How To Make Gantt Chart in Excel (Step-By-step Guidance and Templates)

5/3/2019 How to make Gantt chart in Excel (step-by-step guidance and templates)
How to make a Gantt chart in Excel 2010, 2013,

May
2016 and 2019
23 by Svetlana Cheusheva | updated on February 27, 2019 284 Comments
If you were asked to name three key components of

1,195 shares Custom Searc
a Microsoft Excel, what would they be? Most likely,

spreadsheets to input data, formulas to perform
h calculations and charts to create graphical representations

Excel: featured articles
z
of various data types.
Merge multiple Excel sheets
n
I believe, every Excel user knows what a chart is and how to into one
create it. However, one graph type remains opaque to
Combine Excel les into one
W many - the Gantt chart. This short tutorial will explain the
key features of the Gantt diagram, show how to make a Compare 2 Excel les/sheets
f simple Gantt chart in Excel, where to download advanced

Gantt chart templates and how to use the online Project
Compare 2 columns in Excel for
k Management Gantt Chart creator.

matches and di erences
D What is the Gantt diagram?

Merge 2 columns in Excel
Merge Excel rows without losing

d How to make a Gantt chart in Excel
data
y Excel Gantt chart templates

Excel substring: how to extract
text from cell
What is a Gantt chart? Create calendar in Excel (drop-

down and printable)
The Gantt chart bears a name of Henry Gantt, American CONCATENATE in Excel:
mechanical engineer and management consultant who combine text strings, cells and
invented this chart as early as in 1910s. A Gantt diagram in columns
Excel represents projects or tasks in the form of cascading
horizontal bar charts. A Gantt chart illustrates the Сalculate time in Excel - time
breakdown structure of the project by showing the start di erence, adding / subtracting
and nish dates as well as various relationships between times
project activities, and in this way helps you track the tasks 3 ways to remove spaces
between words in Excel cells
How to merge two or more

tables in Excel
https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/2014/05/23/make-gantt-chart-excel/ 1/27
against their scheduled time or prede ned milestones. Excel Vlookup: return multiple
matches
UltimateOutlook:
Suite 2018.5 forarticles
featured Excel
Сreate and use Outlook e-mail
templates
How to add BCC recipients in

Outlook
Merge duplicate contacts
How to x "Cannot start

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Microsoft Outlook. Unable to
a open Outlook window" error
h How to make Gantt chart in

z Excel
n Regrettably, Microsoft Excel does not have a built-in Gantt
chart template as an option. However, you can quickly
Excel formulas
Excel functions
W create a Gantt chart in Excel by using the bar graph
functionality and a bit of formatting. Vlookup in Excel
f Please follow the below steps closely and you will make a Merge data in Excel SumIf
k simple Gantt chart in under 3 minutes. We will be using Excel CountIf Excel Compare
D
Excel 2010 for this Gantt chart example, but you can Excel If statement Excel Charts
simulate Gantt diagrams in Excel 2019, 2016 and Excel 2013
Pivot Table
d exactly in the same way.
Excel conditional formatting
y 1. Create a project table Excel formatting Excel time
Excel duplicates Excel date

You start by entering your project's data in an Excel
spreadsheet. List each task is a separate row and structure
Excel tips Excel macro
your project plan by including the Start date, End date and Outlook Google Sheets
Duration, i.e. the number of days required to complete the Outlook duplicates Outlook templates
tasks.
Tip. Only the Start date and Duration columns are really
necessary for creating an Excel Gantt chart. However, if
you enter the End Dates too, you can use a simple
Sign in
formula to calculate Duration, as you can see in the Log in / Register
screenshot below.
Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel
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a
h 2. Make a standard Excel Bar chart
z based on Start date
n
You begin making your Gantt chart in Excel by setting up a
usual Stacked Bar chart.
W Select a range of your Start Dates with the column
f header, it's B1:B11 in our case. Be sure to select only the

cells with data, and not the entire column.
k Switch to the Insert tab > Charts group and click Bar.
D Under the 2-D Bar section, click Stacked Bar.
d
y
As a result, you will have the following Stacked bar added to

your worksheet:
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z Note. Some other Gantt Chart tutorials you can nd on
n the web recommend creating an empty bar chart rst

and then populating it with data as explained in the next
W step. But I think the above approach is better because

Microsoft Excel will add one data series to the chart
f automatically, and in this way save you some time.
k
D Step 3. Add Duration data to the chart
d Now you need to add one more series to your Excel Gantt
chart-to-be.
y 1. Right-click anywhere within the chart area and choose

