Project timelines and excel - Word и Excel - помощь в работе с программами

We, humans, are visual animals.

In other words, the human brain will find it a lot easier to digest information that’s clearly communicated and displayed. For this reason, the visual component is essential when planning complex projects with many moving pieces.

Well, you’re in the right place to learn precisely how to do just that.

In this blog post, you’ll get a step-by-step process to create a timeline in Excel in three different ways to visually communicate your project’s schedule and create a powerful visual timeline to plan without getting a headache.

Create a timeline in Excel using SmartArt Graphics
Create a timeline in Excel using Scatter Charts
Create a timeline in Excel using Timeline Templates
The pros & cons of Excel timelines
The alternative

How to create a timeline in Excel using SmartArt? (and for what purpose)

For starters, what are SmartArt graphics?

SmartArt Graphics Timeline In Excel: for what purpose?

Microsoft Excel’s Smart Art feature makes it reasonably straightforward to create a project timeline.

Now, while SmartArt timelines can be a valuable tool to communicate a project’s roadmap to stakeholders, they are also limited; you can only create simplistic timelines to visualize the milestones of a project.

In short: SmartArt timelines are okay for simple reporting purposes, not to work with.

Create your SmartArt timeline

Open a blank Excel document. Click Insert > SmartArt > Process.

Then select Basic Timeline from the Graphic options. You may also choose other graphics templates that suit your needs.

Enter Timeline data either in the provided text box or directly on the timeline.

Excel also allows you to change the style of a timeline. To do so, simply right-click to change the theme style, fill color, and outline styles.

And you’re all set. Your simplistic Excel SmartArt timeline should be ready!

If you’re after something more usable than SmartArt, you may be interested in building a scatter chart.

How to Create an Excel Timeline Using a Scatter Chart? (and for what purpose)

Scatter chart timelines in Excel: for what purpose?

Scatter charts provide a simple way to visualize various data entries over a specific period.

For instance, you could use a scatter chart to visualize the due date for all milestones of a project along with the necessary resources to complete them.

This is something that a basic SmartArt timeline couldn’t deliver.

Here again, you can choose from and edit the many charts available in Microsoft Excel to represent a simple project timeline that will suit your needs.

In short: Scatter chart timelines are a viable option to plan elementary projects that don’t require much resourcing.

Create your scatter chart timeline in Excel

This guide is a bit longer, but stick to our steps, and you’ll be fine! — alternatively, feel free to leave a comment below if you’re stuck!

First, open a blank Excel document.
Then, prepare your chart data.

For this chart, we’ll create milestones for a website design project and attribute a due date and an estimated effort for each.

Next, insert a scatter chart from Insert > Charts. Then select the Scatter option.

Now, we need to map our prepared data to the chart.

Right-click on the scatter chart. Then click the Select Data option.

In the dialog that pops up, click on the Add button in the Legend Entries section.
Set the Due Dates range as Series X values, and the Efforts range as the Series Y values.

Next, make our chart look like a timeline, disable the Primary Vertical Axis, Chart Title, and Gridlines chart elements.

To display the timeline markers, check the Error Bars option in Chart Elements.

Then to format the error bars, click on Chart Elements > Error bars > More Options.
For horizontal error bars, set the End Style to No Cap and the Error Amount > Percentage to 0%.

For vertical error bars, set the Direction to Minus and the Error Amount > Percentage to 100%.

To display the milestone labels, enable Data Labels from Chart Elements > Data Labels. Then click on Data Labels > More Options.

Enable the Value From Cells option and select the range of milestones names from our prepared data. Uncheck the Y Value option.

Hats off to you! You made it! Your Excel timeline using a scatter chart is ready.

Now, if you don’t want to bother creating your own Excel timeline charts from scratch (I can’t blame you there), an alternative is to make your timelines using Excel templates.

Excel timeline templates are readily available in Microsoft Office’s Template Library.

Note that some of these templates will only be available once you purchase a Microsoft Office 365 subscription. However, the vast majority is available free of charge.

In short: use ready Excel templates to create simple project plans to avoid building them yourself.

Let’s look at how to create a timeline in Excel using a template.

Create your timelines with Excel Templates

Download the free “Project timeline with milestones” template from the Office template library.

Open the downloaded template in Excel and update your milestone data in the Project Milestones section. Set the milestone due date, milestone description, the person responsible, and the milestone label position.

As you update your project milestone data, the milestone chart above automatically gets updated.

This is most likely the fastest way to build a decent timeline on Excel, especially if you don’t want to bother creating one from scratch on your own.

Now, you’ve probably noticed that while Excel makes it possible to create project timelines, it’s not cut for it.

Pros & Cons Of Excel Timelines

As mentioned earlier, a timeline is a powerful visual tool for project managers.

In the early stages of a project, it helps to communicate a project’s roadmap. And in the later stages, it allows project managers to plan and track project schedules and allocate resources.

What makes Excel an interesting project timeline maker…

The most significant advantage of using Microsoft Excel to create a timeline is that it’s easily available:

Anyone with a computer, a smartphone, or a tablet can use Excel. It’s relatively affordable and doesn’t require a beast of a computer to run properly.
You probably already have access to it. If you already have access to the MS Office Suite, you won’t need to spend anything extra.
Your team is most likely Excel literate (up to a certain degree). If your team members are already comfortable using Excel, you won’t need to spend time training and onboarding them on the tool.
You can find a ton of free Excel templates online. Using these templates, it’s reasonably easy to create a timeline in Excel.

… and why you might need something that’s built for project planning and work management

Don’t get me wrong; I love Excel (there’s a reason why I’ve decided to write this step-by-step blog post). And if you are seriously considering using Excel as your project timeline maker, know that I’ve been in your position, and I’d rather tell you why it might drive you crazy.

Excel lacks collaborative features. You cannot work with another team member on a project’s schedule unless you both sit right next to each other. As a result, it is tough for distributed teams to plan together.
You can’t ensure data integrity. It’s (way too) easy for anyone to wrongly update or delete data from an Excel document, making it hard to keep track of who did what, where, and when.
Version soup: “Oh shoot, I thought we were working from the Team Planning V12_new.xls?” Team members will eventually work on different versions of Excel spreadsheets. From experience, I know that combining data from these versions can quickly become chaotic.

To sum up, Excel is OK for small and simple projects. You will need something else for anything bigger because Excel timeline templates are too basic and aren’t really teamwork-friendly.

So, what then? What’s the alternative?

To create project timelines for larger projects, you may want to consider using a project planning tool like Toggl Plan.

Meet Toggl Plan. The best way to create visual project timelines.

Toggl Plan is an easy-to-use SaaS with a drag-and-drop interface that helps those in charge of delivering projects to be on top of their work and capacity planning by providing a clear overview of who’s doing what and when, well ahead of time.

Consequently, teams can work at capacity and deliver projects on time, without stressing about it. 

Create beautiful timelines for complex projects

Excel’s timelines can be helpful – But they are too simplistic and can be darn hard to read. We built Toggl Plan’s timeline to become the only tool you need to plan and visualize your projects.

Don’t overwork yourself, or your team.

One of the advantages of planning well ahead of time is to anticipate how much work you and your team can take.

In Toggl Plan, you’ll be able to see how busy everyone is in the blink of an eye, thus making it more convenient to move tasks around and make sure that no one in your team works silly hours.

Collaborate with your teammates

While you can benefit from it as a single user, we actually built Toggl Plan for teams. When working together, you can leave comments, create and assign tasks, move tasks around, adjust how long it took to complete a project, etc.

In other words, Toggl Plan enables teamwork.

Drag and drop your projects

While Excel is most likely the most comprehensive software out there, it’s not user-friendly. One of the things that I dislike the most about it is the impossibility to drag-and-drop items.

In Toggl Plan, you can simply drag and drop your tasks.

Painless. Fast. Easy.

Long story short, Toggl Plan makes project planning and work management bliss. Now, hold your horse because the best is yet to come. If you’re an individual user, Toggl Plan is free forever. And if you work with a team, you can sign up for a 14-day free trial.

Jitesh is an SEO and content specialist. He manages content projects at Toggl and loves sharing actionable tips to deliver projects profitably.

