A step by step walkthrough for turning a task list into a published Gantt chart in PlotSet, from shaping the sheet to exporting or embedding the finished timeline.
About 8 minutesA task list with a start date and an end date on every row is the raw material, and how to create a Gantt chart in PlotSet from it is what this guide walks through: one bar per task, coloured by phase, finishing in a published timeline ready to embed or hand to a client. Not a demo dataset, your own project going through the same click path a real PlotSet chart takes from upload to publish.
If your task list already has clean start and end dates, this takes about eight minutes. Add another ten if you're still pulling dates out of a project management tool's export or fixing a column that stored dates as text instead of real dates. Budget the eight minutes below and treat the rest as buffer.
Five columns, one row per task: task name, start date, end date, owner, and phase. Dates in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD), one header row, no merged cells.
| Task | Start | End | Owner | Phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery interviews | 2026-01-05 | 2026-01-16 | Priya | Discovery |
| Content audit | 2026-01-12 | 2026-01-23 | Marcus | Discovery |
| Wireframes | 2026-01-19 | 2026-02-06 | Priya | Design |
| Visual design | 2026-02-02 | 2026-02-20 | Sana | Design |
| Frontend build | 2026-02-16 | 2026-03-20 | Diego | Build |
| CMS integration | 2026-03-02 | 2026-03-27 | Marcus | Build |
| QA and content freeze | 2026-03-23 | 2026-04-03 | Sana | QA |
| Launch | 2026-04-06 | 2026-04-10 | Diego | Launch |
Write dates in ISO format: 2026-01-05, not 1/5/26. PlotSet parses ISO dates the same way every time, while a locale ambiguous date can silently land on the wrong day.
Task name goes in its own column and stays short. It sits in a fixed row margin on the chart, so a long name gets cut off. Put the extra detail in a note elsewhere and let the tooltip carry it.
Owner and phase are optional but do real work: owner becomes the label written inside each bar, phase becomes the bar colour and the legend. Skip either and PlotSet just draws plain, uncoloured bars.
One row per task, no merged cells, no blank spacer rows between phases. A blank row uploads as an empty task with no dates, and PlotSet has nowhere to place it on the timeline.
The exact click path in PlotSet, from a blank template to a finished chart.
From the PlotSet dashboard, start a new project and choose the Gantt Chart template, listed under Timeline. It loads with a sample project already in place (five tasks with dates, owners and phases) so you can see the exact column shape before swapping in your own.
Task name, start date, end date, owner, phase: one row per task. If your source is an export from a project management tool, strip out any status or ID columns you don't need. PlotSet only reads the five above.
Convert start and end dates to YYYY-MM-DD before you upload. If your spreadsheet still shows 04/27/2026, check what the column is actually storing: one formatted as text uploads as text, and PlotSet won't read it as a date.
Import CSV or Excel from the data panel, paste rows directly from a spreadsheet, or connect a Google Sheet so the timeline can be refreshed later without a re-upload.
Start and End take the two date columns. Y axis takes the task name, which labels each row. Labels takes the text written inside the bar, usually the owner. Category takes the phase, which colours the bars and builds the legend.
Order the rows by start date, either in the source sheet or in PlotSet's data table, so the chart cascades top to bottom in the order the work actually happens. A Gantt chart sorted alphabetically hides the one thing it's good at showing.
A project spanning a few months reads well with week or month ticks; a multi year roadmap wants quarters. Open the axis settings and pick the interval that fits, or the labels will crowd into each other.
Publish for a live timeline with a tooltip on every bar and a shareable link, grab the embed code for a status page or wiki, or export a PNG, SVG or PDF for a deck.
Start from the Gantt Chart template with sample data already loaded, then swap in your own.
Open the templateThe last stretch is the same for every chart type: Share turns the chart into a live public link and an embed code, Export writes it out as a static file.
Activating the embed code and public link publishes the chart. The link is safe to send to anyone, and the embed code drops into any page as an iframe that keeps the hover tooltips and the interactivity. Edit the chart later and hit Recreate to push those changes out to both.
Export writes a static copy at whatever size you need. SVG stays sharp at any scale and can still be edited in a design tool; PNG and JPG are the safe choices for slides and documents. The scale multiplier is what gets you a crisp image on a retina screen.
Category drives one colour scheme. Bind it to phase and everyone sees the project's structure at a glance. If owner also needs to be visible, put it in the bar label instead of fighting for a second colour dimension.
The row label sits in a fixed margin on the left. A short name like "Frontend build" reads fine; a full sentence gets truncated. Save the detail for the tooltip, which shows the whole row on hover.
The cascade down the chart is what makes a Gantt chart readable in two seconds. Grouping by phase or owner instead breaks that cascade and turns the chart back into a list with bars attached.
Day ticks on a two year roadmap are unreadable; month ticks on a three week sprint hide all the detail. Set the interval once you know how long the whole plan runs, not before.
This usually means Start and End are mapped to the same column, or the date column uploaded as text instead of a real date. Check the column bindings first, then confirm the dates are in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD) in the source sheet.
The task rows are probably still in their original spreadsheet order rather than sorted by start date. Sort the source sheet, or the data table inside PlotSet, by the start date column and check again.
The label margin has a fixed width and doesn't wrap. Shorten the task names in the source column and move any extra detail into a separate note; the tooltip already shows the full row on hover.
Not sure the Gantt Chart is the right choice? See what it is, when to use it and when not to.
Lay your data out one task per row: task name, start date, end date, owner and phase, with dates in ISO format (YYYY-MM-DD). Upload the file, bind Start and End to the date columns and Y axis to the task name, and PlotSet draws one bar per task on a shared calendar.
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