Select Data from the context menu.
The Select Data Source window will open. As you can

see in the screenshot below, Start Date is already added
under Legend Entries (Series). And you need to
add Duration there as well. Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel
2. Click the Add button to select more data (Duration) you
want to plot in the Gantt chart.
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n 3. The Edit Series window opens and you do the following:
W In the Series name eld, type "Duration" or any other
f
name of your choosing. Alternatively, you can place
the mouse cursor into this eld and click the column
k header in your spreadsheet, the clicked header will be

added as the Series name for the Gantt chart.
D Click the range selection icon next to the Series
d Values eld.
4. A small Edit Series window will open. Select your project

Duration data by clicking on the rst 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.
5. Click the Collapse Dialog icon to exit this small window.

This will bring you back to the previous Edit Series
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window with Series name and Series values lled in,
a where you click OK.
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k 6. Now you are back at the Select Data Source window with
both Start Date and Duration added under Legend
D Entries (Series). Simply click OK for the Duration data to
d be added to your Excel chart.
The resulting bar chart should look similar to this:
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h Step 4. Add task descriptions to the
z Gantt chart
n Now you need to replace the days on the left side of the
chart with the list of tasks.
W 1. Right-click anywhere within the chart plot area (the area
f with blue and orange bars) and click Select Data to
k
bring up the Select Data Source window again.
2. Make sure the Start Date is selected on the left pane

D and click the Edit button on the right pane, under
d
Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels.
3. A small Axis Label window opens and you select your

tasks in the same fashion as you selected Durations in
the previous step - click the range selection icon ,
then click on the rst task in your table and drag the
mouse down to the last task. Remember, the column
header should not be included. When done, exit the
window by clicking on the range selection icon again.
4. Click OK twice to close the open windows.
5. Remove the chart labels block by right-clicking it and

1,195 sharesselecting Delete from the context menu.
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D At this point your Gantt chart should have task
descriptions on the left side and look something like
d this:
Step 5. Transform the bar graph into

the Excel Gantt chart
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. Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel
In technical terms, we won't really delete the blue bars, but
rather make them transparent and therefore invisible.
1. Click on any blue bar in your Gantt chart to select them

all, right-click and choose Format Data Series from the
context menu.
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2. The Format Data Series window will show up and you do
the following:
d Switch to the Fill tab and select No Fill.
y Go to the Border Color tab and select No Line.
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f Note. You do not need to close the dialog because
k you will use it again in the next step.
D 3. As you have probably noticed, the tasks on your Excel

Gantt chart are listed in reverse order. And now we are
d going to x this.
y Click on the list of tasks in the left-hand part of your

Gantt chart to select them. This will display the Format
Axis dialog for you. Select the Categories in reverse
order option under Axis Options and then click the Close
button to save all the changes.
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d The results of the changes you have just made are:
y Your tasks are arranged in a proper order on a Gantt

chart.
Date markers are moved from the bottom to the top

of the graph.
Your Excel chart is starting to look like a normal Gantt

chart, isn't it? For example, my Gantt diagram looks like
this now:
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h Step 6. Improve the design of your
Excel Gantt chart
z Though your Excel Gantt chart is beginning to take shape,
n you can add a few more nishing touches to make it really
W stylish.
f 1. Remove the empty space on the left side of the

Gantt chart.
k As you remember, originally the starting date blue bars
D resided at the start of your Excel Gantt diagram. Now

you can remove that blank white space to bring your
d tasks a little closer to the left vertical axis.
y Right-click on the rst Start Date in your data table,

select Format Cells > General. Write down the number
that you see - this is a numeric representation of the
date, in my case 41730. As you probably know, Excel
stores dates as numbers based on the number of
days since 1-Jan-1900. Click Cancel because you don't
actually want to make any changes here.
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f Click on any date above the task bars in your Gantt
chart. One click will select all the dates, you right click
k them and choose Format Axis from the context

menu.
D
d
y
Under Axis Options, change Minimum to Fixed and

type the number you recorded in the previous step.
2. Adjust the number of dates on your Gantt chart.
In the same Format Axis window that you used in the

previous step, change Major unit and Minor unit to
Fixed too, and then add the numbers you want for the
date intervals. Typically, the shorter your project's
timeframe is, the smaller numbers you use. For
example, if you want to show every other date, enter 2

in the Major unit. You can see my settings in the
screenshot below.
Note. In Excel 2013, Excel 2016 and Excel 2019, there
are no Auto and Fixed radio buttons, so you simply
type the number in the box.
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y Tip. You can play with di erent settings until you get
the result that works best for you. Don't be afraid to
do something wrong because you can always revert
to the default settings by switching back to Auto in
Excel 2010 and 2007, or click Reset in Excel 2013, 2016
and 2019.
3. Remove excess white space between the bars.
Compacting the task bars will make your Gantt graph

look even better.
Click any of the orange bars to get them all selected,

right click and select Format Data Series.
In the Format Data Series dialog, set Separated to

