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How-To Geek

How to create a timeline in microsoft powerpoint.

If you want to visually display a sequence of events in your PowerPoint presentation, add a timeline. Here's how.

One of PowerPoint’s charms is the ability to visually represent information by using its large library of available graphics, such as charts and graphs. If you want to create a timeline, well, Microsoft has just the thing. Here’s how it’s done.

Open your PowerPoint presentation and navigate to the slide in which you would like to add a timeline. Once there, navigate to the “Insert” tab and select “SmartArt” from the “Illustrations” group.

The “Choose a SmartArt Graphic” window will appear. Here, select “Process” from the left-hand pane.

A library of several different process-focused SmartArt graphics will appear. You can choose the style you like best for your timeline. In this example, we’ll use the “Basic Timeline” option.

Once selected, information about the SmartArt option will be displayed in the right-hand pane. When you’re ready to insert the SmartArt, select the “OK" button.

Related: How to Create Star Wars Scrolling Text in PowerPoint

The timeline will now appear on the slide, along with a window where you will type the respective text for the timeline.

The text entered in the box will automatically reflect on the actual timeline.

By default, this timeline will have three bullets for you to fill out. To add more, place your cursor at the end of the last item on the list in the text window, press “Enter,” and then type the desired text. Repeat this step as many times as necessary.

The size of the text and the placement of the bullets on the timeline will adjust automatically.

When you’re finished adding text, select the “X” button at the top right of the text window.

If you need to adjust the colors of the timeline to better align with the presentation, select the timeline and then click “Change Colors” in the “SmartArt Styles” group of the “SmartArt Design” tab.

A menu will appear, displaying a large library of different color schemes for the timeline. In this example, we’ll use “Gradient Loop” from the “Accent 6” group.

Once selected, the change will take place on your timeline.

And, of course, you can adjust the bullets and the text in the timeline by clicking and dragging each item.

Finally, if you ever need to add or remove a bullet from (or edit text in) the timeline, you can bring back the text edit window by selecting the timeline and then clicking the "Left Arrow" icon found on the left side of the graphic box.

Related: How to Build a PowerPoint Organizational Chart With Excel Data

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• Make Timeline

How to make a timeline in PowerPoint

This step-by-step powerpoint timeline tutorial will show you how to make professional timelines right inside the popular presentation tool..

Microsoft PowerPoint enables users to create a basic timeline that they can manually adjust and restyle to fit their needs. The result is a simple graphic fit for presentations to clients or executives, but not quite flexible enough for those who need to show more accurate details or update the timeline regularly.

If you need to regularly create and update timeline slides for high-level presentations, a simple and fast solution would be to use a timeline maker for PowerPoint that automates the process. On this page, you will see both the manual and the automatic way to make a timeline in PowerPoint.

Which tutorial would you like to see?

How to manually make a timeline in PowerPoint

1. create a basic timeline graphic..

If you prefer to manually build a PowerPoint timeline, you will need to use PowerPoint's SmartArt tools to create a basic visual and then adjust that graphic to make it look better for presentations. Here are the exact steps:

Create a new presentation or open an existing one and add a new blank slide.

Go to the Insert tab on the PowerPoint ribbon and click on the SmartArt button in the Illustrations section.

In the window that pops up, select the Process category, where you will find a variety of graphic options to choose from for your PowerPoint timeline. For a simple graphic that clearly shows the key events or milestones of a project, we’d recommend choosing the Basic Timeline .

You can change the style at any time from the SmartArt Tools Design tab on the ribbon if you want to try out different layouts for your graphic.

2. Add your data.

The default graphic generated by PowerPoint will have placeholder text and only 3 milestones. You can insert your own data directly on the graphic by typing inside the [Text] boxes on the slide, but adding new milestones or events besides the 3 default ones can become a little tricky this way. That’s why we’d recommend using the Text Pane instead, as it’s faster and it allows you to easily add extra milestones to your PowerPoint timeline. Here’s how it works:

If the Text Pane is not already visible, click on the small icon right on the left of your timeline arrow to open it.

Here, type in your milestone dates and descriptions, and PowerPoint will automatically update the graphic. Press Shift + Enter to insert a line break and show the date and description of a milestone one below the other.

