How to Make a Gantt Chart in PowerPoint

PowerPoint has no Gantt chart type, but you can build one from a stacked bar chart, draw one with a table and shapes, or start from one of Microsoft's templates. This guide walks through all three, then shows how to make the chart in Preceden and download it as a slide instead.

Set up your data

Start with one row per task, with its start date and how many days it takes. Here is a small website launch plan we'll use as the example:

Task	Start	Duration
Research	3/2/2026	11
Design	3/16/2026	18
Build	4/6/2026	39
Testing	5/11/2026	11
Launch	5/26/2026	1

The duration is the number of days from a task's start date to its end date, so Research runs from March 2 to March 13.

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.

1. On the Insert tab, click Chart, choose Bar, then Stacked Bar, and click OK.
2. PowerPoint opens a small spreadsheet of sample data. Type your tasks over the categories in column A, put "Start" and your start dates in column B, and put "Duration" and your durations in column C.
3. Right-click the column D header and choose Delete, so the chart has only two series. If your last task is missing from the chart, drag the corner of the outlined data range down to include it. Then close the spreadsheet.
4. Click one of the Start bars to select that series, right-click it and choose Format Data Series. Under Fill, choose No fill.
5. PowerPoint lists the tasks from the bottom up. To fix that, right-click the task names, choose Format Axis and check Categories in reverse order. This also moves the dates to the top of the chart; to put them back at the bottom, choose At maximum category under Horizontal axis crosses.
6. Click the legend and press Delete, since "Start" and "Duration" mean little to your audience.

The bars that remain are your Gantt chart, but they probably sit at the far right of a date axis that starts in 1900. PowerPoint stores dates as numbers of days, as Excel does, 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 a date in an empty cell of the chart's spreadsheet and format it as General.

To change a date later, right-click the chart and choose Edit Data. The chart can't show dependencies between tasks or how much of a task is complete.

If you already have the chart in Excel, you can copy it there and paste it onto your slide instead. Our guide to making a Gantt chart in Excel walks through the same method in Excel itself.

Option 2: Draw it with a table and shapes

This method gives you full control of how the chart looks, at the cost of moving the bars by hand.

1. On the Insert tab, click Table and insert one with a row for each task plus a heading row, and a column for the task names plus one for each week or month of your plan.
2. Type the task names down the first column and the weeks or months across the heading row.
3. On the Insert tab, click Shapes, choose a rectangle and draw a bar across the cells for each task's dates.
4. Select all of the bars, then on the Shape Format tab use Align to line up their edges and Shape Fill to color them.

The bars are ordinary shapes, so you can color, label and animate each one. They aren't tied to any dates, though, so when the schedule changes, you have to move and resize them yourself.

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 ready-made Gantt chart slides that you fill in with your own tasks and dates.

Templates are the quickest start, but most of them are drawn from shapes like Option 2, so changing a date still means moving its bar by hand.

Option 4: Make it in Preceden and download a slide

If your plan has more than a handful of tasks, or you need dependencies, you can make the Gantt chart in Preceden and download it as a PowerPoint slide.

Create a new timeline with the Gantt Chart layout, then add your tasks with their start and end dates. You can type them in one at a time, use the Bulk Editor, which works like a spreadsheet, or import an Excel or CSV file as our CSV and Excel import guide describes. Importing is part of our paid plans; on the free plan you can create timelines with up to 10 events each.

Once the tasks are in, you can make a task start when another one ends, shade each bar by its percent complete and add milestones. 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.

To get the slide, click Share above your timeline, choose PowerPoint, pick Standard (4:3) or Widescreen (16:9) to match your presentation, and click Download Now. The slide holds a picture of your chart, so you can move and resize it in PowerPoint but not edit its tasks there. When the plan changes, update it in Preceden and download the slide again. Our PowerPoint export guide shows how to move the slide into your own deck.

Which one should you use?

• If you want a chart PowerPoint can redraw when you edit a date, use a stacked bar chart.
• If you want full control of how every bar looks, draw it with a table and shapes.
• 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 also share with a link, make it in Preceden and download the slide.

Making a timeline of dates rather than a schedule of tasks? See our guide to creating a timeline in PowerPoint. Putting the chart in a report instead? See our guide to making a Gantt chart in Word.