt chart should have the correct task descriptions next to their respective bars, and should look something like this:
Up to this point, you have really built a Stacked bar chart. Now we need to format it so it looks like a Gantt chart. To do that, we must make the blue parts of each task bar transparent so only the orange parts will be visible. These will become the tasks of your Gantt chart.
To select all of the task bars at once, click on the blue part of any bar in your Gantt chart, then right-click and select Format Data Series, which will bring up the Format Data Series window in Excel.
You will probably notice that the tasks on your Gantt chart are listed in reverse, with the last task on top of the Gantt chart and the first task listed at the bottom. However, you can easily arrange them in counter direction in Excel.
You will notice that Excel not only arranged your tasks from first to last on your Gantt chart, but also moved the date markers from beneath to the top of the graphic. Now it is really starting to look more like a Gantt chart should.
Removing some of the blank white space where the blue bars used to be will bring your tasks a little closer to the vertical axis of your Gantt chart. To do this, click on any of the dates above the task bars to have all of them selected. Then, right-click and select Format Axis to bring up Excel's Axis Options window.
In the Axis Options window, under the header called Bounds, note the current number for Minimum Bounds. It represents the left most boundary of your Gantt chart. Changing this number by making it larger will bring your tasks closer to the vertical axis of your Gantt chart. In our case, we changed the original number (which was 44300.0) to 44365.0. At any time, you can hit the reset button to restore the original settings. This gives you the opportunity to try several different settings until you find the one that makes your Gantt chart look best.
In the same Axis Options window under the header Units, you can adjust the spacing between the dates listed at the top of the horizontal Axis. If you increase the Major unit number, Excel will enlarge the space between each date and, thus, lessen the number of dates your Gantt chart shows. Doing the opposite will reduce the space between each date and, therefore, create extra room for more dates onto your Gantt chart. In our case, we changed the original number from 20 to 30.
Right-click on the first task bar and choose Format Data Series to open the Format Data Series control. Under the Series Options header, you will find the Gap Width control. Sliding it up or down will increase or reduce the size of the task bars on your Gantt chart. Play around until you find something that best works for you.
- recolor the chart bars from orange to a dark blue by double-clicking on any of the bars, going to the Fill & Line section of the Format Data Series pane on the right, and using the Fill color option menu;
PowerPoint is a more graphical tool and a better choice for making Gantt charts that will be used in client and executive communications. Office Timeline is a PowerPoint add-in that makes and updates Gantt charts by importing or pasting from Excel.
You can copy-paste, import and refresh the data from your Excel tables in PowerPoint. In the steps below, we will demonstrate how to turn the Excel table you created above into a PowerPoint Gantt chart by using Office Timeline Pro+.
From here, you can easily customize the Gantt chart further, adding milestones, formatting fonts and colors, and adding various details like percent complete or notes. It is easy to do in Office Timeline. In our example, we used Office Timeline Pro+ to add milestones, move task titles and date texts, change shapes, and add percent complete.
If you were asked to name three key components of Microsoft Excel, what would they be? Most likely, spreadsheets to input data, formulas to perform calculations and charts to create graphical representations of various data types.
I believe, every Excel user knows what a chart is and how to create it. However, one graph type remains opaque to many - the Gantt chart. This short tutorial will explain the key features of the Gantt diagram, show how to make a simple Gantt chart in Excel, where to download advanced Gantt chart templates and how to use the online Project Management Gantt Chart creator.
The Gantt chart bears a name of Henry Gantt, American mechanical engineer and management consultant who invented this chart as early as in 1910s. A Gantt diagram in Excel represents projects or tasks in the form of cascading horizontal bar charts. A Gantt chart illustrates the breakdown structure of the project by showing the start and finish dates as well as various relationships between project activities, and in this way helps you track the tasks against their scheduled time or predefined milestones.
How to make Gantt chart in ExcelRegrettably, Microsoft Excel does not have a built-in Gantt chart template as an option. However, you can quickly create a Gantt chart in Excel by using the bar graph functionality and a bit of formatting.
Please follow the below steps closely and you will make a simple Gantt chart in under 3 minutes. We will be using Excel 2010 for this Gantt chart example, but you can simulate Gantt diagrams in any version of Excel 2013 through Excel 365 in the same way.
Tip. Only the Start date and Duration columns are necessary for creating an Excel Gantt chart. If you have Start Dates and End Dates, you can use one of these simple formulas to calculate Duration, whichever makes more sense for you:
Note. Some other Gantt Chart tutorials you can find on the web recommend creating an empty bar chart first and then populating it with data as explained in the next step. But I think the above approach is better because Microsoft Excel will add one data series to the chart automatically, and in this way save you some time.
A small Edit Series window will open. Select your project Duration data by clicking on the first Duration cell (D2 in our case) and dragging the mouse down to the last duration (D11). Make sure you have not mistakenly included the header or any empty cell.
Click the Collapse Dialog icon to exit this small window. This will bring you back to the previous Edit Series window with Series name and Series values filled in, where you click OK.
Now you are back at the Select Data Source window with both Start Date and Duration added under Legend Entries (Series). Simply click OK for the Duration data to be added to your Excel chart.
The resulting bar chart should look similar to this:
4. Add task descriptions to the Gantt chartNow you need to replace the days on the left side of the chart with the list of tasks.
What you have now is still a stacked bar chart. You have to add the proper formatting to make it look more like a Gantt chart. Our goal is to remove the blue bars so that only the orange parts representing the project's tasks will be visible. In technical terms, we won't really delete the blue bars, but rather make them transparent and therefore invisible.
Your Excel chart is starting to look like a normal Gantt chart, isn't it? For example, my Gantt diagram looks like this now:
6. Improve the design of your Excel Gantt chartThough your Excel Gantt chart is beginning to take shape, you can add a few more finishing touches to make it really stylish.
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