Charts and Dashboards: Great Gantt - Part 2
23 July 2021
Welcome back to our Charts and Dashboards blog series. This week, I format the Gantt chart created last week.
As a reminder, Mary, one of my best imaginary salespeople, has a list of tasks to complete so that we can update our tent business.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image1.png/e774d10cbbb9450fc45efbe51abdf434.jpg)
I want to present this in a Gantt chart. Last time, I entered all my data and I ended up with this:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image2.png/f32e5a15e2cf9c3e4d2d058458ce054d.jpg)
I have some formatting to do. There are a few problems with the way the data is displayed; I will start by looking at Activity since the activities are clearly in reverse order. To change this, I right-click on the vertical axis and choose to access the ‘Format Axis’ pane. In the ‘Axis options’, I can select ‘Categories in Reverse Order’:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image3.png/f1140ff857fc3b6f5f97a6a24f4a6fc7.jpg)
This has the desired effect.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image4.png/72aa864d2854c6fefb1083fba0ab5792.jpg)
The dates are not clear. They overlap, and the format is ambiguous. I right-click on the horizontal axis choose to ‘Format Axis’ again. In the ‘Axis Options’ I set the Minimum to be 1 May 2020 (the date the first activity starts). This is translated to a number by Excel.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image5.png/36776d1da4d05b45bb5a5d09375f407c.jpg)
I also change the ‘Label Position’ to High in the Labels section:
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image6.png/23912d3b1671861e02bebcd5183f1607.jpg)
I also change the date format in the Number section so that the labels are smaller and Date is clear to users of any date format.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image7.png/6f49c288a0d88a66b427eaf4ece923d6.jpg)
I also enlarge my chart; this is starting to take shape.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image8.png/b9ee28d90e6b5bc92ea4aeafdad51628.jpg)
I need to format the blue bars. I select any blue bar and right-click to access the ‘Format Data Series’ pane, where set Fill to ‘No Fill’ and ensure that ‘No Line’ is selected in the Border Section.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image9.png/0485ccbc83bdeec1d741bad442a1ea5f.jpg)
I give my chart a title, by using ‘Add Chart Elements’ on the ‘Chart Design’ tab, and it’s ready to present to Mary.
![](http://sumproduct-4634.kxcdn.com/img/containers/main/blog-pictures/2021/cd/071/image10.png/daf8c4f0259ce428269c0d3d4badd32b.jpg)
That’s it for this week. Come back next week for more Charts and Dashboards tips.