Источник

Предположим, мы работаем над долгим и сложным проектом, состоящим из нескольких этапов. Задача — наглядно показать всю хронологию работ по проекту, расположив ключевые моменты проекта (вехи, milestones) на оси времени. Примерно вот так:

В теории управления проектами подобный график обычно называют календарем или временной шкалой проекта (project timeline), хотя я также встречал еще один русскоязычный аналог -«лента времени». В любом случае, главное — не как назвать, а как построить. Поехали…

Шаг 1. Исходные данные

Для построения нам потребуется оформить исходную информацию по вехам проекта в виде следующей таблицы:

Обратите внимание на два дополнительных служебных столбца:

Линия — столбец с одинаковой константой около нуля по всем ячейкам. Даст на графике горизонтальную линию, параллельную оси Х, на которой будут видны узлы — вехи проекта. В принципе, можно было бы использовать и полный ноль, но тогда график совпадает с осью X, что дает проблемы потом с настройкой внешнего вида диаграммы в Excel 2007-2010. Новый Excel 2013 нули воспринимает спокойно.
Выноски — невидимые столбцы для поднятия подписей к вехам на заданную (разную) величину, чтобы подписи не накладывались. Значения 1,2,3 и т.д. задают уровень поднятия подписей над осью времени и выбираются произвольно.

Шаг 2. Строим основу

Теперь выделяем в таблице все, кроме первого столбца (т.е. диапазон B1:D13 в нашем примере) и строим обычный плоский график с маркерами на вкладке Вставка — График — График с маркерами (Insert — Chart — Line with markers):

Убираем линии сетки, вертикальную и горизонтальную шкалы и легенду. Сделать это можно вручную (выделение мышью и клавиша Delete) или отключив ненужные элементы на вкладке Макет (Layout). В итоге должно получиться следующее:

Теперь выделите ряд Выноски (т.е. ломаную оранжевую линию) и на вкладке Макет выберите команду Линии — Линии проекции (Layout — Lines — Projection Lines):

От каждой точки верхнего графика будет опущен перпендикуляр на нижний. В новом Excel 2013 эта опция находится на вкладке Конструктор — Добавить элемент диаграммы (Design — Add Chart Element).

Шаг 3. Добавляем названия этапов

Эта часть будет простой у тех, кто уже осмелился на установку нового Excel 2013 и более сложной у тех, кто еще работает со старыми версиями.

В Excel 2013 все просто. Как я уже писал здесь, он умеет делать подписи к точкам данных просто беря текст из любого заданного пользователем диапазона. Для этого нужно выделить ряд с данными (оранжевый) и на вкладке Конструктор выбрать Добавить элемент диаграммы — Подписи — Дополнительные параметры (Design — Add Chart Element — Data Labels), а затем в появившейся справа панели установить флажок Значения из ячеек (Values from cells) и выделить диапазон A2:A13:

В версиях Excel 2007-2010 и старше такой возможности нет, но у вас есть два альтернативных варианта:

Добавьте любые подписи к оранжевому графику (значения, например). Затем выделяйте по очереди каждую подпись, ставьте в строке формул знак «равно» и щелкайте по ячейке с названием этапа из столбца А. Текст выделенной подписи будет автоматически браться из выделенной ячейки:
При большом количестве этапов первый вариант, конечно, не радует своей «рукопашностью». Поэтому для оптовой вставки подписей из ячеек можно использовать дополнительные надстройки на VBA. В частности, надстройку XYChartLabeler (автор — Rob Bovey, Excel MVP). Скачиваете надстройку, устанавливаете и получаете на вкладке Надстройки (Add-ins) кнопку XY Chart Labeler — Add Chart Labels. После нажатия на нее появляется диалоговое окно, где и можно задать диапазон с данными для подписей на диаграмме:

Шаг 4. Прячем линии и наводим блеск

Внесем последние правки, чтобы довести нашу уже почти готовую диаграмму до полного и окончательного шедевра:

Выделяем ряд Выноски (оранжевую линию), щелкаем по ней правой кнопкой мыши и выбираем Формат ряда данных (Format Data Series). В открывшемся окне убираем заливку и цвет линий. Оранжевый график, фактически, исчезает из диаграммы — остаются только подписи. Что и требуется.
Добавляем подписи-даты к синей оси времени на вкладке Макет — Подписи данных — Дополнительные параметры подписей данных — Имена категорий (Layout — Data Labels — More options — Category names). В этом же диалоговом окне подписи можно расположить под графиком и развернуть на 90 градусов, при желании.

Ссылки по теме

График проекта (диаграмма Ганта) в Excel с помощью условного форматирования
Видеоурок по созданию графика проекта (диаграммы Ганта) в Excel 2010
Новые возможности диаграмм в Microsoft Excel 2013

Источник

A project timeline can be created in Excel using charts linked to data tables, so that the chart updates when you edit the data table. The first template on this page uses a stacked bar chart technique and also includes up to 4 milestones as vertical lines. This template is a cross between my project schedule and task list templates. I’ve populated the template with some generic product development terminology, but it is designed for you to enter your own tasks and dates. The second template uses a scatter chart with data labels and leader lines to create a more traditional type of timeline.

⤓ Download

For: Excel 2013 or later

«No installation, no macros — just a simple spreadsheet» — by

License: Private Use
(not for distribution or resale)

Using the Project Timeline Template

Grouping Tasks Using Different Colors: One of the key features of this template is the ability to choose a different color for the bars in the timeline via a drop-down box in the Color column. This makes it easy to identify the different phases or categories of tasks. You can insert and delete tasks by just inserting or deleting rows in the spreadsheet’s data table.

The example above shows some of the steps in a product development cycle (Concept Development, System Design, Detail Design, Testing and Refining, Production, etc.), with different colors representing different phases of the cycle. However, there are other ways to use this type of timeline. Another common way to group tasks within a project timeline is by key organization function, such as Marketing, Design, Testing, Manufacturing, Finance, Sales, Quality Assurance, Legal, etc.

Milestones: With any project timeline, you will most likely want to define at least a couple key milestones. In the above example you will see 3 milestones as vertical lines. You can edit the milestone labels and dates via the data table. The template lets you show up to 4 milestones. Adding more is possible but would require you to create the new data series yourself (you can’t just insert rows for more milestones like you can with the tasks).

Can I Add More Colors? This project timeline is set up to allow up to 6 different color choices. Adding more colors is possible, but that would require more Excel experience. Some general steps to follow to attempt adding more colors:

Add a new column to the right of the current data table.
Copy the formulas in the previous column into the new column.
Select the timeline and drag the range marker to the right to include the new column.
Add some data to see what color the new column uses and then update the column label.
Update the list used for the data validation drop-down box in the Color column to include the new label.

Dates Not Changing in the Chart? To edit the range of dates shown in the chart, you need to edit the Minimum and Maximum bounds of the horizontal axis. Right-click on the axis and select Format Axis.

Want More Flexibility / Ease of Use? If you don’t care about automation and just want a simple way to create a high-level project timeline, you might want to try the Project Schedule Template. Colors are modified by just changing the background colors of the cells in the spreadsheet.

Project Timeline Chart

for Excel

Description

This project timeline uses two different scatter chart series to display milestones above the timeline and tasks with durations below the timeline. The durations are created using X Error bars. The length of the leaderlines for the tasks can be defined by the user to show task dependencies.

The vertical positions of the tasks and milestones are adjusted by the user. This may work great for some timelines, but if you have more than 20 tasks to show, you may be better of using a Gantt Chart.

This template is based on the original Vertex42 Excel Timeline Template, which was one of the first timeline templates developed for Excel using the technique of leaderlines and error bars for durations. This new project timeline works only in the more recent versions of Excel (2013 or later) because of the new feature in Excel that allows you to specify a range of cells for Data Labels.

To learn how to create a timeline using a scatter chart, see the video demos for the Bubble Chart Timeline and Vertical Timeline templates.

Use a Graphic as a Data Point Marker in a Project Timeline

You can add graphics to a project timeline to make it more interesting or visually appealing. For example, you may want to mark the final milestone with a finish-line flag, as shown in the image below. To do this, you will first need to create a graphic using your favorite image editing app, or download one. The diamond and flag that I use in my project timelines were created from screenshots of common unicode characters.