Note: You’ll notice that PowerPoint places your milestones equidistant on the timeline, regardless of the relative distance between their dates. This is because the tool “reads” the dates you enter as plain text, so it can’t calculate the number of days between two milestones. You can manually drag milestones closer to or farther away from each other, but as you add more items on the timeline, the layout will get distorted. That’s why we’d recommend leaving them as they are.

To add more milestones to your PowerPoint timeline, simply press Enter after an existing item in the Text Pane and insert your data. You’ll notice that PowerPoint automatically shrinks the text size the more events you add to your timeline. To ensure your data remains easy to read, it would be safe to keep a maximum of 5 to 7 milestones.

When building your PowerPoint timeline, you may be tempted to manually increase the size of the text for improved legibility. We would suggest avoiding that because it tends to ruin the whole layout. Instead, you can expand the size of the graphic box as we did above, and PowerPoint will automatically make the milestone descriptions larger too.

3. Customize your timeline.

Now you can apply some styling choices if you want to make your PowerPoint timeline look more unique.

To customize the overall look of your timeline, you can change the SmartArt Styles and color palettes from the SmartArt Design tab on the ribbon. In our example, we chose a darker color scheme from the Change Colors dropdown and selected the Intense Effect option from the Styles menu to make the milestone circles stand out a bit better.

While the SmartArt functions apply to the whole graphic, you can also customize individual items to make a more unique PowerPoint timeline. To do this quickly, right-click on any item and use the formatting options that pop up to restyle it. For instance, you can use Shape Fill to make specific milestones stand out or change the dates’ Font Color to differentiate them better from the milestone descriptions.

Now, to make the milestones easier to follow, you can use drag & drop to slightly narrow the arrow shape and move the circles closer to their corresponding descriptions. It may take a while to find the ideal positioning, but it will help guide your audience’s eye when looking at your timeline in PowerPoint.

Finally, you can also play with the milestones’ sizes and shapes to get a more unique visual or draw attention to key data. To do so, select the objects you wish to customize and, using the options in the Format tab, you can resize them quickly or switch to other shapes.

After testing more shapes and sizes using the Format tab, our timeline now looks like this:

That’s it – these were the steps to manually making a timeline in PowerPoint. If you’d like to use the timeline created in this guide as a template to help you move faster, you can download the slide below, free of charge.

Download manual timeline slide

How to make a timeline in powerpoint automatically.

Manually creating and managing a timeline in PowerPoint is not only time-consuming but can also get quite frustrating if you want to make custom changes or updates to the visual.

In the steps below, we will show you how to quickly build, customize and update your graphic using Office Timeline, a lightweight PowerPoint timeline maker add-in that automates the whole process. To begin, you will need to install Office Timeline , which will add a new tab to the PowerPoint ribbon.

1. Open PowerPoint and insert your data into the Office Timeline wizard.

Inside PowerPoint, go to the Office Timeline tab, and then click on the New icon.

This will open a gallery that provides a variety of styles and templates you can choose from for making a timeline in PowerPoint.

To select your preferred template or style from the gallery, double-click it and then click Use Template in the preview window to open the Data Entry Wizard. In this example, we will be using a custom PowerPoint timeline template we made earlier, which is available for download at the end of this tutorial.

Now enter your milestones and set their dates, or copy & paste an existing schedule from Excel to save time. You can also make a few quick styling choices here, such as changing the color or shape of each item. Once ready, click the green Create button.

2. Instantly, you will have a new timeline slide in PowerPoint.

Depending on the style or template you’ve selected, you will get a PowerPoint timeline that looks similar to this:

Once created, the timeline can be easily styled further or updated automatically using Office Timeline. For example, you can instantly change colors, shapes, and positions, switch the timescale from months to quarters, add tasks or swimlanes for a more complex visual, or adjust dates on the fly as your plans change.

Download auto-generated timeline slide

Faq about making timelines in powerpoint, how do you insert a timeline in powerpoint.

There are multiple ways to insert a timeline in PowerPoint. One would be to access SmartArt tools -> Process -> Basic Timeline and edit the resulting graphic as described in the first tutorial on this page . Another solution would be to make a timeline in a design tool and then copy-paste it as an image onto your PowerPoint slide. The simplest and most convenient way, however, would be to use a dedicated PowerPoint timeline maker that would automate the process and allow you to easily update the visual directly from your slide, saving you time and effort.

