How to Make Timeline Continue to Next Page
This step-by-step Word timeline tutorial explains how to create professional timelines right inside the popular word processor.
Microsoft Word allows users to build a basic timeline that they can manually customize and adjust to their project's requirements. However, since the tool is designed mainly for editing copy, it may lack the flexibility that one needs to create more professional-looking visuals and update them easily.
Those who need to constantly create and update project visuals for presentations to clients or executives may find it easier to build their timelines using PowerPoint. On this page, we will show you how to make a timeline both manually in Word and automatically in PowerPoint.
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How to make a timeline in Word
1. Create a basic timeline.
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Open a new Word document and change the page orientation from Portrait to Landscape, which will make room for more items to be placed on the timeline. To do so, go to the Layout tab on the Word ribbon and click on Orientation.
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Select the Insert tab and click on the SmartArt button in the Illustrations section.
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Select the Process category within the window that pops up and pick the graphic type that you want to use for your Word timeline. You have a variety of options to choose from, but for a simple timeline that shows the main milestones of a project, we'd recommend going with the Basic Timeline, which you can see bordered below.
If you want to try out different layouts for your timeline, you can always change the style and colors from the SmartArt Design tab on the ribbon.
2. Enter your data.
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Once Word has generated your basic timeline, open the Text Pane by clicking on whichever of the two areas bordered in the image below. You'll find that updating the default graphic is much easier this way than entering your data directly in the input fields on the timeline.
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Enter your milestone dates and descriptions inside the Text Pane - the graphic will be automatically updated. To show a milestone's date below or above its description, you can insert a line break using Shift + Enter.
Note: Since Word is not able to automatically calculate time intervals between milestone dates, your milestones will be placed at equal distances on the timeline regardless of the number of days between them. You have the option of manually dragging them closer or farther from one another, but the graphic will get distorted as you add more items. This is why we recommend leaving them as they are.
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To insert extra events or deliverables on your timeline, simply press Enter after an existing milestone label inside the Text Pane. The more events you add, the more the text size will shrink. This is why a maximum of 7 milestones is recommended to make sure that your data remains legible.
Note: Manually increasing the text size for improved readability may ruin the entire layout of your timeline. A better alternative would be for you to expand the graphic box, which will automatically make the texts larger too.
3. Customize your timeline.
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Now that your basic timeline is outlined, you can customize its overall look by changing its primary color theme from the Change Colors dropdown menu or by selecting a different style from the SmartArt Styles section. In our example, we applied the Intense Effect style, which made the milestone shapes more prominent.
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To customize individual items on the timeline, use the formatting options available in the small window that appears once you right-click on the specific element you want to personalize. For example, you can change the color of a milestone or of the arrow-shaped band using Shape Fill, and that of the text using Font Color.
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Next, you can use Drag & Drop to decrease the width of the arrow shape and move the circles a little higher or lower on the timeline to position them closer to their corresponding descriptions. This should make it easier for your audience to follow the succession of milestones.
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Finally, to make certain milestones stand out even more, you can also resize them or change their shape using the options in the Format tab. Select more items at once by pressing and holding the Ctrl key while you click on the needed items.
After experimenting with several shape and size options, our MS Word timeline looks like this:
How to make a timeline in PowerPoint automatically
Apart from being time-consuming, manually creating a timeline in Word may also get frustrating if you want to apply custom changes or need to regularly update the visuals for important presentations.
PowerPoint is better suited than MS Word for building visuals to present in client meetings or executive reviews. Below, we will demonstrate how to automatically create and update your graphic using a simple add-in for PowerPoint called Office Timeline. To get started, you first need to install Office Timeline, which will add a timeline maker tab to the PowerPoint ribbon.
1. Open PowerPoint and enter your data into the Office Timeline Wizard.
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Go to the Office Timeline tab you'll see on the PowerPoint ribbon and click on New.
You will be taken to a gallery where you can choose from a variety of styles and templates that you can use for your timeline.
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Double-click on the template or style you prefer and then select Use Template in the preview window to open the Data Entry Wizard. For our example, we chose a custom template made earlier, which you can download here.
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In the Data Entry window, you can either manually enter your milestones and set their dates, or you can copy and paste them from an existing Excel file. This is also a good place to start making a few quick customizations, such as changing the color or shape of each item you've added. Once you finish, click the Create button.
2. A new timeline slide will be instantly generated in PowerPoint.
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Depending on your template choice and the customizations you make, your timeline can look similar to this:
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Once you've built your timeline, you can easily restyle or update it automatically using Office Timeline. For instance, you can change the color, position and date format of any milestone or add new ones on the fly as your plans change, or you can insert tasks as well to create a Gantt chart.
Download auto-generated timeline slide
For more information on how to make timelines using other office or Google tools, check out our comprehensive tutorials.
Watch how to build a PowerPoint timeline in less than a minute:
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FAQs about making timelines in Word
Is there a timeline template in Word?
MS Word does not have any in-built predesigned timeline templates, but there are some online samples that you can download and use with the word processor. You can find them on Office.com (https://templates.office.com/en-us/timelines) or other websites. However, these often prove limited and unsuitable when you work with more complex data or higher customization requirements.
This is why we suggest using PowerPoint timelines instead as they are better suited for professional-looking presentations. Such visuals can be easily produced with specialized automated tools like Office Timeline, helping you save a lot of time.
Where is a timeline in Word?
Word does not have a default timeline template, but you can insert a basic timeline in your document going to the Insert tab and selecting SmartArt. Then, in the Choose a SmartArt Graphic gallery, click Process and select one of the two timeline formats there - Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline.
How do you insert a timeline in Word?
Follow the steps below to insert a timeline in Word:
- Go to Insert, select SmartArt.
- In the Choose a SmartArt Graphic gallery, click Process.
- Select a timeline layout (Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline) and then click OK.
- Edit text and change items format and colors as needed.
- You can also change the layout (SmartArt Design > Layouts) and apply a different style (SmartArt Design > SmartArt Styles).
As an alternative to these rather limited visuals, you can use any of the free templates below to create stylish, more refined timelines that can be easily customized and saved as images.
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.
Sales Plan
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.
Source: https://www.officetimeline.com/timeline/how-to-make/microsoft-word
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