Steps for using a graphic as a data point marker:

Select a single data point by clicking on it and then clicking on it again.
Right-click on the selected data point to open the Format Data Point task pane.
Click on the Bucket > Marker > Marker Options > Built-in, then select the picture icon from the Type drop-down.
Select the image from your computer.

To see other examples of using graphics in a timeline, see my original Timeline Template.

More Project Timelines

Project Planner Template

Create a project plan using a gantt chart that shows the planned schedule vs. the actual schedule.

Gantt Chart Template

The Gantt Chart template (and especially the Pro version) is great for project scheduling and detailed task scheduling.

Источник

Любое планирование начинается с временной шкалы. Вам необходимо знать, какие задачи следует выполнить и когда, чтобы уложиться в сроки. Временная шкала — простой в использовании, наглядный способ составления планов для любых ситуаций: от планирования занятий до управления проектом.

Вы можете создать временную шкалу в Excel вручную, но чтобы придать ей нужный вид, потребуется потратить много времени и сил. Зачастую гораздо проще воспользоваться шаблоном временной шкалы, который можно адаптировать под свои потребности, получив при этом эффективные инструменты для совместной работы и общего доступа. С помощью шаблона временной шкалы в Smartsheet вы можете легко планировать работу, отслеживать задачи и управлять расписаниями в ходе совместной работы.

Каким способом вы хотите создать временную шкалу?

— или —

Вручную создать временную шкалу в Excel

Время выполнения: 30 минут

In this article

Загрузка бесплатного шаблона временной шкалы для Excel
Создание временной шкалы
Создание временной шкалы в Excel
Настройка временной шкалы в Excel
Добавление информации в шаблон
Контроль временных шкал и действий по планированию в реальном времени с помощью Smartsheet

Загрузка бесплатного шаблона временной шкалы для Excel

Smartsheet

Простейший способ создать временную шкалу в Excel — использовать готовый шаблон. Шаблон Microsoft Excel особенно полезен, если у вас нет опыта в создании временных шкал проектов. Вам потребуется лишь ввести данные и даты проекта в таблицу. Изменения автоматически отразятся на временной шкале Excel.

Загрузить шаблон временной шкалы для Excel

Когда вы добавляете в таблицу собственные даты, диаграмма Ганта меняется автоматически, но полоски могут быть расположены неправильно. В начале диаграммы может быть очень много пустого пространства с датами, которых вы не вводили. Исправить это можно, изменив расстояние между датами, отображаемыми в верхней части диаграммы.

Щёлкните дату в верхней части диаграммы Ганта. Вокруг всех дат появится рамка.
Щёлкните рамку правой кнопкой мыши и выберите пункт «Формат оси».
Во всплывающем окне слева выберите пункт «Шкала».
Измените число в поле «Минимальное значение». Рекомендуем изменять это число постепенно, чтобы видеть, как меняется расстояние между полосками, и максимально приблизить внешний вид диаграммы к желаемому.

Создание временной шкалы

В этой статье рассказывается, как создать временную шкалу в Excel на основе шаблона в контексте планирования деловой конференции. Для успешного проведения деловой конференции могут потребоваться месяцы планирования. Временная шкала в этом случае особенно важна. Такой проект предполагает высокую динамичность и большое количество заинтересованных лиц.

Сначала организатор мероприятия составляет список задач. К ним могут относиться управление бюджетом, поиск и бронирование места для проведения конференции, приглашение участников, организация их размещения, составление расписания конференции и многое другое. Для всего этого можно либо использовать шаблон временной шкалы в Excel, либо выбрать более эффективный подход: сначала построить диаграмму Ганта, а затем с её помощью создать временную шкалу. В этом руководстве рассматриваются оба способа.

Создание временной шкалы в Excel

Сначала составьте список задач, чтобы понять, что должно отображаться на временной шкале. Это могут быть те же вехи, которые в настоящее время представлены на диаграмме Ганта. В этом случае выберите шаблон временной шкалы Excel, в котором требуется только ввести информацию о вехах.

Однако вам также может потребоваться представить различные части проекта на временной шкале. В таком случае выберите шаблон временной шкалы проекта для Excel. В нём больше полей для настройки, а на временной шкале будет отображаться больше информации. Например, это может быть длительность выполнения той или иной задачи.

Выбор шаблона временной шкалы Excel

Microsoft предлагает несколько шаблонов временных шкал в Excel, которые подходят для планирования конференции. Временные шкалы в Excel не привязаны к данным диаграммы Ганта, поэтому необходимо вручную ввести данные в предварительно заданные поля шаблона. Эти поля не являются чем-то незыблемым: вы можете изменять их имена и добавлять другие поля.

Чтобы найти шаблон временной шкалы для Excel от Microsoft, откройте приложение Microsoft Excel, в поле поиска введите «Временная шкала» и нажмите клавишу ВВОД. Примечание. Этот шаблон был найден с помощью последней версии Excel в Windows 8.

Дважды щёлкните шаблон временной шкалы проекта в Excel, чтобы открыть электронную таблицу.

Добавление информации на временную шкалу в Excel

Когда шаблон откроется, вы увидите предварительно отформатированную электронную таблицу Excel с уже заполненными полями. Содержимое таблицы служит просто примером. В верхней части шаблона находится временная шкала. Прокрутите таблицу вниз, чтобы увидеть предварительно отформатированную диаграмму, на которой можно добавлять данные для планирования конференции и сроки выполнения. Одно из преимуществ использования шаблона временной шкалы Excel в том, что он уже отформатирован и его нужно лишь настроить.

Щёлкните текст «Временная шкала проекта» (1C) вверху таблицы и введите название своей конференции.

Прокрутите таблицу вниз и введите дату начала.

Так как вы планируете конференцию, вам необходимо выбрать дату начала проекта. Примечание. С помощью формулы в качестве даты начала задаётся дата, в которую вы приступили к использованию шаблона. Если это не подходит, щёлкните ячейку, удалите формулу и введите свою дату. При этом предварительно отформатированные даты начала и окончания изменятся.

Введите первую задачу. Чтобы добавить задачу в столбец «Действие», дважды щёлкните поле с текстом «Веха».

Нажмите клавишу TAB, чтобы перейти в соответствующее поле «Начало», и введите дату, в которую вы начнёте подбор места проведения конференции. Чтобы ввести дату в поле «Окончание», нажмите клавишу TAB ещё раз. Это дата, к которой необходимо выбрать место проведения.

Повторяйте шаги 3 и 4, пока не заполните всю диаграмму.

Настройка временной шкалы в Excel

Когда на диаграмму добавлены все вехи конференции, можно легко изменить внешний вид временной шкалы. Вы можете настроить отображение данных на ней и сделать её более яркой.

Если длительность планирования конференции превышает один месяц (скорее всего, так и будет), вы можете просмотреть дополнительные данные на временной шкале, нажимая на стрелки на серой полоске рядом с полем «Дата начала». При этом вы прокручиваете временную шкалу Excel.

Чтобы изменить общее оформление диаграммы, щёлкните её, а затем щёлкните значок кисти.
Появится всплывающее окно с различными стилями временной шкалы. Наведите указатель мыши на разные стили, чтобы увидеть, как будет выглядеть временная шкала. Найдя подходящий стиль, щёлкните его. Стиль будет применён к временной шкале.

Изменение цветовой палитры для временной шкалы в Excel

Щёлкните диаграмму.
Щёлкните значок кисти, а затем в верхней части всплывающего окна щёлкните «Цвет».
Наведите указатель мыши на разные цвета, чтобы увидеть, как будет выглядеть временная шкала. Найдя подходящий цвет, щёлкните его, и он будет применён к временной шкале.

В этом шаблоне временной шкалы приводится лишь самая основная информация. Он отлично подойдет для того, чтобы дать руководителям и заинтересованным лицам общее представление о задачах, связанных с проведением конференции. Однако в нём нет информации о бюджете и о том, выполняются ли задачи в срок и кто отвечает за ту или иную задачу. Если вам нужна более подробная временная шкала для планирования конференции, рекомендуем создать диаграмму Ганта в Excel.

