A timeline template gives you a finished layout with a date, a title and a short note for each event, so you only change the words. Pick one of the 21 below: Use this template opens it in our timeline maker with the events filled in, and PNG or SVG downloads it as it is. No account, nothing to install.
Browse the Timeline Templates
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American independence
Horizontal · 5 events · Real dates from the State Department
Two templates use real dates, each from an official history page. Every other one holds sample text and says so in its subtitle.
How to Edit a Timeline Template
- Press Use this template. The timeline maker opens with every row of that template filled in.
- Change the rows. Each row has a date, an event and a note. The date is free text, so “1969”, “Week 3”, “Q2” and “2:00 PM” all work. Add rows with Add event, or delete the ones you do not need.
- Or paste your own list. Copy three columns from a spreadsheet, date, event and note, and press Paste from a spreadsheet. A header row is detected and skipped.
- Pick the look. Vertical or horizontal, cards or plain text, one color for every event or one color each.
- Download. Save a PNG at 1x, 2x or 3x, or an SVG that stays sharp at any size. Copy image puts it on your clipboard, and Copy link gives you a web address that reopens your version.
Timeline Template for Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs and Excel
None of the templates here needs a plug-in or an add-on. You download the image and insert it like any picture. The menu steps below come from Microsoft’s and Google’s own help pages, read in September 2026. Each program also has its own timeline options, listed here so you can pick the right one.
Word and PowerPoint
Download the template as a PNG, then in Word or PowerPoint choose Insert, Pictures, This Device, and drag a corner handle to resize it. Microsoft’s help pages add that Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook in Microsoft 365 accept SVG files through the same menu, so download the SVG if you want the timeline to stay crisp on a projector or a poster.
The built-in alternative is SmartArt: Insert, SmartArt, then the Process group, where Microsoft names two timeline layouts, Basic Timeline and Circle Accent Timeline. It is quick for a handful of dates you want to edit inside the file. Use one of our templates when every event needs a date, a title and a note in a finished design. For a slide, choose a horizontal template and keep it to about five events.
Excel
Microsoft publishes a separate gallery of free Excel timeline templates, including a four-week project timeline, a project timeline with milestones, an event planner, a wedding timeline planner and a Gantt chart. You edit those by typing into cells in Excel for the web. Pick them when the dates must stay in a spreadsheet or you need a Gantt view, which our tool does not draw.
To turn an Excel list into a picture instead, select the date, event and note columns, copy them, and paste them into the timeline maker. Then drop the exported PNG next to your table as a summary.
Google Docs and Google Slides
In Google Docs or Slides, choose Insert, Image, Upload from computer, and pick the PNG you downloaded. Google’s help page describes that route for both programs. Use the PNG rather than the SVG here, since Google’s page does not say that Docs accepts SVG files.
Google also has two native options. Slides offers Insert, Diagram, with editable diagram templates. Sheets has a timeline view that tracks project tasks by date, which suits a live project plan more than a finished picture.
Pages and Keynote
A PNG from this page goes into Pages or Keynote like any other picture. If you would rather build inside Pages, a teacher’s post on the Apple Education Community, published in July 2024, shares seven timeline templates made in Pages that you can add to the template chooser.
Vertical or Horizontal Layout?
Layout is a setting, not a separate template, so any template above can be turned around in one click.
- Vertical suits many events and long notes. It reads well in documents and on phones, with cards on both sides or on one.
- Horizontal suits slides and a handful of milestones. It uses the width of the screen and makes the order obvious at a glance.
Here is the American independence template in its horizontal layout. On a narrow phone screen it switches to the vertical layout so that every note stays readable.
The American independence template. The U.S. State Department's Office of the Historian gives the Declaration of Independence as adopted on July 4, 1776, the Treaty of Alliance with France as signed on February 6, 1778, formal peace talks as starting on September 27, 1782, the preliminary articles as signed on November 30, 1782, and the formal peace of Paris as signed on September 3, 1783.
Show the data
| Date | Event | Note |
|---|---|---|
| July 4, 1776 | Declaration of Independence | The Continental Congress adopts it and the 13 colonies break with Great Britain. |
| February 6, 1778 | Alliance with France | France and the United States sign the Treaty of Alliance. |
| September 27, 1782 | Peace talks begin | Franklin, Adams and Jay open formal negotiations with the British. |
| November 30, 1782 | Preliminary articles signed | The first peace terms are signed in Paris. |
| September 3, 1783 | Treaty of Paris | The formal peace of Paris is signed. |
What Makes a Good Timeline Template
Wikipedia describes a timeline as a list of events in chronological order, usually drawn as a bar labeled with dates. Every template on this page keeps to four parts:
- A date, in whatever form fits: a year, a full date, a week, a quarter or a time of day.
