A Gantt chart is a special type of bar chart, in which each in­di­vidu­al bar is arranged along a timeline to visualise when tasks should begin and how long they should last for. Project managers tend to use these types of bar charts named after mech­an­ic­al engineer Henry Gantt to organise processes and steps in a project. Using a Gantt chart, the project manager gains a full overview of all out­stand­ing tasks: who’s re­spons­ible for which as­sign­ment, when in­di­vidu­al duties should begin, and the time frame project members have been assigned to finish their work.

Spread­sheet programs such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets allow users to create their own Gantt charts in just a few simple steps. The special advantage of Google Gantt charts is that they are ac­cess­ible anywhere and can be shared among project teams with ease. Part of the Google Workspace by Google, Sheets is a cloud-based tool ac­cess­ible by multiple team members at the same time to modify in real-time.

When you and your team are col­lab­or­at­ing on a project, it makes sense to utilise col­lab­or­at­ive tools to keep members up to date on current processes. In the following, we’ll explain how you can create your own Gantt charts with Google Sheets step by step.

Creating Google Gantt charts step by step

Using Google Docs to create Gantt charts is achiev­able in just a few simple steps. Here’s how to do it.

1. Create a new project spread­sheet which should include a column that explains the task (“Task”) and one column con­tain­ing the “Start Date” and another the “End Date.” To assign re­spons­ib­il­it­ies you could add a fourth column with a name of the person re­spons­ible for a certain task.

Image: Google Sheets with example project worksheet
The example project table includes the task and its assigned start and end date.

2. Copy the header of the project table and insert it where you want to insert the Gantt chart later. The header should now include a column entitled “Duration” instead of “End Date” and we’re using “Day” instead of the “Start Date.” Now, copy the de­scrip­tions of the in­di­vidu­al tasks.

Image: Google Sheets Gantt chart foundation
Where you’ve inserted a copy of your project table, a Gantt chart will be embedded later.

3. Within the “Day” column of your copied table, enter the formula to calculate the days between tasks, i.e. the dif­fer­ence between a task and the very first task. In the example below, the formula would be “=int(B3)-int($B$3)”. The start date of the first task is contained in cell B3 in the example below. However, this may differ depending on the ar­range­ment in your spread­sheet.

Image: Inserted formula in Google Sheets
The dif­fer­ence between the start date of a task and the start date of the very first task logically is “0” in this case.

4. Click on the small blue square in the bottom right corner of the cell used to calculate the dif­fer­ence between the start date of a task and the very first task and pull it down across all other cells up to the final cell con­tain­ing a task. Doing so will copy the formula across all other cells auto­mat­ic­ally. Google Sheets then auto-cal­cu­lates the values across the in­di­vidu­al cells.

Image: Automatically calculate days in a Google spreadsheet
The formula used pre­vi­ously is auto­mat­ic­ally trans­ferred to all selected cells and Google Sheets auto-cal­cu­lates the values for each in­di­vidu­al cell.

5. Below the cell con­tain­ing the Duration header, enter the formula to calculate how much time should be spent per­form­ing each task. The formula subtracts the value of the start date of the very first task from the end date of each in­di­vidu­al task. The formula in this example would be: “=(int(C3)-int($B$3))-(int(B3)-int$B$3”.

Image: Google Sheets: formula for task duration
Hit “Enter” to calculate the results. The cells will show how many days should be spent on each task.

6. Hold down the small blue square in the cell and pull it across the remaining cells. The formula is now being copied across the remainder of the tasks and the duration for each task is auto­mat­ic­ally cal­cu­lated.

Image: Google Sheets: values for project duration
By pulling the formula from cell C13 into the suc­ceed­ing cells, the duration of the in­di­vidu­al tasks are auto­mat­ic­ally cal­cu­lated.

7. Now, highlight the whole table of cal­cu­lated dates and select “Insert” from the Google Sheets main panel. Select “Chart” from the panel overview.

Image: Google Sheets menu “Insert”
The “Chart” option under “Insert” will auto­mat­ic­ally insert a chart of the cal­cu­lated values.

8. On the right side, a chart editor menu will pop up. If this doesn’t open auto­mat­ic­ally, select the Gantt style from the “Chart style” menu option to create your Google Gantt chart. Click on one of the blue bars to access the chart editor for all bars rep­res­ent­ing “Start date.” Under “Format,” choose “Color” and “None.”

Image: Gantt chart with Google Sheets
The finished Gantt chart shows when in­di­vidu­al tasks begin, overlap, and their temporal relation to one another.

You can now per­son­al­ise your Gantt chart and make ad­di­tion­al ad­just­ments. For example, you could modify the title of the chart, scale its axes or select different colours for in­di­vidu­al bars.

Tip

If you prefer to work with Microsoft Office, here’s the good news: Microsoft offers similar options to Google Sheets to create many different types of charts. Simply use Excel to create Gantt charts.

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