Создание подробной временной шкалы с помощью шаблона Smartsheet

Планирование конференции состоит из множества деталей. Всю эту информацию желательно хранить в одном месте, где она будет доступна различным заинтересованным лицам.

В Smartsheet есть немало шаблонов, с помощью которых можно легко создать временную шкалу мероприятия. Вы можете просматривать данные в виде списка задач или диаграммы Ганта, чтобы быстро получать представление о ходе работ. Вы также можете добавлять вложения, импортировать контакты, назначать задачи, планировать автоматические запросы изменения и работать совместно с коллегами — откуда угодно и на любом устройстве. Есть даже шаблон веб-формы регистрации для участия в мероприятии, который упрощает процесс регистрации.

Создайте временную шкалу в Smartsheet

Выбор шаблона для планирования проекта в Smartsheet

Чтобы приступить к работе в Smartsheet, войдите в свою учётную запись и перейдите на вкладку «+» на левой панели навигации или получите бесплатный пробный доступ на 30 дней.
На левой панели навигации щёлкните «Создать».

В поле поиска введите слово «Событие» и щёлкните значок увеличительного стекла. Вы увидите несколько шаблонов. Для этого примера выберите «Список задач события с диаграммой Ганта и бюджетом»&, а затем во всплывающем окне нажмите синюю кнопку «Использовать шаблон».

Присвойте имя шаблону, выберите папку для его сохранения и нажмите кнопку «ОК».

Добавление информации в шаблон

Откроется предварительно отформатированный шаблон с заполненными разделами, подзадачами, примерами вложений, состоянием выполнения и формулами бюджета. Для примера также приводится некоторое содержимое.

Чтобы удалить жёлтое поле вверху шаблона, щёлкните его правой кнопкой мыши и выберите команду «Удалить строку».

Дважды щёлкните ячейку «Приветственное мероприятие», выделите её содержимое и введите свой текст.

Дважды щёлкните жёлтое поле «Декор», выделите его содержимое и введите свой текст. Это должно быть название одной из основных категорий ваших задач («Выбор места проведения», «Привлечение спонсоров», «Регистрация» и т. д.).

Щёлкните пустую ячейку в столбце «Этап» и введите название ещё одной категории. Выделите всю строку от столбца «Выполнено» до столбца «Дата начала», щёлкните значок в виде банки с краской и выберите жёлтый цвет. Повторите эти действия для остальных категорий.

Щёлкните ячейку под созданной категорией (в этом примере это категория «Маркетинг») и добавьте подзадачу более низкого уровня, например «Социальные сети». Затем нажмите на панели инструментов кнопку «Отступ», чтобы превратить только что созданную категорию в подзадачу. Повторите эти действия для всех новых категорий.

Значения в столбце Общий бюджет вычисляются автоматически на основе расходов, введённых в соответствующих столбцах.
Введите даты начала и выполнения для каждой задачи в столбцах «Дата выполнения» и «Дата начала». Когда часть проекта завершится, дважды щёлкните ячейку даты и нажмите на панели инструментов слева кнопку зачёркивания (с зачёркнутой буквой «S»).
В каждой строке щёлкните ячейку в столбце «Статус» и выберите в раскрывающемся списке символ, соответствующий текущему состоянию задачи. Это может быть зелёная галочка, жёлтый восклицательный знак или красный знак «X». Так вы сможете легко увидеть, выполняется ли ещё задача или работы по ней приостановлены.

В столбце «Назначено» щёлкните ячейку и выберите исполнителя в раскрывающемся списке. Можно даже добавить людей, не являющихся сотрудниками вашей компании.

Когда вы назначаете задачи исполнителям в Smartsheet, их контактные данные автоматически привязываются.

Чтобы просмотреть введённые данные в виде диаграммы Ганта, нажмите на панели инструментов кнопку Представление Ганта.

Внешний вид диаграммы Ганта можно настроить всего несколькими щелчками мышью. Чтобы изменить цвета полосок задач, выполните указанные ниже действия.

Правой кнопкой мыши щёлкните полоску задачи и выберите пункт «Параметры цвета».
Появится цветовая палитра, с помощью которой можно поменять цвет полоски.
Чтобы применить один и тот же цвет к нескольким полоскам задач, щёлкните их, удерживая нажатой клавишу SHIFT. Полоски будут выделены. Затем отпустите клавишу SHIFT, щёлкните правой кнопкой мыши одну из выбранных полосок и выберите пункт «Параметры цвета».

Преобразование шаблона Smartsheet во временную шкалу проекта

Вы уже ввели все необходимые данные в Smartsheet. Теперь можно несколькими щелчками мышью создать эффектную временную шкалу, чтобы наглядно представить ход планирования мероприятия.

Smartsheet интегрируется с Office Timeline, графической надстройкой для PowerPoint, которая позволяет создавать эффектные, профессионально оформленные представления планов проектов.

Если надстройка Office Timeline не установлена в вашем приложении PowerPoint, просто загрузите её для бесплатного пробного использования и установите, а затем перезапустите PowerPoint.

Откройте PowerPoint и создайте слайд.
Перейдите на вкладку Office Timeline Free (если вы приобрели Office Timeline, эта вкладка будет называться Office Timeline). Нажмите на ленте стрелку раскрывающегося списка рядом с кнопкой New (Создать). Наведите указатель на пункт Import Data (Импорт данных) и щёлкните Import from Smartsheet (Импорт из Smartsheet).

Войдите в учётную запись Smartsheet, следуя указаниям. Установите флажок рядом с проектом Smartsheet, который нужно импортировать, а затем щёлкните зелёный кружок с галочкой.

После создания временной шкалы проекта её можно настроить. Вы можете выбрать события, которые должны отображаться на временной шкале, обозначить разными цветами задачи, назначенные различным заинтересованным лицам, и добавить к оформлению свою фирменную символику и цвета.

Контроль временных шкал и действий по планированию в реальном времени с помощью Smartsheet

Smartsheet помогает улучшить совместную работу и повысить скорость работы для любых типов задач, от простого управления задачами и планирования проектов до комплексного управления ресурсами и портфелями, позволяя вам добиваться большего. Платформа Smartsheet упрощает планирование, сбор, управление и составление отчётов о работе, помогая вашей команде работать более эффективно и добиваться большего, где бы вы ни находились. Создавайте отчёты по ключевым показателям и получайте информацию о работе в режиме реального времени с помощью сводных отчётов, панелей мониторинга и автоматизированных рабочих процессов, специально разработанных для поддержания совместной работы и информированности вашей команды. Когда у команд есть ясность в отношении выполняемой работы, невозможно предсказать, насколько больше они смогут сделать за одно и то же время. Попробуйте Smartsheet бесплатно уже сегодня.

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Want to learn how to create a timeline in Excel?

A project timeline is a record of all the important events and milestones in a project.

And like it or not, Microsoft Excel is still a commonly used tool for this purpose.

In this article, you’ll learn about what a project timeline is, how to create one in Excel, and a better alternative to the process!

Let’s get started!

ClickUp Gantt Chart Timeline Template CTA

What Is A Project Timeline?

A project timeline chart is a visualization of the chronological order of events in a project. It’s a series of tasks (assigned to individuals or teams) that need to be completed within a set time frame.

Here’s what a comprehensive project timeline chart contains:

Tasks in various phases
Start date and end date of tasks
Dependencies between tasks
Milestones

In short, it’s something your project team will refer to track what’s done and what needs to be done.

How To Create A Project Timeline In Excel?

There are two main approaches to create a timeline in Excel.

Let’s dive right in.

1. SmartArt tools graphics

SmartArt tools are the best choice for a basic, to-the-point project timeline in Excel.

Here’s how you can create an Excel timeline chart using SmartArt.

Click on the Insert tab on the overhead task pane
Select Insert a SmartArt Graphic tool
Under this, choose the Process option
Find the Basic Timeline chart type and click on it
Edit the text in the text pane to reflect your project timeline

Add as many fields as you want in the SmartArt text box by simply hitting Enter in the text pane to open up the respective dialog box.

Excel also lets you change the SmartArt timeline layout after you’ve inserted the text.

