I recently had a discussion with one of our presentation industry gurus, Taylor Croonquist about the importance of add-ins to PowerPoint and what a treasure trove they are in terms of productivity, creativity, and speed design.
This month, we will take a look at one of his favorites, Office TIMELINE which will guide you through easy-to-use templates for creating professional timelines and Gantt charts. Like many of the add-ins coming out now, you can use them across PowerPoint, Excel, and MS Project. There is both a free version and a more robust version that you can purchase for $49 per year. You use an integrated ribbon to customize it to your design and need. And they offer a library of templates across project types and deliverables.
Here are just a few of the timeline templates you can use to visualize your project timelines and deliverables – see below. Click on the name of each one to download the template.
There are many more templates available for both Gantt and other timeline templates.
Let’s try it out and take it for a test drive. First, go get the add in – it’s free. It is simple to install.
PowerPoint Template
Go to Options, then choose Add-ins. Choose “Manage PowerPoint Add-ins”, hit “go” and a dialog box with the available add-ins pops up. You select “Office Timeline” and then select “load “. You are all set.
Open PowerPoint and you will see your Office Timeline in the upper right. Select it and you have an integrated ribbon which streamlines this process:
You can choose “New” or “Import”. I chose New and am using one of the templates
To customize it, you go to each tab and fill it in:
Enter your milestones on this screen
Enter Tasks on this screen
Create your own look and feel
My timeline
Another plus for this add-in is the great library of how-to videos
Email me and tell me what you think!
