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How do I create a timeline chart which shows multiple events? Eg. Metallica Band members timeline on wiki ? where it shows the multiple band members and their durations.

Technologies to be used : Microsoft Office primarily. Any exotic technology where the learning curve isn't too much to do this stuff, should also be fine?

enter image description here

Achow
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  • An example of exotic technology without big learning curve is Google Charts: Time Line. https://google-developers.appspot.com/chart/interactive/docs/gallery/timeline. – jing Sep 23 '13 at 10:00
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    Within 10 days this question is 6x upvoted and it has 4 favorite badges. Obviously people disagree to close these types of questions. Me too. The question is clearly defined, the attached picture is very useful and based on upvotes people want an answer. – jing Sep 23 '13 at 10:06
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    I found a good article that seems to cover all the details: https://www.officetimeline.com/gantt-chart-excel – JustAndrei Sep 08 '15 at 06:40

2 Answers2

36

A Stacked bar chart should suffice:

Setup data as follows

Name    Start       End         Duration (End - Start)
Fred    1/01/1981   1/06/1985    1612   
Bill    1/07/1985   1/11/2000    5602  
Joe     1/01/1980   1/12/2001    8005  
Jim     1/03/1999   1/01/2000    306
  1. Plot Start and Duration as a stacked bar chart
  2. Set the X-Axis minimum to the desired start date
  3. Set the Fill Colour of thestart range to no fill
  4. Set the Fill of individual bars to suit

(example prepared in Excel 2010)

enter image description here

Achow
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chris neilsen
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  • Thanks Chris, yes stacked bar chart did the trick, though the data needed to be set up differently. I will accept the answer, as it showed me the direction, but will also put up a version below for somebody else's benefit! – Achow Oct 13 '12 at 08:48
  • @Chris Neilsen, is there a macro or something to get the data in your presented way? – Jonathan May 18 '16 at 19:32
  • Is it possible to show the stacks in one line. (The start of one event is on ending of previous) ? – Naveed Abbas Sep 07 '16 at 11:39
4

As mentioned in the earlier comment, stacked bar chart does the trick, though the data needs to be setup differently.(See image below)

Duration column = End - Start

  1. Once done, plot your stacked bar chart using the entire data.
  2. Mark start and end range to no fill.
  3. Right click on the X Axis and change Axis options manually. (This did cause me some issues, till I realized I couldn't manipulate them to enter dates, :) yeah I am newbie, excel masters! :))

enter image description here

Achow
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