You can change it to a:

Line chart
Basic bar chart
Stacked bar chart

And of course, feel free to play around with the Excel chart color schemes in the SmartArt Design tab.

A SmartArt graphic is perfect for a high-level project timeline that displays all the important milestones. However, it may not be sufficient to display all the tasks and activities that lead up to them.

For this, your Excel dashboard will need something more complex: like a scatter plot Excel chart.

2. Scatter plot charts

Scatter plot charts display every complex data point at one glance.

First, lay the foundation for the chart by making a data table with basic information such as:

Task (or milestone) name
Due date
Priority level (1-4, in increasing order)

When you add dates, make sure your cells are formatted to reflect the correct date format. For example, DD/MM/YYYY, MM/DD/YYYY, etc.

Here’s what a sample data table looks like:

To generate a scatter plot chart from this:

Drag and select the data table
Click on the Insert tab in the top menu
Click on the Scatter chart icon
Select your preferred chart layout

Format this basic scatter chart to show your data even more clearly:

Select the chart
Click on the Chart Design tab on the overhead task pane
Click on the Add Chart Element icon in the top left corner
Add a Data Label and Data Callout
Edit the chart title

Keep exploring to customize the scatter plot chart further.

While scatter plot charts are slightly more complex than a SmartArt graphic, they may still not be enough for your horizontal timeline.

And let’s not forget that the purpose of a project timeline is to manage time on a project. How’s one supposed to do that while attending Excel 101 classes to create a simple chart?

The answer lies in using a project timeline template:

3 Excel Project Timeline Templates

Don’t we all know an Excel wizard?

Someone who makes us feel like we skipped a class?

Well, now you can be one of them too!

Thankfully you won’t have to read moth-eaten books and sit in ancient libraries to become an Excel expert.

Just let an Excel project timeline template do the magic.

1. Excel Gantt chart timeline template

2. Excel timeline template for milestones

3. Excel project schedule template

An Excel template should ease your project timeline worries. For some time. 👀

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking on the long-term issues of Excel project management:

3 Limitations Of Using Excel To Create A Project Timeline

Excel is like the old t-shirt that you never want to give away.

Why should you?

It fits you just right and has the coolest hashtags!

But if you want to achieve audacious goals, you’ll need to move beyond both of them. 💔

Here’s why you need to move on from Microsoft Excel for your project timeline needs.

1. No individual to-do lists

Sure, being able to access gigantic spreadsheets and data series with conditional formatting is great.

But you know what’s better?

Something that tells you what you need to do.

After all, Excel can’t help you build a functional to-do list and assign it to individual team members.

Unless your idea of a team meeting is looking into your spreadsheet’s soul with a magnifying glass, Excel won’t cut it for to-do lists.

However, let’s say you physically type out each person’s deliveries in a sheet, you still have the problem of…

2. Manual follow-ups

In the age of customized app notifications and uber-smart reminders, Excel project management depends on manual follow-ups.

What will your strategy be? Email colleagues, conduct hourly check-ins, or tap on everyone’s shoulders to ask if they’re done with their task. 🤯

Not only is it terribly inconvenient (and frankly annoying) it gives you no idea about your project’s progress.

3. Non-collaborative

Do you work in a non-hierarchical Agile environment where the whole team is involved in the decision-making process?

Well, guess what?

An Excel file can’t handle this.

Microsoft Excel (and other MS tools like Powerpoint) believe in single ownership of documents with limited support for collaboration.

And that’s hardly the complete list of why Excel can’t deliver.

Read all about why Excel project management SHOULDN’T be your go-to solution.

Luckily, we can point you in the direction of smoother workflows and efficient project management.

Check out ClickUp!

Create Effortless Project Timelines With ClickUp

Excel is a smart, handy tool that’s also occasionally clunky and very intimidating.

But what if you could have a tool that can do everything Excel does, except far better?

The answer is ClickUp!

It’s an award-winning project management tool that ensures end-to-end project management without the need to toggle between windows.

Just use the Timeline view, Gantt Chart, and Table view to get a complete picture of your project timeline on ClickUp.

1. Timeline view

ClickUp’s Timeline view is for those who want more from their timelines!

It gives you more tasks per row and more customization options than you can imagine.

2. Gantt chart view

If you’re plotting a project timeline, chances are you’re also plotting a Gantt chart.

It’s one step above a linear timeline as it lets you visualize project progress (as opposed to just the scheduled tasks) and trace dependencies clearly.

And with ClickUp on your side, it’s never been easier to create a Gantt chart!

Simple Gantt Chart Template by ClickUp

Visualize projects, timelines, and more with this Gantt Chart template

Gantt Chart Template by ClickUp

Use ClickUp’s Simple Gantt Chart Template is a great way to plan out tasks and estimate how long they will take.

Easily view the relationships between tasks in an easy-to-read timeline, so you can quickly adjust resources when needed. Plus, all changes are synchronized across teams, making it simple to stay up-to-date with everyone’s progress.

Make the most of your Gantt chart experience by managing Dependencies.

Draw lines between tasks to schedule dependencies
Reschedule them with drag and drop actions
Delete them by hovering over and clicking on the dependency line and then selecting Delete

Find out the progress percentage of your project by hovering over the progress bar.

3. Table view

You may be wondering, “Hey, that all sounds good, but Microsoft Excel feels like home.”

That’s why we have the ClickUp’s Table view.

It’s a condensed look at your project timeline.

But you can also enhance it to show as much background information as you want.

Amp up your spreadsheet experience with these functions:

Drag to copy your table and paste it into any Excel-type software
Pin columns and change the row height for handy data analysis
Navigate the spreadsheet with keyboard shortcuts

The Time’s Up For Excel Project Timelines!

Deadlines, coordination, reviews. Project time management is an endless struggle. And your project timeline is the one tool that helps you consistently navigate this.

Excel may seem like a simple way out, but it’s not the friendly, long-term companion it promises to be.

Try ClickUp for free today.

Related readings:

How to create a timesheet in Excel
How to create a form in Excel
How to make a calendar in Excel
How to create a Kanban board in Excel
How to create a mind map in Excel
How to create a KPI dashboard in Excel
How to create a flowchart in Excel
How to create a database in Excel
How to Display Work Breakdown Structures in Excel

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Office Timeline Pro+ is here!

Align programs and projects on one slide with multi-level Swimlanes.

A timeline is a type of chart which visually shows a series of events in chronological order over a linear timescale. The power of a timeline is that it’s a visual representation, which makes it easy to understand critical milestones in a project and the progress of a project schedule. Timelines are particularly powerful for project scheduling or project management when paired with a Gantt chart, as shown at the end of this tutorial.

Play Video

Options for making an Excel timeline

Microsoft Excel has a Scatter chart that can be formatted to create a timeline. If you need to create and update a timeline for recurring communications with clients and executives, it would be simpler and faster to
create a PowerPoint timeline.

On this page you can see both ways to create a timeline using these popular Microsoft Office tools. We will give you step-by-step instructions for making a timeline in Excel by formatting a Scatter chart. We will also show you how to instantly create an executive timeline in PowerPoint by pasting your project data from Excel.

Which tutorial would you like to see?

30 mins

Manually create timeline in Excel

Download Excel timeline template

How to create an Excel timeline in 7 steps

1. List your key events or dates in an Excel table.

List out the key events, important decision points or critical deliverables of your project. These will be called Milestones and they will be used to create a timeline.
Create a table out of these Milestones and next to each milestone add the due date of that particular milestone.
To create a timeline in Excel, you will also need to add another column to your table that includes some plotting numbers. Add the new column next to your milestone description column and list out a repetitive sequence of numbers such as 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5, 10, 15, 20 etc. Excel will use these plotting points to vary the height of each milestone when plotting them on your timeline template.

For this demonstration we’ll format the table in the image below into a Scatter chart and then into an Excel timeline. Then we’ll use it again to make a timeline in PowerPoint.

2. Make a timeline in Excel by setting it up as a Scatter chart.

From the timeline worksheet in Excel, click on any blank cell.
Then from the Excel ribbon, select the Insert tab and navigate to the Charts section of the ribbon.
In the Charts section of the ribbon drop down the Scatter or Bubble Chart menu.
Select Scatter which will insert a blank white chart space onto your Excel worksheet.