100% and Gap Width to 0% (or close to 0%).
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f And here is the result of our e orts - a simple but nice-
k looking Excel Gantt chart:
D
d
y
Remember, though your Excel chart simulates a Gantt

diagram very closely, it still keeps the main features of a
standard Excel chart:
Your Excel Gantt chart will resize when you add or

remove tasks.
You can change a Start date or Duration, the chart will

re ect the changes and adjust automatically.
You can save your Excel Gantt chart as an image or

convert to HTML and publish online.
Tips:
You can design your Excel Gant chart in di erent ways
by changing the ll color, border color, shadow and
even applying the 3-D format. All these options are
available in the Format Data Series window (right-
click the bars in the chart area and select Format Data
Series from the context menu).
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When you have created an awesome design, it might

be a good idea to save your Excel Gantt chart as a
template for future use. To do this, click the chart,
switch to the Design tab on the ribbon and click Save
as Template.
Download this Gantt chart example.
Excel Gantt chart templates

As you see, it's not a big problem to build a simple Gantt
chart in Excel. But what if you want a more sophisticated
Gantt diagram with percent-complete shading for each task

and a vertical Milestone or Checkpoint line? Of course, if you
are one of those rare and mysterious creatures whom we
respectively call "Excel gurus", you can try to make such a Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel
graph on your own, with the help of this article: Advanced
Gantt Charts in Microsoft Excel.
However, a faster and more stress-free way would be using

an Excel Gantt chart template. Below you will nd a quick
overview of several project management Gantt chart
templates for di erent versions of Microsoft Excel.
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a Gantt
Excel
chart template for Microsoft
h This Excel Gantt chart template, called Gantt Project

z Planner, is purposed to track your project by di erent
n activities such as Plan Start and Actual Start, Plan Duration

and Actual Duration as well as Percent Complete.
W In Excel 2013, 2016 and 2019, just go to File > New and type
f "Gantt" in the Search box. If you cannot nd it there, you

can download it from Microsoft's web-site - Gantt Project
k Planner template. This template requires no learning curve
D
at all, simply click on it and it's ready for use.
d
y
Online Gantt chart template

This is an Interactive Online Gantt Chart Creator from
smartsheet.com. As well as the previous Gantt chart
template, this one is fast and easy-to-use. They o er 30
days free trial, so you can sign with your Google account
here and start making your rst Excel Gantt diagram online
straight away.
The process is very straightforward, you enter your project

details in the left-hand table, and as you type a Gantt Chart
is being built in the right-hand part of the screen.
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Gantt chart template for Excel, Google
Sheets and OpenO ce Calc
Gantt chart template from vertex42.com is a free Gantt
chart template that works with Excel 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013
and 2016 as well as OpenO ce Calc and Google Sheets.
You work with this template in the same fashion as you do
with any normal Excel spreadsheet. Simply enter the start
date and duration for each task and de ne % in the
Complete column. To change the range of dates displayed in
the Gantt chart area, slide the scroll bar.
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h And nally, one more Gant chart Excel template for your
consideration.
z
n Project Manager Gantt Chart template
W Project Manager Gantt Chart from professionalexcel.com is
f also a free project management Gantt chart template for

Excel that can help track your tasks against their allocated
k time. You can choose either the standard weekly view or

daily for short term projects.
D Hopefully, at least one of the above-mentioned Gantt chart
d Excel templates is well suited for your needs. If not, you can
y
nd plenty more Gantt chart templates on the web.
Now that you are familiar with the main features of the
Gantt diagram, you can explore it further and create your
own sophisticated Gantt charts in Excel to amaze your boss
and co-workers : )
You may also be interested in:

How to create Waterfall chart in Excel (bridge chart)
How to create a Pie chart in Excel
Make a chart in Excel from two or more di erent sheets
How to create a histogram in Excel
Ultimate
284 Responses to "How to make a Gantt chart Suite 2018.5
in Excel for2013,
2010, Excel
2016 and 2019"
← Older Comments
1 TByrd says:
October 22, 2018 at 9:13 pm
Thank you for the excellent step-by-step instructions with example screen shots.
With your instructions I was able to create a Gantt chart in my existing spreadsheet that provides
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an nice visual to target dates.
a Reply
h 2 Mehmet says:
z November 6, 2018 at 3:05 pm
n Thanks very nicely explained.
W
Reply
f 3 Abdullah says:
November 23, 2018 at 1:09 pm
k Thank you so much for this Svetlana. Very easy to follow and perfect for what I need. Excellent
D work!!
d
Reply
y 4 Susan says:
November 24, 2018 at 11:10 am
Thank you so much, you helped me out of a sticky situation. so kind of you to share your
knowledge.
Reply
5 Rashmi says:
Thank you so much! Very informative and useful.
Reply
6 Elham says:
Thank you, It was explained well.
Reply
7 Debora says:
December 6, 2018 at 12:03 pm

Thank you for the simple, straightforward instructions. Just what I needed and I have my own
template now that I can quickly ll in and put to use.
Reply
8 Kos says:
Thank you for very informative article

One questions: how did you make the date labels show the mid of the month and then the end of
1,195 shares
the month? By setting the "major units" at 15, makes the labels to be shown every 15 days, which
a not necessarily falls on the mid or end month, since some months will have 31 days.
How to show the labels as: Jan 1, Jan 15, Feb 1, Feb 15, Mar 1, Mar 15, etc ?
h Reply
z 9 Prithy says:
n December 10, 2018 at 9:49 am
W Thank you very much for such a detailed step by step explanation. This really helped me to
generate my own Gantt chart in such an easy and time saving way. Thanks once again. God bless!
f :)
k Reply
D 10 Gaunye Ochae says:
d
y
This is IT, so informative it has helped me a great deal
Reply
11 Adrian Ju says:
January 3, 2019 at 5:14 am
very appreciated for the sharing! It's very helpful to me!
Reply
12 David Simpson says:

January 12, 2019 at 8:04 am
Thanks Svetlana - this was very easy to follow.

Clear, concise steps with suitable screen-shots.
Much appreciated!
Reply
13 sammies says:
January 13, 2019 at 9:43 pm

Good work but I observed that the start date on the Gantt chart doesn't tally with data.
Reply
Svetlana Cheusheva says:

February 27, 2019 at 9:28 am
Hi Sammies,
You can change the start date as explained in Step 6. Improve the design of your Excel Gantt
chart.
1,195 shares
Reply
a 14 Unni says:
h January 13, 2019 at 11:46 pm
z Very impressive illustruation made it easier to follow.
n Really helped me to nish a Gantt chart under an hour.
W
Reply
f 15 Jonathan says:
January 23, 2019 at 7:34 pm
k Very very clear. Thank you
D Reply
d 16 Pontius Byarugaba says:
y February 13, 2019 at 4:25 pm
VERY WELL EXPLAINED
Reply
17 Bobby says:
February 24, 2019 at 4:29 pm
This is a fantastic tutorial, and such a help to those without access to MS Project. Great job!
Thanks,
Bobby
Reply
18 rodger reborn says:

February 26, 2019 at 9:42 am
me too dude!
Reply
19 Eunice says:
February 27, 2019 at 3:25 am Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel
So helpful
I got it all
Thank you so much
Reply
20 derek web says:

March 12, 2019 at 8:58 am
1,195 shares
a This was really helpful, thank you
h
Reply
z 21 Givious says:
March 12, 2019 at 9:33 pm
n Thanks for step by step instructions. Really enjoyed this.
W Reply
f 22 Mohammad Iran says:
k March 18, 2019 at 6:29 am
D Thank you so much

‫ﺗﺷﮑر و ﺳﭘﺎس‬
d Reply
y 23 Bruce Hopkins says:

March 18, 2019 at 11:04 pm
Excellent, thankyou.
Reply
24 Itzhak says:
March 21, 2019 at 8:52 am
Hi,
Thanks for this useful, clear and helpful tutorial!
I made a gantt chart and after few days I wanted to edit it and while clicking select data saw the
message . Do you know the reason and way to x it?
Regards, Itzhak
Reply
25 Joey says:
March 25, 2019 at 7:38 am

Thanks so much for the detailed step by step method of creating a Gantt chart. It was really
helpful.
Reply
26 Sue says:
March 27, 2019 at 8:39 pm
This was really helping!! Although i has some trouble with Step 5, number 2 and had too play
around with some of the options.
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27 Michele Schenk says:
March 28, 2019 at 5:58 pm
z I have an additional line for each Task that is for the Actual Duration and is directly under the
n estimated Task line. I'd like the colors on the gantt chart to be di erent for the Actual Duration but
have no idea how to do this in excel. Please help!
W Current formulas:
f (GREEN) =AND($E8=K$6)
% complete basically
k (BLUE) =AND(NOT(ISBLANK($E8)),$E8=K$6)
% incomplete basically
D Column E is Start Date
d Column F is Completion Date