Is there a timeline template in PowerPoint?

Other than the Basic Timeline graphic available through the SmartArt tools, there aren’t any built-in timeline templates in PowerPoint. If you need inspiration to make a PowerPoint timeline or just want to save time customizing it, browse through our free template collection , which brings you dozens of stylish, easily-editable designs.

Can you make a timeline in Excel?

Yes, it is possible to create a timeline in Excel. It involves using the spreadsheet tool’s Scatter Chart function and requires quite a bit of editing and tweaking to make the resulting visual look presentable. To see how it’s done, check out our step-by-step Excel timeline tutorial .

How do I create a PowerPoint timeline from Excel data?

Making a PowerPoint timeline starting from an Excel sheet can be quite tricky if you want to do it manually. This is because, besides building the graphic itself, you’ll need to copy-paste each individual data item from Excel and arrange it to fit the visual properly. That’s why we recommend using Office Timeline instead, a timeline maker for PowerPoint that imports your schedule from Excel and automatically turns in into a beautiful timeline slide.

What is the best way to show a project timeline?

The best way to show a project timeline ultimately depends on who your audience is and on your specific purpose. For instance, for team check-ins, you can make a timeline in any of the productivity tools you and your colleagues are more comfortable with. For client communications or executive reviews, on the other hand, you might want to show your project timeline as a simple, visual PowerPoint slide, since high-level stakeholders are busy people and prefer a quick overview of the project.

See how to make a PowerPoint timeline in under 60 seconds:

Alternatively, you can create beautiful PowerPoint timelines that you can quickly share straight from your browser with Office Timeline’s online timeline maker .

• Timelines in PowerPoint
• Create a basic timeline graphic
• Add your data
• Customize your timeline
• Download manual timeline slide PowerPoint
• Enter or paste your data
• Enjoy your timeline slide
• Download auto-generated timeline
• FAQ about making timelines
• See our free template gallery
• Additional resources
• How to make a timeline in Microsoft Excel
• How to make a timeline in Microsoft Word
• How to make a timeline in Microsoft Project
• How to make a timeline in Google Docs
• How to make a timeline in Keynote
• How to make a timeline in Numbers
• How to make a timeline in Pages

See our free timeline template collection

Incident response plan.

Free, downloadable timeline graphic using hours and minutes to give a clear overview on how an organization needs to plan its reaction to incidents so that outage be limited and activity resumed as soon as possible.

Crisis Management Plan

Professionally-designed timeline example structured in swimlanes that covers all the steps and processes one needs to follow in a crisis management process, from when the crisis occurs to response, business continuity process, recovery, and review.

Swimlane Diagram

Swimlane PowerPoint template that clearly lays out the framework of a project, from scheduling activities to task assignment and resource management.

Marketing Swimlanes Roadmap

Swimlane diagram example that provides a crisp, well-structured illustration of the tasks and milestones of your marketing campaign, according to the phase of the campaign to which they belong.

Marketing Plan

Free marketing timeline model that, once customized, effectively outlines your overall marketing strategy and serves as a solid visual aid to support marketing plan presentations.

Project Plan

Intuitive PowerPoint slide that serves as a quick yet visually effective alternative to complex project management tools to produce clear, well-laid-out plans for launching a project.

Easy-to-edit sales plan sample for sales leaders, marketers or account executives to lay out objectives against a timeband in weeks; it can be customized to show campaign plans and targets in months, quarters or years.

Example Timeline

Visual template with Today’s Date indicator that helps enterprise workers get a quick start on creating timelines for project reviews, status reports, or any presentations that require a simple project schedule.

Blank Timeline

Generic timeline example that can be easily customized to quickly make an impressive, high-level summary of important events in a chronological order.

Create a timeline

If you want to create a graphical representation of a sequence of events, such as the milestones in a project or the main events of a person's life, you can use a SmartArt graphic timeline. After you create the timeline, you can add more dates, move dates, change layouts and colors, and apply different styles.

On the Insert tab, click SmartArt .