3. Add Milestone data to your timeline.

Right-click the blank white chart and click Select Data to bring up Excel’s Select Data Source window.
On the left side of Excel’s Data Source window, you will see a table named Legend Entries (Series). Click on the Add button to bring up the Edit Series window. Here you add the dates that will make your timeline.
We will enter the dates into the field named Series X values . Click in the Series X values window on the arrow button

. Then select your range by clicking the first date of your timeline (ours is 2/10) and dragging down to the last date (ours is 11/15).

Following the same path, we will enter the plotting numbers series into the field named Series Y values. Click in the Series Y value window and remove the value

that Excel places in the field by default. Then select your range by clicking on the first plotting number of your timeline (ours is 1) and then dragging down to the last plotting number of your timeline (ours is 4).
Click OK and then click OK again to create a scatter chart.

4. Turn your Scatter chart into a timeline.

Click on your chart to bring up a set of controls which will be presented to the upper right of your timeline’s chart. Click on the Plus button (+) to open the Chart Elements menu.
In the timeline’s Chart Elements control box, uncheck Gridlines and Chart Title.
Staying in the Charts Elements control box, hover your mouse over the word Axes (but don’t uncheck it) to get an expansion arrow just to the right. Click on the expansion arrow to get additional axis options for your chart. Here you should uncheck Primary Vertical but leave Primary Horizontal checked.
Staying in the Charts Elements control box just a little longer, add Data Labels and Error Bars.

Your timeline chart should now look something like this:

5. Format chart to look like a timeline.

To make a timeline in Excel, we will need to format the Scatter chart by adding connectors from your milestone points. Right-click on any one of the dates at the bottom of your timeline and select Format Axis to bring up Excel’s Format Axis menu.
Drop down the arrow next to the title Axis Options and select Series 1 X Error Bars.
Under the Error Bar Options menu, click on the paint can icon to reveal the Fill & Line controls. Select No line, which will remove the horizontal lines around each of the plotted milestones on your timeline.
In a similar process, we will also adjust your timeline’s Y axis. Again, from the timeline, right-click on any one of your timeline’s dates at the bottom of the chart and select Format Axis. Drop down the arrow next to the title Axis Options and select Series 1 Y Error Bars.
Right-clicking on any bar in the chart will open the Format Error Bars menu. From the Vertical Error Bar, set the direction to Minus. Then set the Error Amount to Percentage, and type in 100%. This will create connectors from your timeline’s milestones to their respective points on your timeband.

Your Excel timeline should now look something like the picture below.

6. Add titles to your timeline’s milestones.

You have built a Scatter chart as an Excel timeline. Now we will format it into a proper timeline.

To finish making your timeline, we will add the milestone descriptions. Staying in the Format Axis menu, again drop down the menu arrow next to the title Axis Options. This time choose select Series 1 Data Labels to bring up the Format Data Labels menu.
Click the Label Options icon. Uncheck Y Value, and then put a check next to Value From Cells. This will bring up an Excel data entry window called Data Label Range.
In the Select Data Label Range window, you will enter your timeline’s milestone descriptions from the timeline table you built in step 1. To do this simply click on the description for the first milestone in your timeline table, (ours is Kick Off), then drag down to the last milestone in your timeline (ours is Sign Off). Click OK.

Your Excel timeline template should finally look more like this now:

7. Styling options for your timeline.

Now you can apply some styling choices to improve the aspect of your timeline.

Coloring your timeline’s milestone markers.

From your timeline, right-click on any of the milestone points (caps) and select Format Data Series to bring up the Series Options menu.

Select the paint can icon for Fill & Line options and, then choose the tab for Marker. You may also need to select Fill to reveal its menu. Then you can choose coloring options for your timeline’s milestone markers. In our example, we selected Vary colors by point, which lets Excel pick the milestone colors for our timeline.
Change the vertical connector’s transparency.

On your timeline, right-click on any of the vertical connectors that connect your milestones with the timeband below. Select Format Error Bars to bring up the Vertical Error Bar menu. Again, select the paint can icon to choose Excel’s Line & Fill options. Here you can make formatting adjustments (color, size, style, etc.) to your timeline’s connector lines. In our example we set the transparency of the lines to 50%.
Vary the height of each milestone so their descriptions are not overlapping the neighboring milestone.

Remember the repeated sequence of numbers you added to your timeline table in step 1. Well, those set the height of each milestone on your timeline. By adjusting these numbers, you can play around with different height positions for each milestone. For example, to optimize our timeline, we used the number sequence, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4.

Look how the descriptions would overlap if we changed the order (Don’t try this at home! 😊):
Trim off the empty space to the left or right of your Excel timeline by adjusting its minimum and maximum bounds.

Again right-click on any of the dates below your timeband. Select Format Axis.

Under the heading Bounds, adjusting the Minimum number upward will move your first milestone left on your timeline, closer to the vertical Axis. Likewise, adjusting the Maximum number down will move your last milestone right on your timeline, closer to the right edge of your chart.
Finished! Our timeline now looks like this:

To help you get started quickly, we have included a practical Excel template that you can download for free and learn how to create timelines in Excel.

Download a pre-built Excel timeline file

FAQs about timelines in Excel

Is there a timeline template in Excel?

Yes, there are several predefined timeline templates in Excel. To explore them, go to File > New, and check the templates preview list. If you cannot find what you need, use the “More templates” option and type “timeline” in the “Search for online templates” box to browse the collection of timeline templates.

If you’re not happy with the limitations that come along with the standard timeline templates in Excel, have a look at the library of professional timeline templates produced with Office Timeline and try our timeline creator.

How do you make a timeline in Word or other office tools?

There are two ways to make timelines in Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook: using SmartArt and using Charts. Here’s an overview of the steps required by each option.

A. Using SmartArt. This method is mostly manual, but if you want to create a basic timeline with SmartArt, you should follow these 5 steps:

Go to Insert > SmartArt;
In Choose a SmartArt Graphic box, select Process on the left and then pick a layout that you like and click OK;
In the SmartArt graphic, click [Text]. Fill in the data by typing or pasting your text;
You can add items in the timeline: Right click on a shape, then Add Shape > Add Shape After/Before;
You can move items around by dragging and dropping them as you like.

After you create the timeline, you can add or move dates, and you can style your timeline further, apply different styles or change layouts and colors.

See more detailed instructions on using SmartArt to make timelines in our tutorial on how to make a timeline in Word.

B. Using Charts. You have various options: Column Charts, Bar Charts or Scatter Charts. In all the Office programs, this method will work with Excel data tables, so, you’ll need to group your data in Excel. Please note you’ll need some formatting to get a usable timeline. There are three basic steps for using Charts:

Go to Insert > Chart > Insert Column or Bar Chart > 2-D Bar/3-D Bar;
Select Stacked Bar (not 100% Stacked Bar);
Format and style the newly created bar chart until you get the timeline that you like.

If you need more detailed instructions check out our series or tutorials on how to make timelines with your usual office tools.

Where can I create a timeline?

You can create timelines online or using offline tools. In both cases, you can choose between automated and manual work.

1. Let’s start with the most efficient way to make a timeline: using automation. This method is time saving and offers the best results, especially with more complex projects.

Offline tools: Office Timeline Add-in with its professional and free timeline maker versions. Office Timeline is a PowerPoint add-in that helps you quickly make and manage professional timelines and Gantt charts. It allows using templates, making timelines from scratch and importing data from Excel, Microsoft Project, Smartsheet or Wrike.
Online, with Office Timeline Online – premium and free versions. Office Timeline Online is an easy-to-use timeline creator that helps you with professional PowerPoint timeline creation in minutes, but also with slides updating and online sharing.

2. There are also manual ways to make a timeline from scratch, or from templates:

Offline, you can make timelines in any Office application, by using templates or designing your timeline using shapes and objects.
Online, you can make timelines in Google Docs editor.

However, these methods are not specialized for timeline creation, so they require more time and detailed instructions, and creative solutions to make timelines from graphics. In the end, you may find that the result might not be worth all the time and effort.

What is the best program to make a timeline?

