Timeline Template: 10 Layouts With Filled Examples, From Project Plans to History Class

Disclosure: NOXI publishes this guide and is one of the tools it mentions. Every layout below works on paper, in PowerPoint, Word, Google Docs or Google Slides, and none of them needs NOXI.

A timeline works when the reader finds two things in a second: where it starts and ends, and which event matters most. The filled examples use fictional companies and people, labelled as such, or dated historical facts from official pages named in the sources.

Pick your layout here, then jump to its template and filled example.

Key numbers

Six figures behind the layouts and examples on this page, each from its publisher's own page, opened on 9 November 2026.

Which timeline template fits: six quick routes

Six routes, one per need, each with the fact that makes it fit, checked on 9 November 2026.

• If you already work in Word or PowerPoint → use SmartArt: Insert, SmartArt, Process, then Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline, because Microsoft's help page names both as timeline layouts and lets you add a date with Add Shape Before or After [6].
• If your dates already sit in a spreadsheet → use Google Sheets' timeline view (Insert, Timeline) with layout 2, because Sheets turns each row into a card and can group cards by owner; Google lists it only for certain Workspace editions, such as Business Standard and Education Plus, so check yours [7].
• If you write in Google Docs → use layout 8 as a two-column table, or draw a line with Insert, Drawing, New, which offers shapes, arrows and text boxes [8].
• If you teach five to seven year olds → use layout 9, the "my life" timeline, because England's Key Stage 1 history asks pupils to study "changes within living memory" and to place events "within a chronological framework" [10].
• If two countries, people or plans race each other → use layout 7, two lanes on one axis, and print the gap between each pair of dates, as in the Space Race example below.
• If you want the timeline page sketched and designed for you → use NOXI's Presentation or One-pager format: you send one request with your dates and events, edit by chat or by hand, and export PowerPoint, PDF or Word; the free plan covers five documents a month.

What is a timeline template? The five parts of every timeline

The idea is old: Priestley's 1765 chart already sorted its lives into six occupational groups, lanes in all but name, along a line divided into ten-year steps [1]. Every layout below still has the same five parts.

How to make a timeline in six steps

These steps work on paper and in any program; the tool only changes step 4.

1. Decide the one question the timeline answers

"When will the site go live?" or "How long did women wait for the vote?" One question decides the period, the scale and which events earn a place. It becomes the title.

2. List the events in a table before you draw anything

Four columns: date, event, one line of detail, source. Sort by date. A table catches events in the wrong order and dates with no source, and every tool on this page can draw from it [6] [7].

3. Choose the scale and the direction

Equal spacing when events are steps, spacing to scale when the gaps are the point. Horizontal for a slide or a poster; vertical for a document, a phone or more entries than fit across.

4. Draw the line and place the events

Put the line across the middle of a slide or down the left third of a page. Alternate labels above and below a horizontal line so they do not collide.

5. Mark the one event that matters most

One accent colour for the turning point, today or the deadline, plus a word, because colour should not be "the only visual means" of carrying information [19].

6. Check every date against its source and add the source line

History cites an official or encyclopaedic page; a plan cites its current version. If two sources disagree, show the range or add a note.

Project timeline templates: project, Gantt-style, milestone and roadmap

Four layouts for work ahead, by how much detail the reader needs: the whole plan (1), every task (2), only the results (3), or the year's direction (4). All four examples use fictional companies.

1. Project timeline template: phases, sign-offs and dates

When to use it: a plan of one to six months whose phases run mostly one after another, for a team, client or sponsor. Why it works: each phase ends with a sign-off, so everyone sees what must be true before the next one starts. If tasks overlap heavily, use layout 2.

Filled example: Harbor Lane Bakery (a fictional company) relaunches its website in 12 weeks, version of Monday 4 January 2027.

Tip: print the version date on the timeline itself, because a plan is out of date a week after it is shared. This is the slide a project kickoff presentation opens the plan with, and the one a weekly status report updates.

2. Gantt-style timeline template: tasks, owners and overlaps

When to use it: projects whose tasks overlap and depend on each other, such as a move or a product release. Why it works: each task is a bar across a row of weeks, so overlaps and the task everything waits for show without reading a word.

Filled example: Brightwater Dental (a fictional practice) moves to a new office in 8 weeks, from Monday 1 February to Friday 26 March 2027.

