Multi-Phase Gantt Chart in Excel

Excel Gantt chart broken out by project phases.

If you use Excel to manage your projects, and would like to create a Gantt chart that clearly shows each phase of the project, follow either our simple or more detailed instructions below, based on whether you prefer more of a Gantt chart layout or a timeline layout:

Simple Instructions: Multi-Phase Gantt Chart

These instructions are designed for people don't already have a project plan in Excel. You can use our example Excel project plan as a starting point and follow these abbreviated steps to create your Gantt chart in a matter of minutes.

Start by downloading these two sample files to your downloads folder or to your desktop. The Excel file contains the project task and phase data, and the *.tat file is the OnePager template that will drive the formatting of the Gantt chart you're about to create.

Multi-Phase Gantt Chart.xlsx (Excel File)
Multi-Phase Gantt Chart.tat (OnePager Template)

Open the Excel file that you just downloaded. From Excel's Add-Ins tab, click the OnePager Express button:
On the Start screen, click NEW to begin building a new multi-phase Gantt chart:
On the next screen, locate the Starting Template section, and go to Change > BROWSE FILES. Browse to your desktop and select the Multi-Phase Gantt Chart.tat that you downloaded in step #1:
With your Excel file loaded and your OnePager template selected, click Next, and then on the following screen, click Create new chart. OnePager will import the data from your Excel file and create a Gantt chart that shows your tasks grouped and color-coded based on the different phases of the project:

Now that you've done this, you can go back to Excel and adjust the spreadsheet to match the tasks, phases, and dates of your own project plan. Once you've done this, follow the same steps again with your updated Excel sheet, and you'll be in good shape! 15-Day
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Detailed Instructions: Multi-Phase Gantt Chart

These instructions are designed for people who have already built a phased project plan in Excel and need to import what they already have into OnePager. These instructions also provide more details about customization along the way.

Start with an Excel project plan that looks something like this. Notice that there is a column for the task, plus the start and finish dates for each task. There is also a column for the phase, so that each task is assigned to a phase of the project.

It's also a good idea to have an ID for each task, especially if the names of your tasks are likely to repeat multiple times in the same project.
Click the OnePager Express button:
On the Start screen, click NEW to begin building a new multi-phase Gantt chart:
On the import wizard, give your Gantt chart a name, and then click Next:
On the next screen, assign the fields from your Excel spreadsheet to the different aspects of your Gantt chart:

Here, we've chosen fields for the Task Name, Start Date, and Finish Date, and have also decided to color-code the chart based on the Phase. We also told OnePager to use the ID field as a unique ID for each task in the project plan.
Click Create New Chart, and OnePager will import the tasks and phases from your Excel file and create an initial Gantt chart like this:
Now, we can add swimlanes so that each phase of the project is grouped separately. Go to Home > Chart Properties > Rows/Swimlanes and group your swimlanes based on the Phase field from Excel:
Click OK and OnePager will add swimlanes to your Gantt chart so that tasks are grouped based on which phase they belong to:

Try OnePager Express Gantt chart software today by downloading a free trial.

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Multi-Phase Project Timeline from Microsoft Project
Multi-Phase Project Timeline from Smartsheet

Multi-Phase Gantt Chart from Excel

Learn how to build a Gantt chart from an Excel spreadsheet when your project has multiple phases.

Simple Instructions: Multi-Phase Gantt Chart

Detailed Instructions: Multi-Phase Gantt Chart

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