There are several options of good timeline creators – online and offline, depending on your needs. We have found several options of automated tools, specialized in timeline creation, that meet the basic criteria for a good timeline creator: professional looking timelines, complex features, ease of use and good price-quality ratio. Our top three timeline creators are: Office Timeline – with its web-based app and the desktop add-in, Tiki-Toki and Sutori – both web-based.

Visit our blog to see the complete list of 10 best timeline makers that might be worth your while.

Make a great looking timeline from Excel directly in PowerPoint

There is an easier way to put your Excel data into a good-looking timeline. PowerPoint is better suited than Excel for making impressive timelines that clients and executives want to see.

In the tutorial below, we will show you how to quickly paste the Excel table you created above in Step 1 into PowerPoint using Office Timeline, a user-friendly PowerPoint add-in that instantly makes and updates timelines from Excel. To begin, you will need to install Office Timeline, which will add a timeline creator tab to PowerPoint.

1. Open PowerPoint and paste your table into the Office Timeline wizard.

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

This will open a gallery where you can choose between various timeline styles, stock templates and even custom templates.
From the gallery, double-click the style or template you wish to use for your timeline to open its preview window and then select Use Template. (You can find more designs in our timeline templates library.) For this demonstration, we will choose the Software Development timeline template. If you prefer to import and refresh your Excel table, rather than copy-paste, click on the Import button in the preview window.
Copy the data from Excel

We have updated our data a bit, so that we get the timeline, but also a more detailed view of our project: we deleted the Timeline column, as we don’t need it, and added a list of tasks (with start and end dates and duration).

Copy the data from your Excel table, but make sure not to include the column headers.
Now, simply paste the section into PowerPoint by using the Paste button in the upper-right corner of the Data Entry wizard.

Make edits if necessary (such as changing milestone shapes and colors or adding and removing items) and click the Create button.

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

Depending on the template or style you selected from the gallery, you will have a timeline similar to this:
You can easily customize the timeline further using Office Timeline. In our example above, we added percent complete, removed the Today’s Date marker, changed milestones, adjusted colors, and added tasks to create a Gantt chart.

Download PowerPoint timeline template file

How to make a PowerPoint timeline from Excel in under 60 seconds:

Play Video

You can also use Office Timeline’s online timeline maker to easily build timelines and other similar visuals that you can instantly update and share with executives and teams.

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.

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A project timeline is the list of tasks recorded to be accomplished to finish the project within the given period. In simple words, it is nothing but the project schedule/timetable. All the tasks listed will have a start date, duration, and end date so that it becomes easy to track the project’s status and complete it within the given timeline.

A project timeline is one of the important aspects of project management. It is required to plan and determine the flow of tasks from the beginning to the end of the project.

The easiest way of representing the project timeline in Excel is through graphical representation. It can be created using the charts in Excel. It is called the “Gantt Chart.” Gantt chart (named after its inventor Henry Laurence Gantt) is one of the Bar Charts in ExcelBar charts in excel are helpful in the representation of the single data on the horizontal bar, with categories displayed on the Y-axis and values on the X-axis. To create a bar chart, we need at least two independent and dependent variables.read more and a popular tool used in project management, which helps visualize the project schedule.

Project Timeline in Excel
- How to Create a Project Timeline in Excel? (Step by Step)
  - Example #1
  - Example #2
- Things to Remember
- Recommended Articles

How to Create a Project Timeline in Excel? (Step by Step)

Below are the steps for creating a simple Gantt chart to represent the project timeline in Excel.

Example #1

Creating a Gantt chart using a normal stacked bar graph:The stacked bar chart in Excel represents data in the shape of bars, with the bars representing different segments or categories for comparison. A stacked bar chart is used to compare different types of data in terms of their values.read more

List down the tasks/activities that need to be completed in the Excel sheet(as shown below).
Enter the start date for each task in the column next to the activities.
Update the task’s “Duration” next to the “Starting Date” column (duration is the number of days required for the particular task/activity to be completed).
We can insert the “Ending Date” for the activities next to the “Duration” column. This column is optional because this is just for reference and will not be used in the chart.

Note: We can insert duration directly or use a formula to determine duration.

The above table calculates duration using the formula: Ending Date (-) Starting Date.

In the formula, “+1” is used to include the day of the starting date.

Now, let us begin to build a chart.

In the ribbon, go to the “INSERT” tab and select the “Bar graph” option in the “Charts” sub-tab. Next, choose the “Stacked” bar (the second option in the “2-D Bar“ section).

By selecting this graph, a blank chart area may appear. Select that empty area and right-click to choose the “Select Data” option.

“The “Select Data Source” window may appear to select the data. Next, click on the “Add” button under “Legend Entries (Series).”

When the “Edit Series” pop-up appears, select the “Starting Date” label as the “Series name.” In this example, cell B1. Also, choose the list of dates in the “Series values” field. Then, press the “OK” button.

Again, press the “Add” button to select the “Series name” and values of the “Duration” column the same as above.

After adding both the “Starting Date” and “Duration” data into the chart,

Click on “Edit” under the “Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels” on the right-hand side of the “Select Data Source” window.

In the “Axis Labels” range, select the list of tasks starting from “Task 1” to the end and click on “OK.”

Below is the output we can see after completing all the above steps.

The above chart shows the list of tasks on the Y-axis and dates on the X-axis. But, the list of tasks shown in the chart is in reverse order.

To change this:

We must select the axis data and right-click to select “Format Axis.”

In a “Format Axis” panel, under the “Axis Options” section, check the “Categories in reverse order” box.

When the categories are reversed, we may see the chart below.

We need to make a blue bar invisible to show only the orange bars, which indicate the duration.

Click on the blue bar to select and right-click “Format Data Series.”

In the “Format Data Series” panel, select “No Fill” under the “Fill” section and “No line” under the “Border” section.

The chart looks as below.

Now, the project timeline Excel Gantt chart is almost completed.

Remove the white space at the beginning of the chart.

Right-click on the date given for the first task in a table and select “Format Cells.”

Note the number in the window under the “Number tab” and “General” categories.

(In this example, it is 43102)

Click on the dates on the top of the chart and right-click, select “Format Axis.”

In the panel, change the “Minimum” number under the “Bounds” options to the number you have noted.

The units of date can adjust the scale as you want to see in the chart. (in this example, we have considered “Units” as 5)

The chart may look like the one given below.

Trim the chart to make it look nicer by eliminating the white space between the bars.

Click on the bar anywhere. Then, right-click and select “Format Data Series.”

Keep the “Series Overlap” at 100% and adjust the “Gap Width” to 10% under the “Plot Series On” section.

We can add the data labels to the bars by selecting “Add Data Labels” using right-click.

The data labels are added to the charts.

We can apply 3-D format to the chart to give some effects by removing the gridlines, and the color of the bar and font can be changed as required in the “Format Data Series” panel.
We can show the dates horizontally by changing the text alignment if required to show all dates.

Ultimately, the project timeline Gantt chart in Excel may look like this.

Example #2

Creating a Gantt chart using the project timeline templateA project timeline template is an excel chart that systematically tracks the start and end dates, status, and duration of every task involved in a project. It provides an idea to the project manager about the expected time a project may take to complete.read more available in Excel:

Gantt charts can be created using Microsoft’s template readily available in Excel.

Click on the “Start” button and select “Excel” to have a new Excel sheet opened.
While opening, it shows the options to choose from. Search for “Gantt Project PlannerA project planner template, also known as a project tracker, is a tool used by project managers to track the progress of a project, make amendments, and manage any changes.read more to create a project timeline in Excel.

Click on “Gantt project planner” and click on “Create” in the pop-up window.

The template is ready to start by entering your project details in the given column per the headers and seeing the bars reflecting the timeline.

Things to Remember

The Gantt chart is a Stacked Column GraphA stacked column chart in Excel is a column chart where multiple series of the data representation of various categories are stacked over each other. The stacked series are vertical.read more representing the Excel project timeline in horizontal bars.
The horizontal bars indicate the duration of the task/activity of the project timeline in Excel.
The chart reflects the addition or deletion of any activity within the source range, or the source data can be adjusted by extending the range of rows.
This chart does not provide detailed information about the project and lacks real-time monitoring ability.

