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I followed the tutorial here:

http://ksrowell.com/blog-visualizing-data/2013/05/16/how-to-make-a-gantt-chart-for-repeated-tasks/

To create a bar chart for the games I've played over the past couple of years. Here's a sample of my data:

games,game_id,start_date,elapsed_time,end_date
APB Reloaded,1,2013-04-20,120:00,2014-06-24
APB Reloaded,1,2014-04-05,24:00,2014-04-05
ARK: Survival Evolved,2,2015-12-14,600:00,2016-01-08
ARK: Survival Evolved,2,2016-01-23,24:00,2016-01-23
ARK: Survival Evolved,2,2016-02-13,24:00,2016-02-13
ARK: Survival Evolved,2,2016-05-13,648:00,2016-09-09
ARK: Survival Evolved,2,2016-09-16,336:00,2016-09-30
ARK: Survival Evolved,2,2016-11-16,192:00,2016-11-24
ARK: Survival Evolved,2,2016-12-03,24:00,2016-12-03
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2013-05-07,144:00,2013-05-13
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2013-07-02,240:00,2013-07-11
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2013-08-16,336:00,2013-08-30
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2014-01-01,24:00,2014-01-01
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2014-03-24,24:00,2014-03-24
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2014-06-05,24:00,2014-06-05
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2014-09-13,48:00,2014-09-14
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2014-12-31,24:00,2014-12-31
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-04-04,24:00,2015-04-04
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-05-01,24:00,2015-05-01
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-05-29,696:00,2015-05-01
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-05-30,24:00,2015-05-30
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-10-06,24:00,2015-10-07
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-11-05,192:00,2015-11-13
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-11-25,192:00,2015-12-03
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-12-12,24:00,2015-12-12
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2015-12-21,24:00,2015-12-21
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2016-02-27,24:00,2016-02-27
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2016-03-24,216:00,2016-04-02
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2016-04-29,192:00,2016-05-07
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2016-05-21,24:00,2016-05-21
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2016-06-11,24:00,2016-06-11
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2016-07-01,192:00,2016-07-09
Age of Empires II: HD Edition,3,2017-02-03,24:00,2017-02-03
Age of Empires Online,4,2014-04-26,24:00,2014-04-26
Age of Empires Online,4,2014-06-21,48:00,2014-06-22
Age of Empires Online,4,2014-06-29,24:00,2014-06-29

Here's how it looks in the resulting stacked bar chart:

Imgur link to stacked bar chart

I've tried everything I could on the tutorial page. This is the section that's supposed to remove the duplication:

Step 3. Plot all items with the same x value in the same bar. Right click on vertical axis and select “Format Axis”. Select “Axis Options” click on “Date axis”. Click on “Dates in reverse order”. Under “Horizontal Axis Crosses” select “At maximum date” to display dates at the bottom.

But when I do that, it doesn't change the chart at all. Any and all help appreciated. These are the results only up to step 5:

enter image description here

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When you perform the steps with the Date axis, the vertical labels need to be the numbers from column B. You are plotting the text from column A as the vertical labels. It's in the instructions:

Step 1. Create the stacked bar chart. Highlight the range b3:d51 click on “Insert” tab. Select “Bar Chart” then select 2D “Stacked Bar” chart. Column B is the number used for the X values of the chart.

Your data is not suitable for that chart at all, though. The charting trick is to combine values for one day. The X axis only shows one day, so the Gantt shows the times of the day where the equipment is used (or in your case, the game is played). Since you have multiple days for each game, this doesn't really come across. The X axis shows all of your dates, but maybe you want to see it that way. enter image description here

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  • No I'm not. That's Step 6: Add informative vertical axis labels. Click on the chart, click “Design Tab” and click on “Select Data”. Under “Legend Entries”, click on “Add”. In the “Series Values” box highlight cells A55:B57 and click “OK”, which is what you're seeing. Sorry that wasn't displayed in my question.
    – PatPeter
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 3:20
  • Yep. You start with step 1. Cells in column B to Column D. Column B has the numbers. After grouping, you apply the text. After grouping. In step 6. Grouping is step 3
    – teylyn
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 3:21
  • No, I'm saying I followed every step verbatim all the way up to step 12. I've followed step 3 to the letter at this point and this is always the result: i.imgur.com/ecCV1E1.png which doesn't make sense since I only have 78 games for 499 rows.
    – PatPeter
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 3:42
  • how many DIFFERENT numbers to you have in column B? You can see from my screenshot that your data works. It was done with the data you posted above. It has four different numbers in column B, so there are four groupings and four resulting stacks in the chart. You may have too many text labels for the Y axis and Excel leaves out the ones it cannot plot.
    – teylyn
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 4:02
  • If I click Select Data and click Edit under Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels for game_id, setting it to =Data!$B$1, then the grouping works!!! Yay. The problem is now I don't know how to get my text labels since I'm using the same field.
    – PatPeter
    Commented Apr 26, 2017 at 4:13

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