Step-by-step guide
How to make a Gantt chart in Microsoft Project
Microsoft Project includes a Gantt Chart view and a scheduling engine. Enter task durations and dependencies to calculate dates, then highlight the critical path. This guide covers the setup and the Auto Scheduled setting.
We use the same six-week bakery-website plan as our worked examples, our Excel guide, and our Notion guide, so you can line them all up side by side.
before you start
Enter the tasks and let Project calculate the dates
If you have built a chart in Excel or PowerPoint, the main change is entering scheduling rules. Give each task a duration, tell Project which tasks wait on which, and its scheduling engine works out every start and finish date and draws the chart from them.
That's why Project can do things a drawing never will: shift a whole plan when one date slips, and colour the critical path for you. The raw material is the same as every other method — one row per task, with a start and a finish — but here the finish is computed, not typed:
| Task Name | Duration | Start | Finish |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design | 14d | Apr 1 | Apr 14 |
| Build | 18d | Apr 8 | Apr 25 |
| Copy | 7d | Apr 18 | Apr 24 |
| Photos | 10d | Apr 22 | May 1 |
| QA & fixes | 11d | May 2 | May 12 |
| Launch milestone | 0d | May 12 | May 12 |
You typed the durations. Project computed the Start and Finish columns from them and the links between tasks — change a duration and those dates redo themselves.
method 01 — the native way
Build the schedule, in five steps
Set the project start date, enter tasks and durations, and link dependent tasks. Project displays the schedule as a Gantt chart: a task grid on the left, bars on a date scale to the right, with the critical run picked out in red.
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Set the project start date
Open a blank project, then Project tab → Project Information and set the Start Date. Everything Project schedules will count forward from this one date, so it is the first thing to pin down — not the individual task dates.
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Type tasks and give each a duration
In the Task Name column, list one row per task. In the Duration column, enter how long each takes — "14d", "18d". You do not type start and finish dates: you type durations and let Project work out the dates. A bar appears on the chart the moment a task has a duration.
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Link the tasks that wait on each other
Select two tasks in order and click Link Tasks (the chain icon, or Ctrl+F2). Project draws a finish-to-start arrow and slides the second task to begin when the first ends. Link Build to Design, QA to Photos, and so on .
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Add the launch as a milestone
Type a task named "Launch" and give it a Duration of 0d. Project draws it as a diamond instead of a bar — the standard mark for a moment rather than a stretch of work. Link it after QA so it lands on the true finish date.
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Turn on the critical path
On the Gantt Chart Format tab, tick Critical Tasks. Project colours the chain of tasks with no slack red — the run that actually sets your finish date. Use the highlighted tasks to see which delays would affect the finish date.
Critical — no slack Has slack (Copy) Milestone
method 02 — the part that earns its keep
Auto Scheduled, so the plan reflows
Automatic scheduling is a reason to use Project when manually updating a spreadsheet becomes time-consuming. Project has two scheduling modes:
Manually Scheduled
A task stays exactly where you drop it and ignores its links. Use this for dates you want to control yourself. Check this setting if linked tasks do not move when expected.
Auto Scheduled
Project owns the dates. Change one duration or link, and every downstream task re-dates itself along the dependencies. Use this mode when Project should calculate the dates.
Set new tasks to Auto Scheduled (bottom-left of the window, or Task tab → Auto Schedule), and watch what a five-day overrun on Design does on its own:
the plan as agreed
Design finishes on Apr 14; everything downstream is timed to it.
Design slips 5 days → Project moves the rest
You edited one duration. Project re-dated the other four and pushed the finish.
Once the tasks are linked and set to Auto Scheduled, Project recalculates the affected dates. This serves a similar purpose to the dependency settings in a Notion timeline but with more scheduling controls.
Limitations
What all that power costs you
Project has more scheduling controls than the manual methods in these guides. Consider the cost, platform requirements, and sharing workflow before choosing it:
- There is no free tier. Every other method in the cluster has a free route; Project needs a subscription or a standalone licence before you draw a bar. If you'll make one plan, you're buying a schedule engine to use a fraction of it.
- It's desktop-first, and Windows-first. The full engine lives in the Windows desktop app. There's no native Mac version, and Project for the web is a lighter cousin missing pieces of the desktop feature set. A spreadsheet or a Notion timeline opens anywhere.
- Sharing means everyone has Project — or a PDF. A .mpp file only opens in Project. To show a plan to someone without a licence you export a PDF or an image, and you're back to a static picture that can't update. There's no "send a live link" the way there is with a web tool.
- Check whether you need the advanced features. Resource levelling, baselines, earned-value, cross-project rollups — These features are useful for coordinating larger programmes and shared teams. A six-week website may need only a small part of them.
Project is worth considering for shared resources and detailed reporting. For a small schedule, compare the licence and setup requirements with the features you will use. Our buyer's guide covers the signs you've genuinely outgrown a spreadsheet, and the head guide compares every route side by side.
Common questions
Microsoft Project Gantt charts, answered
Does Microsoft Project have a built-in Gantt chart?
Yes. Gantt Chart is the default view when you open a project. The task table appears on the left and the bars on a date grid to the right. Enter durations and dependencies to calculate the schedule.
Is Microsoft Project free?
No, and this is the honest catch. Project has no free tier. It ships as a paid Microsoft 365 subscription (Project Plan 1, 3, or 5) or as a one-time desktop licence (Project Standard or Professional), separate from a normal Office subscription. Every other method in our cluster — Excel or Google Sheets, a Notion timeline, even a plain sentence to ganttchart.ai — has a free route. Project is the one you have to buy before you draw a single bar.
Why aren’t my Project bars moving when I change a date?
Almost always because those tasks are Manually Scheduled rather than Auto Scheduled — the mode is shown in the Task Mode column and set for new tasks at the bottom-left of the window. A Manually Scheduled task stays exactly where you put it and ignores its links, which quietly defeats the point. Switch the tasks to Auto Scheduled and Project will reflow them along their dependencies whenever a date upstream moves.
Does Project show the critical path automatically?
It does, in one click: Gantt Chart Format → Critical Tasks colours the critical chain red. Because Project already knows every duration and dependency, it can compute the run of tasks with zero slack — the ones that push your finish date if they slip — without you tracing it by hand. If you want to understand what it’s highlighting, our guide to the critical path method walks through the same idea by hand.
What’s the fastest way to make a Gantt chart?
ganttchart.ai generates a shareable chart from a project description. Microsoft Project offers more scheduling controls, with a licence and application setup to consider. For a small plan, choose based on the controls and sharing options you need.
New to the vocabulary? Every planning term on this page is defined in the plain-English glossary.
For a smaller project
Describe your project in plain English and get a shareable, editable Gantt chart in seconds — dependencies, milestones, and a critical path included, with no licence to buy and nothing to install. Compare the generated schedule with your estimates before sharing it.