In the Choose a SmartArt Graphic gallery, click Process , and then double-click a timeline layout.

Tip:  There are two timeline SmartArt graphics: Basic timeline and Circle Accent Timeline , but you can also use almost any process-related SmartArt graphic.

Click [Text] , and then type or paste your text in the SmartArt graphic.

Note:  You can also open the Text Pane and type your text there. If you do not see the Text Pane , on the SmartArt Tools Design tab, click Text Pane .

Add more dates to your timeline

Click a shape in the timeline.

On the SmartArt Tools Design tab, do one of the following:

To add an earlier date, click Add Shape , and then click Add Shape Before .

To add a later date, click Add Shape , and then click Add Shape After .

In the new date box, type the date that you want.

Move a date in your timeline

On the timeline, click the date you want to move.

To move a date sooner than the selected date, click Move Up .

To move a date later than the selected date, click Move Down .

Change to a different timeline layout

Click the SmartArt graphic timeline.

Note:  To view only the timeline and process-related layouts, at the bottom of the layouts list, click More Layouts , and then click Process .

Pick a timeline or process-related SmartArt graphic, like the following:

To show progression in a timeline, click Accent Process .

To create a timeline with pictures or photos, click Continuous Picture List . The circular shapes are designed to contain pictures.

Change the colors of your timeline

On the SmartArt Tools Design tab, click Change Colors .

Note:  If you don't see the SmartArt Tools Design tab, make sure you’ve selected the timeline.

Click the color combination that you want.

Tip:  Place your pointer over any combination to see a preview of how the colors look in your timeline.

Apply a SmartArt style

A SmartArt style applies a combination of effects, such as line style, bevel, or 3-D perspective, in one click, to give your timeline a professionally polished look.

Click the timeline.

On the SmartArt Tools Design tab, click the style you want.

Create a timeline in Visio

Import and export timeline data between Visio and Project

Create a timeline in Project

Get Microsoft timeline templates

On the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, click SmartArt .

In the Choose a SmartArt Graphic gallery, click Process , and then double-click a timeline layout (such as Basic Timeline ).

To enter your text, do one of the following:

Click [Text] in the Text pane, and then type your text.

Copy text from another location or program, click [Text] in the Text pane, and then paste your text.

Note:  If the Text pane is not visible, click the control.

Click in an entry in the SmartArt graphic, and then type your text.

Note:  For best results, use this option after you add all of the entries that you want.

Other timeline tasks

Add an entry.

Click the SmartArt graphic that you want to add another entry to.

Click the existing entry that is located closest to where you want to add the new entry.

Under SmartArt Tools , on the Design tab, in the Create Graphic group, click the arrow next to Add Shape .

If you don't see the SmartArt Tools or Design tabs, make sure that you've selected the SmartArt graphic. You might have to double-click the SmartArt graphic to open the Design tab.

Do one of the following:

To insert an entry after the selected entry, click Add Shape After .

To insert an entry before the selected entry, click Add Shape Before .

Delete an entry

To delete an entry from your timeline, do one of the following:

In the SmartArt graphic, select the text for the textbox for the entry that you want to delete, and then press DELETE.

In the Text pane, select the all of the text for the entry that you want to delete, and then press DELETE.

To add a shape from the Text pane:

At the shape level, place your cursor at the end of the text where you want to add a new shape.

Press ENTER, and then type the text that you want in your new shape.

Move an entry in your timeline

In the text pane, select the entry that you want to move.

To move the entry to an earlier date, under SmartArt Tools , on the Design tab, in the Create Graphic group, click Move Up .

Right-click the timeline that you want to change, and then click Change Layout .

Click Process , and then do one of the following:

For a simple but effective timeline, click Basic Timeline .

To show a progression, a timeline, or sequential steps in a task, process, or workflow, click Accent Process .

To illustrate a timeline with pictures or photos, click Continuous Picture List . The circular shapes are designed to contain pictures.

Note:  You can also change the layout of your SmartArt graphic by clicking a layout option in the Layouts group on the Design tab under SmartArt Tools . When you point to a layout option, your SmartArt graphic changes to show you a preview of how it would look with that layout.

