Do you use Excel’s Conditional Formatting in Gantt Excel?

No we do not use conditional formatting in Gantt Excel but instead we use Excel Shapes. 

Conditional formatting in Excel is buggy and using it in Gantt Charts is a strict no no! Conditional formatting is also known to have compatibility issues between different versions of Microsoft Excel.

We learned this the hard way when we used conditional formatting over two years ago just like all other Gantt chart excel templates and we noticed that CF rules were duplicated unnecessarily and slowing down the Gantt chart calculations. 

This resulted in a bloated file and the Gantt chart was a disaster of sorts.

So we used simple shapes as timeline bars in Gantt Excel with automation driving the in and out points of the Gantt chart timeline bars. This results in a lightweight file and works accurately as intended.

Gantt Excel allows you to customize the timeline bars easily and create a project timeline to impress.