How to Show Tasks in an Intuitive Gantt Chart in Your Excel Worksheet

Excel is excellent in planning schedules. And in this article, we will show you how to show the schedules in a Gantt chart in your worksheet.

You will probably have used Excel to make plans for your work. But only list those tasks in cells will be a little boring. Thus, now you can also demonstrate those tasks in a Gantt chart.

The image below shows the test tasks of this month. In column B and column c, there are the start dates and the end dates.

In order to show the information in a Gantt chart, now you can follow the steps below.

Arrange the Worksheet

Before you create such a Gantt chart, you will first need to arrange the worksheet. And in this example, you only need to add the duration into this worksheet.

1. First, input the header into cell D1. Here we will input the word “Duration” into the cell.
2. And then click the cell D2.
3. Next, input the formula into this cell:

=C2-B2

4. Next press the button “Enter” on the keyboard. Thus, the duration of the first product will appear in this cell.
5. Now click the cell D2 again.
6. After that, double click the fill handle of this cell. And now, you have filled the column with the formula. All the durations will appear in this worksheet.

When you have arranged the range, you can continue seeing the next part and know how to create a Gantt chart.

Create a Gantt Chart

1. Click the button “Insert” in the ribbon.
2. And then click the button “Bar” in the toolbar.
3. Next you will see the drop-down list. In this list, choose the option “Stacked Bar”. Thus, you have inserted a bar chart into the worksheet.
4. When the bar chart appears in the worksheet, the tab “Chart Tools” will also appear in the ribbon. Here in this step, click the button “Select Data” in the toolbar.
5. In the “Select Data Source” window, click the button “Add”.
6. And then in the “Edit Series” window, input the first series name “Start Date” into the textbox. You can also directly use your mouse and select the corresponding cell in the worksheet.
7. Now you need to input the series value. The start dates are also in the column B in this example. You can use your mouse to select the range. And the corresponding reference will appear in this window.
8. When you have finished the setting, click the button “OK” in the window.
9. And then you will come back to the “Select Data Source” window again. Here click the button “Add” again.
10. In the “Edit series” window, add the series of the “Duration” into the two corresponding text box.
11. Next click the button “OK”.
12. Now click the button “Edit” in the “Horizontal Axis Labels”.
13. In the “Axis Labels” window, input the activities into the text box. In this worksheet, the activities are in the column A. You can use your mouse to select the range.
14. And then click the button “OK”.
15. Next click “OK” in the “Select Data Source” window.
16. Now you will come back to the worksheet. Right click the vertical axis.
17. In the pop-up menu, choose the option “Format Axis”.
18. And then in the “Format Axis” window, check the option “Categories in reverse order”.
19. Next close this window.
20. Now you will see that the chart has changed a little. Here right click the horizontal axis.
21. And then choose the option “Format Axis” in this menu.
22. In this window, change the “Minimum” into “Fixed”.
23. Next input the number “42706” into the text box. Here you can also input the “2-Dec” into this text box. This is the first start day in this worksheet.
24. Now change the “Maximum” into “Fixed”.
25. And then input “42722” into the corresponding text box. You can also input “18-Dec” into it. This is the last end day in this worksheet.
26. After that, you need to change the “Major unit” into the “Fixed”.
27. And then set the unit according to your actual need. Here we will set “2” for this chart.
28. In this step, click the small arrow in the “Axis Labels”.
29. And then choose the option “High” in the drop-down menu.
30. In this step, click the option “Line Color” on the left.
31. After that, choose the option “No line” on the right.
32. When you have finished all the settings, close this window.
33. Right click any of a bar of the “Start Date” series.
34. And then choose the option “Format Data Series” in the menu.
35. In the new window, click the option “Fill” on the left.
36. After that, choose the option “No fill” on the right.
37. When you finish the setting, close the window.
38. Click any of a gridline in the chart. You will see that all the lines are selected in this chart.
39. Now press the button “Delete” and delete the gridlines in the chart.
40. After that, change the chart size according to your need.
41. And then delete the legend of “Start Date”.

Until now, you have created a Gantt chart in the worksheet. You can refer to the image below. In addition, you can still make further modifications to make the chart better.

All the tasks are in the chart with the corresponding duration, and this is indeed much clearer than only listing tasks in cells.

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Author Introduction:

Anna Ma is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including repair Word file corruption and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com