To quickly add a designer-quality look and polish to your SmartArt graphic, you can change the colors or apply a style to your timeline. You can also add effects, such as glows, soft edges, or 3-D effects. Using Microsoft PowerPoint 2010, you can also animate your timeline .

You can apply color combinations that are derived from the theme colors to the entries in your SmartArt graphic.

Click the SmartArt graphic whose color you want to change.

Under SmartArt Tools , on the Design tab, in the SmartArt Styles group, click Change Colors .

If you don't see the SmartArt Tools or Design tabs, make sure that you've selected the SmartArt graphic.

Tip:  When you place your pointer over a thumbnail, you can see how the colors affect your SmartArt graphic.

Change the line color or style of an entry's border

In the SmartArt graphic, right-click the border of the entry you want to change, and then click Format Shape .

To change the style of the entry's border, click Line Style , and then choose the line styles you want.

Change the background color of an entry in your timeline

Click the SmartArt graphic you want to change.

Right-click the border of an entry, and then click Format Shape .

Click Fill , and then click Solid fill .

To change the background to a color that is not in the theme colors, click More Colors , and then either click the color that you want on the Standard tab, or mix your own color on the Custom tab. Custom colors and colors on the Standard tab are not updated if you later change the document theme.

To specify how much you can see through the background color, move the Transparency slider, or enter a number in the box next to the slider. You can vary the percentage of transparency from 0% (fully opaque, the default setting) to 100% (fully transparent).

Apply a SmartArt Style to your timeline

A SmartArt Style is a combination of various effects, such as line style, bevel, or 3-D perspective that you can apply to the entries in your SmartArt graphic to create a unique and professionally-designed look.

Under SmartArt Tools , on the Design tab, in the SmartArt Styles group, click the SmartArt Style that you want.

Note:  When you place your pointer over a thumbnail, you can see how the SmartArt Style affects your SmartArt graphic.

Under SmartArt Tools , on the Design tab, in the Create Graphic group, click the arrow under Add Shape .

To delete an entry from your timeline, click the entry you want to delete, and then press DELETE.

To add an assistant box, press ENTER while an assistant box is selected in the Text pane.

To move an entry, click the entry, and then drag it to its new location.

To move an entry in very small increments, hold down CTRL while you press the arrow keys on your keyboard.

To quickly add a designer-quality look and polish to your SmartArt graphic, you can change the colors or apply a SmartArt Style to your timeline. You can also add effects, such as glows, soft edges, or 3-D effects. Using PowerPoint 2007 presentations, you can animate your timeline .

A SmartArt Style is a combination of various effects, such as line style, bevel, or 3-D, that you can apply to the entries in your SmartArt graphic to create a unique and professionally designed look.

When you place your pointer over a thumbnail, you can see how the SmartArt Style affects your SmartArt graphic.

You can also customize your SmartArt graphic by moving entries , resizing entries, adding a fill or effect, and adding a picture.

Animate your timeline

If you're using PowerPoint 2007, you can animate your timeline to emphasize each entry.

Click the timeline that you want to animate.

On the Animations tab, in the Animations group, click Animate , and then click One by one .

Note:  If you copy a timeline that has an animation applied to it to another slide, the animation is also copied.

When you want to show a sequence of events, such as project milestones or events, you can use a SmartArt graphic timeline. After you create the timeline, you can add events, move events, change layouts and colors, and apply different styles.

On the Insert tab, click SmartArt > Process .

Click Basic Timeline or one of the other process-related graphics.

Click the [Text] placeholders and enter the details of your events.

Tip:  You can also open the Text Pane and enter your text there. On the SmartArt Design tab, click Text Pane .

Add more events to your timeline

On the SmartArt Design tab, click Add Shape , and then click Add Shape Before or Add Shape After .

Enter the text you want.

Move an event on your timeline

On the timeline, click the text of the event you want to move.

On the SmartArt Design tab, click Move Up (left), or Move Down (right).

On the SmartArt Design tab, point to the layout panel and click the down arrow.

On the SmartArt Design tab, click Change Colors , and then click the color combination you want.

Give your timeline a professional look by using a SmartArt style to apply a combination of effects, such as line style, bevel, or 3-D perspective.

On the SmartArt Design tab, click the style you want.

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