Tip: keep these columns in a spreadsheet and the timeline draws itself: Google Sheets' timeline view takes a card title, a start date and an end date, and can group one owner's tasks on one row [7].

3. Milestone timeline template: only the dates that matter

When to use it: a board meeting, an investor update or a one-minute summary for executives. Why it works: it drops the tasks and keeps four to seven results with a status, so the reader sees in seconds whether the plan is on track.

Filled example: Tallis Bikes (a fictional company) takes a cargo e-bike from prototype to first customers in 2027.

Tip: one at-risk milestone with its reason earns more trust than five green ones. Investor decks often carry this layout as a milestones or traction slide; our pitch deck examples show where it sits in real decks.

4. Product roadmap timeline template: themes by quarter

When to use it: sharing a product's direction with customers, leadership or the whole company. Why it works: it stops at quarters, because a date nine months out is a guess, and groups work by theme. For outside readers, name the months: the GOV.UK style guide prefers "Jan to Mar 2013" to a quarter [11].

Filled example: Lumen Notes (a fictional note-taking app), roadmap for 2027.

Not this year: a desktop app and a calendar. That line stops the same request coming back every month. To present a roadmap to executives, our product roadmap presentation guide covers the decisions to ask for.

History timeline templates: history, biography, comparison and vertical

Four layouts for the past. Every date in these examples comes from the US National Archives, the National Park Service or NASA, opened on 9 November 2026; gaps between dates are our arithmetic.

5. History timeline template: a period drawn to scale

When to use it: a history class, a museum panel or a talk on a period in which the gaps matter. Why it works: to scale, one centimetre means the same number of years everywhere, so a long wait looks long. England's curriculum asks pupils from Key Stage 2 for "chronologically secure knowledge" of history [10].

Filled example: votes for women in the United States, 1848 to 1920.

Tip: to scale, the first five events spread across 69 years and the last four crowd into 15 months. Do not shrink the labels: draw May 1919 to August 1920 again in a zoom box, as in the figure below. The Wyoming act stays "1869" because the source gives only the year [18].

6. Biography timeline template: one life, from birth to legacy

When to use it: a biography report, a "famous person" project or a tribute slide. Why it works: it keeps the life (dated facts) apart from the meaning (one sentence on why the person matters). For the written report around it, our book report template has a biography version with its own five-date timeline.

Filled example: Katherine Johnson, NASA mathematician, from NASA's own biography [17].

Legacy line: her calculations also helped the Apollo Lunar Module meet the Command and Service Module in lunar orbit, as NASA's biography notes [17]. Tip: when a source gives only a month or a year, keep it that way; "June 1953" is honest, an invented day is not.

7. Comparison timeline template: two lanes on one axis

When to use it: two countries, two people, two products, or a plan against what actually happened. Why it works: both lanes share one axis, so the reader sees who went first and by how much; the printed gap turns the picture into a fact.

Filled example: Space Race firsts, Soviet Union and United States, with dates from NASA's history pages [4] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16]. The gaps are our arithmetic from those dates.

Tip: Sally Ride's flight comes 14 years after Apollo 11, so draw it as an arrow off the axis rather than stretching the line. For business, put the plan in the top lane, what happened below, and print each slip in days.

8. Vertical timeline template: many entries, read from top to bottom

When to use it: a document, a web page, a phone screen, a career history, or more entries than fit across a slide. Why it works: pages are read downwards, so a vertical line holds as many entries as the page allows, each with a full sentence.

Filled example: Apollo 11, 16 to 24 July 1969, in mission elapsed time (hours and minutes after launch), from NASA's mission overview [16].

Tip: say which clock you use. NASA gives launch and splashdown in Eastern Daylight Time and the rest in mission time; from those two times the flight took 8 days, 3 hours and 18 minutes by our count. In Docs or Word, build this layout as a two-column table.

Timeline template for students and for event days

Two layouts for a class and for a single day. Both examples are fictional.

9. Timeline template for students: a "my life" timeline

When to use it: kindergarten to grade 3, or Key Stage 1 in England, and a child's first timeline. Why it works: Key Stage 1 history asks pupils to know "where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework" and to study "changes within living memory" [10]; a child's own life is the period they remember best. Older students can use layout 5 or 6, with sources.

Filled example: Leo, a fictional eight-year-old, in 2026.

