List your tasks and download a Gantt chart as .xlsx. The bars are drawn by conditional formatting from each task's start and end dates, so changing a date in Excel moves its bar.
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This Gantt chart Excel generator turns a task list into an .xlsx file where every task is a colored bar across a row of dates, drawn with conditional formatting rather than a chart. Take a web team relaunching a site in October: design, copy, build and QA overlap, three people own them, and the client wants a printable timeline by Friday that stays editable.
If a task has both a duration and an end date, the end date wins. A task can't start before the project does; the page says so and suggests moving one of the two dates. The file is built in your browser, and nothing typed into the form is sent to a server.
A task table on the left, the timeline on the right. The table and header rows are frozen, so they stay in view as you scroll across the dates.
| Part of the sheet | What it does |
|---|---|
| Start (column C) | A real date you can retype |
| Days (column D) | Duration in calendar days, weekends included |
| End (column E) | =C+D-1 for each row, shown like 8 Oct 2026. Type a date over it to set the end directly |
| % done (column F) | 0 to 100%. That share of the bar, counted from the start, is dark green; the rest is light green |
| Header rows | Month names where the month changes, the day of the month over each column, and an arrow over today's column |
| Today | The column holding today's date is shaded orange with TODAY(), so it moves each day you open the file |
| Weekends | Saturday and Sunday shaded grey on a day timeline |
| Print setup | Landscape orientation, one page wide, print area set, month and date rows repeated on every page |
A 10-day task starting Tuesday 29 September ends Thursday 8 October, because the two weekend days count. Dates use number formats, not TEXT(), so they read the same in any Excel language. Gridlines are off, and the file's author and company properties are set to xlsx.com.
Auto uses day columns for projects up to 60 days long and week columns beyond that. A day timeline runs from the project start to a week past the last task's end: 28 to 180 columns. A week timeline starts on the Monday on or before the project start, one Monday-to-Sunday week per column, 12 to 104 weeks, with no weekend shading. A project longer than its scale's maximum gets a message telling you to switch to weeks or split the project.
Some Excel Gantt templates leave a bar where it was after its start or end date changes. The cause is bars painted in once as cell fills. They go wrong after the first slipped task.
In this file each bar is conditional formatting. For every cell in the grid, the rules compare that column's date with the row's Start (column C) and End (column E), and color the cell when it falls between them. Checked in Excel for Mac: moving a task's start from 29 September to 1 October moved its bar. Change Days and End recalculates, so the bar follows.
Timeline dates are formulas too. The first column is =$B$2 (or the Monday before it on a week timeline) and each column after adds 1 or 7, so changing B2 moves where the grid begins. It doesn't reschedule anything. The Start cells hold typed dates, so every bar stays on its old dates while the grid slides under it. When the kickoff slips a fortnight, change the tasks' Start dates. To make that a one-cell edit next time, turn each Start into a formula of B2, such as =$B$2+14 for a task that begins two weeks in.
The other problem to watch for is a new task that gets no bar. In a conditional formatting Gantt, a row outside the rules' range gets no bar. This file ends with at least five spare rows, and at least ten task rows in all, that sit inside the range and already carry the End formula. Give one a start date and a number of days and its bar appears. For more, or a task mid-list, insert a row between two task rows, which keeps it inside the range, and copy the End formula down into it. A row added below the last spare row gets no bar.
The file counts calendar days and links no tasks. Ordinary formulas fix both, because the bars read the Start and End cells whatever is in them.
For working days, replace a task's End formula with WORKDAY. For a task on row 9:
=WORKDAY(C9,D9-1)
// C9 start date
// D9-1 the start day counts as day 1A 10-working-day task starting Tuesday 29 September now ends Monday 12 October instead of Thursday 8 October. It's only right for tasks that start on a weekday. To skip public holidays, list their dates in a range named holidays and add it as a third argument: =WORKDAY(C9,D9-1,holidays). The grid won't shade those days, but no bar will end on one. More in the WORKDAY and NETWORKDAYS article.
To make one task start when another ends, type a formula into the later task's Start cell:
=E9+1
// E9 end of the task it waits for
// +1 the next dayUse =WORKDAY(E9,1) instead to start on the next working day. Now a slip in the first task pushes the second.
Excel has no Gantt chart type, so both manual routes fake one.
The stacked bar chart. This is Microsoft's own method. Put task names, start dates and durations in three columns, select them, and choose Insert > Insert Column or Bar Chart > Stacked Bar. Click the Start series and, on the Format tab, set Shape Fill to No Fill, then right-click the task axis, choose Format Axis and tick Categories in reverse order so the first task sits on top. The step most tutorials skip: Excel picks the date axis's starting point itself, which often leaves a wide empty band before the first bar. Type your project start in a spare cell, format it as General to see its serial number (29 September 2026 is 46294), and enter that as Minimum under Format Axis > Bounds, again every time the start moves. You do get a real chart object, which suits a PowerPoint deck.
The conditional formatting grid. Put dates across a header row, then add a rule to the grid under it. If your dates run along row 4 from column H and the first task is on row 5, with start in C and end in E:
=AND(H$4>=$C5,H$4<=$E5)
// H$4 the column's date (row locked)
// $C5 the task's start (column locked)
// $E5 the task's endSelect the whole grid first, then Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule > Use a formula. The dollar signs are the trap. Write $C$5 instead of $C5 and every row draws the first task's bar. Weekend shading is a second rule, =WEEKDAY(H$4,2)>5, kept below the bar rule in Manage Rules so bars win where they overlap.
No, Excel has no Gantt chart type. Microsoft's own instructions build one from a stacked bar chart with the start-date series made invisible. The other common route is a grid of date columns where conditional formatting colors the cells between each task's start and end, which is what the generator on this page produces.
Yes. In Excel 365, go to File > New and search for Gantt to see Microsoft's templates, which you fill in over the sample tasks. If bars stop appearing on rows you add, the template's conditional formatting doesn't reach those rows; widen its range under Home > Conditional Formatting > Manage Rules.
Yes. The bars are conditional formatting that read each row's Start and End cells, so a new start date or a new number in Days redraws the bar as soon as you press Enter. Changing the Project start cell, B2, is different: it moves where the timeline begins, but the tasks keep their typed start dates, so nothing is rescheduled.
Count the end date in working days with WORKDAY. In this file, replace a task's End formula with =WORKDAY(start, days-1), pointing at that row's Start and Days cells; the bar reads the End column, so it follows. This gives the right answer when the task starts on a weekday, and WORKDAY's third argument takes a list of holiday dates.
Give each task a % done value and color that share of the bar differently. In this file a task at 50% done has the first half of its bar dark green and the rest light green. The dark part always starts at the task's start date.
Type them into the empty rows under your last task. The file always has at least five spare rows that already carry the End formula, so a start date and a number of days are enough for the bar to appear. Beyond those, insert rows between existing task rows and copy the End formula into them; a row added below the last spare row gets no bar.
Copy the whole last column of the timeline and paste it into the columns to its right. The date formulas and the bar formatting paste with the cells, so the new columns continue the dates and draw bars. Then reset the print area under Page Layout > Print Area, because it stays where it was.