- A title that names the event in a few words.
- A note, one optional sentence of detail.
- An order. Events appear in the order of the rows.
Our timeline tool spaces events evenly in that order. It does not stretch the gaps to scale, so an event ten years after the last one takes the same room as an event one week after. That keeps every entry readable. If the size of the gaps is your point, plot the values on a line graph instead. The tool also draws no task bars or durations, so it is not a replacement for a Gantt chart.
Weak and Strong Entries
The template gives you the boxes; what you type decides whether the timeline is useful.
- Weak: “1961. Something important in space.” Strong: “April 12, 1961. First human in space. Yuri Gagarin circles Earth aboard Vostok 1.”
- Weak: “Week 6. Work on the draft.” Strong: “Week 6. First draft due. Hand in for feedback.”
Put the concrete thing in the title, keep the note to one sentence, and use one date format from top to bottom.
Real Dates and Sample Data
The space race template uses dates from NASA’s history pages, and the American independence template uses dates from the State Department’s Office of the Historian. Every other template holds sample events and says so in its subtitle, and the biography and family history templates use brackets such as [Name] and [Year] for you to fill in from your own sources. For a school project, add the source to the note of each event, so your teacher can see where every date came from.
Share a Template With a Class or Team
The whole timeline lives in the link. When you press Copy link in the timeline maker, you get a web address that reopens your exact version, with all its rows, on any device.
- Teachers can fill in the first row as an example and post the link on the class page. Each student opens it, completes it and downloads their own copy.
- Teams can share a project or roadmap skeleton so everyone starts from the same phases.
Very long timelines make very long links, and the tool stops writing the link above 7,000 characters. If yours gets that long, split it in two or share the PNG instead. Nothing is saved on a server: the link carries the timeline itself.
For the other kinds of charts you can build the same way, see our guide to the types of graphs.
Questions people ask
Where can I find free timeline templates?
This page has 21 of them, sorted by use: school, history, projects, business, personal, events, travel, research, family history and biography. Each one opens in our timeline tool with the events filled in, or downloads as an image straight from the gallery. Microsoft also runs a free gallery of Excel timeline templates, and Pages users can find a set shared on Apple's education community.
What is the best free timeline maker?
It depends on the job. For an ordered picture of a project, a school report or a life story, a simple free tool with image export is enough, and ours needs no sign-up. For task bars, durations and dependencies you need a project planner or a Gantt chart, which is a different kind of tool.
How do I create a project timeline?
List the phases in order, give each one a date or a week range, and add one short note about what gets delivered. Five to eight entries is enough for most readers. The project timeline and product roadmap templates above already follow that pattern, so you can start from one and replace the sample phases.
How do I create a life timeline?
Write down five to ten events that shaped you, in the order they happened, each with a year and a few words. Include moments you are proud of as well as turning points. Then start from the personal life timeline template on this page, which uses a vertical layout with events on both sides.
Does Word have a timeline template?
Word can build one from SmartArt: in the Process group of the SmartArt gallery, pick Basic Timeline or Circle Accent Timeline, according to Microsoft's help page, which also links to Microsoft's own template gallery. If you want a date, a title and a note for every event, download one of our templates and add it to the document as a picture.
Is there a Google template for a timeline?
Not as a single file we could find in Google's help pages. What Google documents is a diagram picker in Slides, with styles and templates you can edit, and a timeline view in Sheets for project tasks. For Google Docs, the quickest route is to download a template from this page as a PNG and place it in the document.
Is there a free timeline template for Google Slides?
Any template on this page works in Slides: download the PNG and add it through the Insert menu as an image. The horizontal templates fit a widescreen slide best. Slides also has its own Insert, then Diagram, option, which gives you editable diagram templates, although Google's help page does not name a timeline style among them.
Where can I find timeline templates in Google Sheets?
Sheets offers a timeline view that turns rows of dated project tasks into an interactive timeline; Google's help page explains how to set it up. It may depend on your Workspace plan, which we could not confirm. To turn a list in Sheets into an image instead, copy the date, event and note columns and paste them into our timeline maker.
Can I get a timeline template as a PDF?
Our tools export PNG and SVG, not PDF. To get a PDF, download the template as a PNG at 3x for print quality, place it on a page in Word, Google Docs or Pages, and use that program's own PDF export or your computer's print to PDF option. The result prints sharply on letter or A4 paper.