Tip: skip the quiet years, but keep the boxes in order. Teachers can fold it into a lesson with our lesson plan template; the same sheet works as a timeline template for kids at home.

10. Event day timeline template: one day by the hour

When to use it: a wedding, a conference, a school sports day or a launch day. Why it works: every time, place and person sits on one sheet, so the venue, suppliers and helpers work from the same page.

Filled example: Sam and Priya's wedding (a fictional couple), Saturday 12 June 2027.

Tip: write times one way only. The GOV.UK style guide writes 5:30pm, midday and midnight, and "10am to 11am" rather than a dash [11]. A conference day uses the same layout; our meeting agenda template covers the timed agenda for each session.

Timeline template for PowerPoint, Word and Google Docs

Every layout above starts as a table, so it moves into any of these tools. Steps are from each vendor's help page, opened on 9 November 2026.

In PowerPoint and Word: SmartArt timelines

On the Insert tab, choose SmartArt, then the Process category, then Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline on Windows, or Basic Timeline on a Mac. Type into the placeholders or the Text Pane. To add a date, select a shape and use Add Shape Before or After on the SmartArt Design tab; Move Up and Move Down change the order on Windows, Move Before and Move After on a Mac. For photos, Microsoft suggests Continuous Picture List [6]. New PowerPoint presentations open at 16:9 Widescreen, 13.333 x 7.5 inches, which suits a horizontal line [5].

In Google Docs: a drawing or a table

Click Insert, Drawing, New, then add a line or an arrow, a shape per event and text boxes for the labels. A drawing made in Google Drive can be inserted with Insert, Drawing, From Drive; it stays linked to the original, and Update brings in later changes [8]. For layouts 8 and 10, a table with the date on the left and the event on the right is quicker to make and to edit.

In Google Slides: a diagram

Go to the slide, click Insert, then Diagram, and choose a style, the number of levels and a template; the diagram lands on the slide for you to change [9]. Pick a left-to-right style and type your dates in.

In Google Sheets and Excel: from a table of dates

In Google Sheets, click Insert, then Timeline, select the data range and click OK. Each row becomes a card with a title, start date and end date, and card group puts one owner's or one country's cards on the same row: lanes for layouts 2 and 7. Google's page lists the eligible Workspace editions, so check yours [7]. Excel has the same SmartArt timeline on its Insert tab [6].

Turning a timeline into a whole talk? Our guide on how to make a presentation walks through the slides around it.

Dates, scale and labels: getting a timeline right

• One date format. The GOV.UK style guide writes 4 June 2017, with no "4th" and no comma, Jan only where space is tight, and "to" in ranges instead of a dash [11]. A US audience may expect June 4, 2017; either works if it never changes.
• Only as precise as the source. A year stays a year, and times name their clock or zone, as NASA does for Apollo 11 [16].
• State the scale. Equal spacing for steps, to scale for history, and a visible break where you shorten a long gap.
• Colour plus a word. Label lanes and status as well as colouring them [19].

What to check before you present or send a timeline

Each line takes a minute.

Three ready requests to paste into NOXI

To have the page made for you, paste one of these into NOXI and replace the words in brackets. The bracketed samples come from the fictional bakery and wedding above.

Make it in NOXI: a timeline page in one request

NOXI 2.0 makes 14 formats from one request. A timeline fits two: Presentation, for a timeline slide or a deck, and One-pager, for a single page to print or send. NOXI sketches every page first (cover, key number, chart, table, timeline, quote), then writes several pages at once. It is free to start: the free plan covers five documents a month, and every change after that, by chat or by hand, is free. No credit card is needed to start, and downloads carry no watermark, on the free plan too. The full list of formats is in the NOXI 2.0 launch article.

Frequently asked questions

What is a timeline template?

A timeline template is a ready layout that places events in date order along a time axis, with a short label for each and a scale that shows how far apart they are. You replace the sample dates and labels with your own. Common layouts are project, Gantt-style, milestone, roadmap, history, biography, comparison, vertical, school and event day.

How do I make a timeline template in Word?

Click Insert, SmartArt, choose the Process category and pick Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline, then type your dates into the placeholders or the Text Pane. Add events with Add Shape Before or Add Shape After on the SmartArt Design tab. For a long list or a run of show, a two-column table of dates and events works well.

Is there a timeline template in PowerPoint?

