How to Make a Gantt Chart in Excel

Excel has no Gantt chart type, but you can build one from a stacked bar chart or from conditional formatting, or start from one of Microsoft's ready-made templates. This guide walks through all three, then shows how to bring the same spreadsheet into Preceden if you outgrow them.

Set up your data

Start with one row per task, with its start and end dates. Here is a small website launch plan we'll use as the example:

Task	Start	End
Research	3/2/2026	3/13/2026
Design	3/16/2026	4/3/2026
Build	4/6/2026	5/15/2026
Testing	5/11/2026	5/22/2026
Launch	5/26/2026	5/27/2026

Put the headings in row 1, so that Task is in column A, Start in column B and End in column C. Excel right-aligns the dates it recognizes, so a date that stays left-aligned is being treated as text and should be retyped.

Option 1: Build a stacked bar chart

This is the classic method. Each task gets two bars stacked end to end: an invisible one that pushes the visible bar out to the task's start date, and a visible one as long as the task.

First add a Duration column in column D, with the formula =C2-B2 in the first row, and fill it down. Format the column as General so it shows a number of days rather than a date.

Then make the chart:

1. Select the Task, Start and Duration columns (hold Ctrl, or Cmd on a Mac, to skip the End column).
2. On the Insert tab, click Insert Column or Bar Chart and choose Stacked Bar.
3. Click one of the Start bars to select that series, right-click it and choose Format Data Series. Under Fill, choose No fill.
4. Excel lists the tasks from the bottom up. To fix that, right-click the task names, choose Format Axis and check Categories in reverse order.

The bars that remain are your Gantt chart, but they probably sit at the far right of a date axis that starts in 1900. Excel stores dates as numbers of days, so click the dates along the axis and, under Format Axis, set the Minimum bound to the number for your first start date. For 3/2/2026 that is 46083. To find yours, enter =B2 in an empty cell and format it as General.

Because the Start series holds real dates, the axis shows dates rather than day counts. The chart redraws when you change a date, but it can't show dependencies between tasks or how much of a task is complete.

Option 2: Use conditional formatting

This method colors the cells of the sheet itself, so the Gantt chart sits right beside your task list and each column is a labeled date. It works best with weeks as the columns, though you can use days for a short project.

If you already tried Option 1, start from a new sheet with just the Task, Start and End columns, because this grid uses column D onward.

1. In cell D1, enter the Monday of your first week, 3/2/2026 in our example.
2. In cell E1, enter =D1+7, then fill that formula right until you pass the last date in your plan. Our example needs 13 weeks, which ends at column P.
3. Select the empty grid under those dates, D2:P6 in our example, starting from D2.
4. On the Home tab, click Conditional Formatting, then New Rule.
5. Choose Use a formula to determine which cells to format and enter =AND(D$1<=$C2, D$1+6>=$B2).
6. Click Format, choose a fill color on the Fill tab and click OK twice.

The formula colors a cell when any part of that week falls between the task's start and end dates. Narrow the columns so the grid looks like a chart, and give the top row a short date format such as m/d if the dates turn into ###.

To use days instead of weeks, change the 7 in cell E1 to 1 and the formula to =AND(D$1<=$C2, D$1>=$B2). Expect a lot of columns.

Because the bars are only colored cells, they scroll and sort with your tasks, but the result is harder to paste into a slide than a chart.

Option 3: Start from a template

If you'd rather not build the chart yourself, click File, then New, and search for "Gantt". Microsoft's template gallery has several ready-made Gantt charts that you fill in with your own tasks and dates. Most of them color a grid of days or weeks from the dates you enter, which is the conditional formatting method from Option 2 already set up for you.

Templates are the quickest start, but each has its own layout, so adding a column or changing the time scale means working out how its formulas fit together.

Option 4: Import your spreadsheet into Preceden

Spreadsheet methods get harder to manage as a plan grows, and none of them can draw dependencies. If you need those, or a chart that looks good on a slide without fiddling with axes, you can bring the same data into Preceden.

Preceden imports Excel (.xlsx) and CSV files and reads only the first sheet of a workbook. The sheet needs eight columns with these headings, in this order: layer_name, event_id, event_name, notes, start_date, end_date, icon and color.

Only layername, eventname and startdate need values. For the example plan, you could put "Website" in every layername cell, copy the Task column into eventname and the dates into startdate and end_date, and leave the other columns empty.

Create a new timeline with the Gantt Chart layout. Then click Share above your timeline, choose Spreadsheet, expand Spreadsheet Import and click Import a Spreadsheet. Our CSV and Excel import guide covers the format in detail.

Importing is part of our paid plans. On the free plan you can create timelines with up to 10 events each and add them by hand or with the Bulk Editor, which works like a spreadsheet.

Once the tasks are in, you can make a task start when another one ends, shade each bar by its percent complete, add milestones, and share the chart with a link or export it as a PDF, an image or a PowerPoint file. Our guide to creating Gantt charts covers each of these. Preceden is built for communicating a schedule rather than running the work, so you can't assign tasks to people or calculate a critical path in it.

Which one should you use?

• If you want a chart with real dates to paste into a document, use a stacked bar chart.
• If you want to keep the schedule and the task list together in one sheet, use conditional formatting.
• If you want something working in a few minutes and don't mind its layout, start from a template.
• If you need dependencies, progress shading or a chart you can present and share, import your spreadsheet into Preceden.

Working in Google Sheets instead? See our guide to making a Gantt chart in Google Sheets. Building the chart for a presentation? See our guide to making a Gantt chart in PowerPoint.