Column K is the Start Date
y Column H is % Complete
I think the equations would remain the same, but how do I ONLY have that formatting work for
rows that are "Actual Duration"? And keep the original formatting for everything else?
Reply
28 Flavio says:
March 29, 2019 at 2:14 pm
Dear Svetlana,
I have no words to thank you for the above detailed draft illustration. Really, really thank you. I did
my UNI Guntt Chart following your instruction and it was all accomplished within 30 minutes.
Thanks you
God bless
Reply
29 Purvi Tulsani says:

March 31, 2019 at 4:00 pm
amazing and well explained!!! Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

Reply
30 me says:
April 2, 2019 at 11:44 am
this is rubbish tutorial because it doesn't work and its making me really angry
Reply
31
1,195 shares Christian says:
a April 5, 2019 at 3:47 pm
h Amazingly straightforward. Really clear instructions and excellent use of visual aids/screenshots to
z
assist the process.
Reply
n
W
32 Anoopa says:
April 8, 2019 at 4:52 am
f Awesome step by step explanation.
k Reply
D 33 asdfasd says:
d
April 12, 2019 at 8:12 pm
y
Thanks for this post, very clear and helpful!
Reply
34 Demetrius G. says:
April 12, 2019 at 9:31 pm
Excellent step-by-step instructions - thank you!
Reply
35 Aaron says:
April 16, 2019 at 2:42 pm
Two thumbs up! Thanks!
Reply
36 Rahel says:
April 17, 2019 at 12:30 pm
Thank you
Reply
37 ALI says:
April 18, 2019 at 3:41 am Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel
Hi, I explained very well. I love you so much
Reply
38 Hope says:
April 19, 2019 at 2:12 pm
Am so grateful for this.

1,195 shares
A managed to make my grant chart for my reseach presentation.
a Reply
h 39 Lina says:
z April 23, 2019 at 2:52 pm
n Great and very accurate!!! thank you so much!
W
Reply
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5/3/2019 How to make Gantt chart in Excel (step-by-step guidance and templates)

How to make a Gantt chart in Excel 2010, 2013,

If you were asked to name three key components of

a Microsoft Excel, what would they be? Most likely,

h calculations and charts to create graphical representations

f simple Gantt chart in Excel, where to download advanced

k Management Gantt Chart creator.

D What is the Gantt diagram?

Merge Excel rows without losing

y Excel Gantt chart templates

What is a Gantt chart? Create calendar in Excel (drop-

How to merge two or more

How to add BCC recipients in

Merge duplicate contacts

How to x "Cannot start

h How to make Gantt chart in

y 1. Create a project table Excel formatting Excel time

Excel duplicates Excel date

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

W Select a range of your Start Dates with the column

f header, it's B1:B11 in our case. Be sure to select only the

D Under the 2-D Bar section, click Stacked Bar.

As a result, you will have the following Stacked bar added to

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

n the web recommend creating an empty bar chart rst

W step. But I think the above approach is better because

y 1. Right-click anywhere within the chart area and choose

The Select Data Source window will open. As you can

W In the Series name eld, type "Duration" or any other

k header in your spreadsheet, the clicked header will be

D Click the range selection icon next to the Series

4. A small Edit Series window will open. Select your project

included the header or any empty cell.

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

5. Click the Collapse Dialog icon to exit this small window.

a where you click OK.

d be added to your Excel chart.

The resulting bar chart should look similar to this:

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

2. Make sure the Start Date is selected on the left pane

3. A small Axis Label window opens and you select your

window by clicking on the range selection icon again.

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

4. Click OK twice to close the open windows.

5. Remove the chart labels block by right-clicking it and

Step 5. Transform the bar graph into

1. Click on any blue bar in your Gantt chart to select them

d Switch to the Fill tab and select No Fill.

y Go to the Border Color tab and select No Line.

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

k you will use it again in the next step.

D 3. As you have probably noticed, the tasks on your Excel

y Click on the list of tasks in the left-hand part of your

button to save all the changes.

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

y Your tasks are arranged in a proper order on a Gantt

Date markers are moved from the bottom to the top

Your Excel chart is starting to look like a normal Gantt

Ultimate Suite 2018.5 for Excel

f 1. Remove the empty space on the left side of the

k As you remember, originally the starting date blue bars

D resided at the start of your Excel Gantt diagram. Now

d tasks a little closer to the left vertical axis.