Yes. PowerPoint's SmartArt gallery has timeline layouts: on the Insert tab, choose SmartArt, then Process, then Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline. Microsoft also suggests Accent Process for a progression and Continuous Picture List for a timeline with photos. New presentations open at 16:9, which suits a horizontal timeline with a handful of events.

How do I make a timeline in Google Docs?

Use a drawing or a table. Click Insert, Drawing, New, then add a line or an arrow, a shape for each event and text boxes for the labels. For a vertical timeline, insert a two-column table with dates on the left and events on the right, which is quicker to edit and prints cleanly on one page.

What is the difference between a timeline and a Gantt chart?

A timeline shows events at points in time: what happened or will happen, and when. A Gantt chart shows tasks as bars with a start and an end, usually with owners and dependencies, so you can see which work overlaps. Use a timeline to tell a story or show milestones, and a Gantt chart to run a project.

How many events should a timeline have?

There is no official number; it depends on the space. As a working rule, keep a slide to about five to eight events with labels of three to eight words, a printed page to about fifteen, and move longer lists to a vertical timeline. If events crowd together, redraw that stretch in a zoom box instead of shrinking the text.

Should a timeline be horizontal or vertical?

Horizontal suits slides and posters, because the space runs left to right and the reader takes in a handful of events at once. Vertical suits documents, web pages and phones, where the reader scrolls down and each entry can hold a full sentence. Choose horizontal for a few events and vertical for long lists or hour-by-hour schedules.

How should I write dates on a timeline?

Pick one format and keep it everywhere. The GOV.UK style guide writes dates as 4 June 2017, with no ordinal and no comma, uses "to" in ranges instead of dashes, and writes times as 5:30pm, midday and midnight. Give each date only as precisely as your source does, and name the time zone when events cross days.

What should a timeline for a school project include?

A title with the topic and the years, six to ten events in date order, each with a date, a short label and a picture or one sentence of detail, a stated scale, and a list of sources. Follow the teacher's sheet first. Younger children can start with a timeline of their own life, from birth to today.

Can NOXI make a timeline for me?

Yes. Choose the Presentation format for a timeline slide or deck, or One-pager for a single page, and send one request with your dates and events. NOXI sketches the pages, designs them in a style from its library and lets you edit by chat or by hand. Export PowerPoint, PDF or Word. The free plan covers five documents a month.

Sources & methodology

Every historical date, rule and product step comes from its publisher's own page, opened on 9 November 2026, signed out. Gaps between dates and the Apollo 11 flight time are our arithmetic from those dates. The ten layouts, the event counts and the label lengths are editorial working rules, not published standards; a teacher's sheet or a company's own template always wins. Companies, people and events marked fictional are invented for the examples.

