(upbeat music)
- Big projects take teamwork,
and every project manager knows
collaboration is the fuel that gets project
across the finish line faster.
In this step by step tutorial,
I'll walk you through
how to build a basic Gantt chart in Google Sheets
from the ground up using the steps listed on screen.
Let's get started.
Start with a blank sheet and create columns for task name,
start date, end date, start on day and duration.
Then, fill out those columns with the basic details
for your project tasks and milestones.
Once all the tasks and milestones are added,
format the task name column as text,
the start date and end date columns as a date,
and the start on day and duration columns as a number.
Next, we'll use a formula to determine the interval
between the first task start date,
and each subsequent task in your project.
If you started in different cells in your worksheet,
be sure to adjust each formula accordingly.
Google Sheet should prompt you
to auto fill the rest of the start on day column.
Click the green check mark icon to apply this formula
to the remaining cells in column D.
Next, let's add a formula that subtracts the start date
from the end date in the duration column.
That way your worksheet will automatically
calculate the length of each task in your Gantt chart.
Enter C two minus B two
into the duration field for the first task.
Google Sheet prompt you again
to auto fill the rest of the duration column.
Click the green check mark icon to apply this formula
to the remaining cells in column E.
Now highlight all the completed cells
in columns A, D and E
to select the data, to populate the Gantt chart.
Click insert chart and choose stacked bar chart
from the bar section to add a chart
to your Google Sheets worksheet.
Double click the chart title text box
to select the full title and enter the name
of your project to replace the placeholder text.
You can also update the chart title
in the chart editor settings,
under chart and access titles.
Next, format the stack bar chart
in your worksheet to look like a Gantt chart
by removing the fill color
from the first portion of each bar.
Click on the start on day portion
of any bar in your chart to select the entire data series.
In this example,
the data series is represented by blue bars.
Then, click the fill color menu
in your series settings and select white
to remove the blue bars that precede your task start dates.
Now open the legend menu
from the customized tab on your chart editor settings
and choose none from the position menu.
Next, adjust the labels on each axis
of your Google Sheets Gantt chart, to keep it clean
and easy to read.
Open the chart and access titles menu
from the customized tab in your chart editor settings
and select horizontal access title
and enter day of the month in the title text field.
Then select vertical access title and delete task name
to blank out the title text field.
Right now the Gantt chart displays a timeline
in 20 day intervals.
Let's change that to seven days,
so we can see project tasks laid out in a weekly view.
Open the grid lines and ticks menu
from the customize tab in your chart editor settings
and enter seven in the major step field.
Finally, give your Google Sheets Gantt chart a custom look
by applying your favorite colors to the task bars.
Click on a single task bar twice,
but don't double click it,
click it once to highlight all the bars in that color,
then click it again to highlight a single bar.
click the fill color menu in the settings,
and choose the color you want from the palette options.
Repeat this process to change the colors
of the rest of the task bars
in your newly made Google Sheets Gantt chart.
It's a good idea to color milestones, yellow or gold,
so they stand out easily from other tasks.
And that's it.
You've created your very own Gantt chart in Google Sheets.
Feel free to customize it even more
to fit your project needs.
Building a Google Sheets Gantt chart from scratch
was probably more steps than you anticipated,
especially if you have to do that
every time you make a timeline for a project,
that's why we created an automated template
to help you save time and effort.
Download our dynamic Google Sheets Gantt chart template
to get started.
We've done all the heavy lifting for you.
Click the link in the description to download it.
That's it for this video on creating a Gantt chart
in Google Sheets from scratch.
I hope it helped you out.
If it did, I'd love it if you could return the favor
and hit the like button,
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So you don't miss any of our videos.
Thanks for watching.
I'll see you next time.
(Upbeat music)