Introduction to Project Timeline in Excel

How many times have you been in a situation when you have to mention the list of tasks in your project along with the duration it takes to complete those tasks? If you are a working professional, you frequently may have come up with a situation like this. And it is really a very tedious job to make this schedule and stick to it. This is also known as the project timeline. Project timeline is nothing but the list of tasks you are scheduled to do within given time bounds. It contains a list of tasks, start time and end time. There is an easy way to represent a project timeline in excel through graphical representation. In excel, we have a “Gantt Chart”, which can be helpful in making project timelines.

Gantt Chart is a type of bar chart (uses stack bar graphs to create Gantt Chart) in excel and is named after the person who invented it, Henry Laurence Gantt. As already discussed, it is most useful in Project Management.

There are two ways in which we can create Project Timeline in Excel.

By using stack bar charts and then convert those into Gantt Chart.
By using inbuilt excel Gantt Project Timeline/Project Planner template.

How to Use Project Timeline in Excel?

Project Timeline in Excel is very simple and easy. Let’s understand how to use the Project Timeline in Excel with some examples.

You can download this Project Timeline Excel Template here – Project Timeline Excel Template

Example #1 – Project Timeline Using Stack Bar Graphs

Suppose you have a list of tasks in tabular form in excel, as it shows in the screenshot below:

In this table, we have the Task Name, Start Date of the task, End Date of the task, and duration (in the number of days) it takes to complete the task. The duration can be inputted manually, or you can use a formula as [End Date – Start Date + 1]. Here +1 allows excel to count the Start Date as well while calculating the Duration.

Go to Excel Ribbon > Click Insert > Select Insert Column or Bar Chart option.

Select Stacked Bar under 2D-Bar option.

As soon as you click on that chart button, you can see an empty excel chart is generated as follows. Right-click on it and choose select Data.

Note: Sometimes, you may directly get a Stacked Bar Graph with data being automatically selected by excel itself. This happens when you have inserted data using an excel table layout.

A Select Data Source popping window will appear. Under Legend Entries (Series), click on Add tab.

A new pop up window Edit Series will appear on the front. Under Series name, select Start Date (cell B1). Under Series values, select a range of data from the Start Date column (Column B, B2:B11). Click OK.

Now add Duration as a Series name and Duration values as Series values by clicking Add button one more time, same as the above step.

Now, click Edit under Horizontal (Category) Axis Labels. It will open up a new pop-up window, Axis Labels. Select Task Name Range of cells from cell A2 to A11 under Axis label range and click OK. It will add Project 1 to Project 10 as a label (name) to every stack.

You can see a stacked bar chart as shown below with start date as labels on X-Axis, Duration as Value for stacks, and Task Name as labels for Y-Axis.

Now, there are these blue bars which are nothing but the start date bars. We don’t want those in our timeline graph. Therefore, we need to remove those.

Select blue bars and right-click on those to select Format Data Series.

Under Format Data Series, select No Fill under Fill section and No Line under Border section to make the blue bars invisible.

Now, the graph looks like below:

graph

Change the Minimum bound of this graph using the Format Axis pane to remove the white space at the start of the graph. Ideally, you can put the minimum bound as equals to the value of the first date in the Start Date column.

Now, remove spaces within each timeline to make it look nicer. Under SERIES OPTIONS in Format Data Series, set Series Overlap to 100% and Gap Width as 10% for Plot Series.

Now, try to reverse the project order so that Project 1 appears as first and Project 10 as of last.

Using Format Axis on Y-Axis, check Categories in reverse order option under Axis Options to make this graph look in chronological order.

Your timeline chart looks like the one in the below screenshot.

This is how we can create a timeline chart using stack bars.

Example 2- In-built Gantt Project Planning Template

Let’s see Project Timeline using Excel In-Built Gantt project template. As you all know, excel is well known for its simplicity. There are more simple ways in recent versions of excel, which have a separate template for Gantt Project Planning. You can directly use it and give your data inputs to have a Gantt Visualization. It reduces the steps we covered in the first example and apparently is a time saver.

Go to File Menu and Click the New tab on the ribbon placed vertically on the left-hand side.
In Search Box, type Gantt Project Planner and hit the search button to search the template dedicated for Project Planning.

You can double click the template to get opened and fill in the details as per the header, which reflects a change in horizontal bars placed there.

This is it from this article where we learned how to create a graphical project timeline in excel. Let’s wrap things up with some points to be remembered.

Things to Remember

Project Timeline chart is also called as Gantt Chart, which Henry Laurence Gantt has developed. Gantt chart is specially developed for project timeline management purposes.
Horizontal bars on the Gantt chart represent the duration (In a number of days or in time) it takes to complete any particular activity or project.
This chart doesn’t provide more detailed information about the project. It only shows the duration it takes to complete the task and whether the task is on the duration or not. It doesn’t provide any real-time monitoring of the project/task.

Creating a Project Timeline Manually in Microsoft Excel

In this example, we will be building our own timeline table to visualize a product creation process. This section will walk you through each step of creating a project timeline in Microsoft Excel.

Follow these steps to start creating a project timeline for your product creation:

First, we need to figure out the timeline for product creation, from the number of tasks or processes to be performed, the datelines, and also the number of days used to perform a task.
Once all the above are made known, we list them out tidily on the sheet.

Now we will start creating the project timeline. Click on the cell you want to start on, in this example, it will be E1.

We will create a title by entering Project Timeline in E1 and also list down the tasks accordingly vertically.

Next, we list down all the relevant dates. Since the project starts on the 4th of January, we will key in 4 Jan in cell F2. The cell will automatically recognize 4 Jan as a date and format the cell accordingly.

Then, we will drag the corner dot of F2 to fill in the rest of the dates horizontally until it reaches the 3rd of February.

Once we reach the 3rd of February, we then select the entire row of columns and double click on the line of the column heading. This helps to adjust the width of all the selected columns to fit the inputs keyed into the cells.

A shortcut to select all the columns is to select column F, then press simultaneously Shift + Command + Right Arrow Key.
Lastly, you can customize and design the project timeline table as to your preference, and it’s done!

With this project timeline table, it is much easier to visualize which days you would need to meet which task’s deadlines and have a neater calendar to follow.

Creating a Project Timeline Using a Scatter Plot in Microsoft Excel

Dots are used to indicate values for two different numeric variables in a scatter plot (also known as a scatter chart or scatter graph).

The values for each data point are indicated by the position of each dot on the horizontal and vertical axes. Scatter plots are used to see how variables relate to one another.

In this example, we are using the scatter plot to indicate the importance of a task in a project timeline. This means that the higher the dot or task is on the scatter plot, the more important the task is.

Similar to the previous example, we will need to list down the specific tasks of a project and rate the importance of each task out of a total score of 10.

Data

Once the data are neatly displayed, we will select all the data to create a scatter plot. Select Insert, then select Scatter Chart and select the Scatter with only Markers.

This will be the scatter plot that appears on your sheet.

Next, we need to edit the scatter plot. Double click on the graph itself, and a Chart Editing Box will pop up on the right of your sheet.

First, we will rename the chart title to Task Importance.

Next, we need to change the Number Format. Make sure you input as per below. This will help to translate and format the dates shown in the graph.

Another thing to make sure of is to remove all major gridlines on both horizontal and vertical axis to give the graph and clean and professional look.

The last thing to edit is the market itself. To find that section, click Series “Importance” and select the dropdown for Market Options. You can then customize it to your liking.

Once all the above are done, your scatter plot will look like this.

To create a more informative scatter plot, we can also add labels next to the markers. Simply select the dropdown for Data Labels, tick Category Name, and customize the font as per your preference.

Your scatter plot will look like these once labels are added.

By using the scatter plot, anyone can easily identify the most important task to focus on throughout the project timeline.

There you go! Now you know two different ways to display and visualize the timeline for any project.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of Microsoft Excel’s great features to help you improve and simplify your work in the real world!

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Hello! I am currently working in the audit field and also a fellow excel enthusiast! Dealing with Excel worksheets daily, lets me discover a vast variety of functions and combinations of formulas that allows endless possibilities. Can’t wait to showcase more functions that you never knew existed!

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