• [1] A Chart of Biography, "published by Priestley in 1765", with "approximately 2,000 poets, artists, statesmen, and other famous historical figures" plotted "along a horizonal line divided into ten-year increments"; it "is considered to be the first modern timeline" · National Endowment for the Humanities, Humanities magazine, Spring 2024, article on Joseph Priestley's charts of time, checked 9 November 2026.
• [2] The First Women's Rights Convention, held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls, New York, on July 19 and 20, 1848; "68 women and 32 men signed the Declaration of Sentiments" · National Park Service, Women's Rights National Historical Park, The First Women's Rights Convention, checked 9 November 2026.
• [3] The amendment was first introduced in Congress in 1878; New York adopted woman suffrage in 1917; the House passed it on May 21, 1919, and the Senate two weeks later; "Passed by Congress June 4, 1919, and ratified on August 18, 1920"; Tennessee was the 36th state to ratify; Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the ratification on August 26, 1920 · US National Archives, Milestone Documents, 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Women's Right to Vote (1920), checked 9 November 2026.
• [4] "On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union inaugurated the Space Age with the launch of Sputnik"; Explorer 1 launched from Cape Canaveral on Jan. 31, 1958; the race led to "landing the first men on the Moon" 12 years after Sputnik · NASA History, 65 Years Ago: Sputnik Ushers in the Space Age, checked 9 November 2026.
• [5] "The 16:9 widescreen setting is the default value for new presentations"; Widescreen is 13.333 in x 7.5 in (33.867 cm x 19.05 cm) · Microsoft Support, Change the size of your slides, checked 9 November 2026.
• [6] Insert, SmartArt, Process, then Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline (Windows) or Basic Timeline (Mac); Add Shape Before or After on the SmartArt Design tab, with Move Up or Down on Windows and Move Before or After on a Mac; Accent Process and Continuous Picture List named as alternatives; applies to Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint for Microsoft 365, 2024 and 2021 · Microsoft Support, Create a timeline, checked 9 November 2026.
• [7] Insert, Timeline, select the data range, OK; "you must have at least one column of data in date format"; settings ask for card title, start date and end date; card group puts cards on the same row by a column's value; eligible Google Workspace editions are listed on the page · Google Docs Editors Help, Create and edit a timeline view (Google Sheets), checked 9 November 2026.
• [8] Insert, Drawing, New, with shapes, lines, arrows, text boxes and images; Insert, Drawing, From Drive inserts a linked drawing that Update refreshes · Google Docs Editors Help, Learn how to use drawings and markups, checked 9 November 2026.
• [9] "At the top, click Insert" and then Diagram; "Choose your style, number of levels, and template" · Google Docs Editors Help, Insert and arrange text, shapes, diagrams, and lines, checked 9 November 2026.
• [10] Key Stage 1: pupils "should know where the people and events they study fit within a chronological framework", and study "changes within living memory"; Key Stage 2: "a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history". Statutory guidance, published 11 September 2013 · Department for Education, National curriculum in England: history programmes of study, checked 9 November 2026.
• [11] Dates: no ordinals, no comma between month and year, truncated months only where space is an issue, "use 'to' in date ranges and not hyphens, en rules or em dashes", months rather than quarters ("Jan to Mar 2013"); times: 5:30pm, midday, midnight, "10am to 11am" · GOV.UK, A to Z style guide, checked 9 November 2026.
• [12] Yuri Gagarin in space on April 12, 1961; Alan Shepard's first American spaceflight on May 5, 1961; John Glenn the first American to orbit the Earth on Feb. 20, 1962, on the three-orbit Mercury-Atlas 6 mission · NASA History, 60 Years Ago: John Glenn, the First American to Orbit the Earth aboard Friendship 7, checked 9 November 2026.
• [13] Shepard's suborbital flight in Freedom 7 on May 5, 1961, "a flight of 15 minutes 22 seconds"; Gagarin "completed a single orbit around the Earth" · NASA, 60 Years Ago: Alan Shepard Becomes the First American in Space, checked 9 November 2026.
• [14] Valentina Tereshkova "launched into space June 16, 1963, aboard Vostok-6" and "circled the Earth 48 times"; Sally Ride the first American woman in space on June 18, 1983, aboard Challenger on STS-7 · NASA History, Sally Ride, First American Woman in Space, checked 9 November 2026.
• [15] Aleksei Leonov's world's first spacewalk from Voskhod 2 on March 18, 1965; Edward H. White's Gemini 4 spacewalk on June 3, 1965 · NASA History, Space Station 20th: Spacewalking History, checked 9 November 2026.
• [16] Launch July 16, 1969, 9:32 a.m. EDT; lunar orbit at about 75 hours 50 minutes; undocking at 100 hours 12 minutes; descent braking until about 102 hours 45 minutes; first step at about 109 hours 42 minutes, Aldrin about 20 minutes later; EVA ending at 111 hours 39 minutes; 21 hours 36 minutes on the surface; ascent at 124 hours 22 minutes; docking at 128 hours 3 minutes; trans-Earth injection began July 21; splashdown July 24, 1969, 12:50 p.m. EDT; recovery ship USS Hornet · NASA, Apollo 11 Mission Overview and NASA, Apollo 11 mission page, checked 9 November 2026.
• [17] Born Aug. 26, 1918, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia; graduated with highest honors in 1937; West Area Computing section headed by Dorothy Vaughan; hired by NACA June 1953; trajectory analysis for Shepard's May 1961 Freedom 7; Glenn asked for her to check the orbital calculations in 1962; retired in 1986 after 33 years; Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 at 97; died Feb. 24, 2020 · NASA Langley, Katherine Johnson Biography, checked 9 November 2026.
• [18] "legislators passed the Wyoming Suffrage Act of 1869"; "When the territory became a state in 1890, women retained the right to vote" · National Park Service, Wyoming and the 19th Amendment, checked 9 November 2026.
• [19] Success Criterion 1.4.1 Use of Color (Level A): "Color is not used as the only visual means of conveying information" · W3C, Understanding WCAG 2.2, Use of Color, checked 9 November 2026.