Free timeline maker — no signup, 4K image for PowerPoint
A timeline maker that opens with nine items across four tracks, already drawn. Drag a bar or its edge to change the dates, add your own items, and export the whole thing as a 4K image for your slide. It’s free, there’s no account, and the timeline is a file you keep.
| Spec | |
|---|---|
What it makes | One timeline document — items with a start, an end, a track and an owner |
Views | Timeline, board and table over the same items, as many saved views as you want |
Image export | PNG or SVG at 3840 × 2160 for 16:9, 3072 × 2304 for 4:3, or a custom size, always drawn in the light theme |
Other exports | CSV, Markdown, and the full JSON document |
Milestones | Any item can be a milestone, drawn as a diamond on its date |
Where it saves | Your browser, plus a file you download or keep open on disk. |
What you get when you open it
Nine items across four tracks (design, build, content and launch), with two milestones and real dates. There’s nothing to set up: change a date and you’re already using it.
Drag a bar to move it, or drag its edge to change how long it runs. Each item has a name, track, status, owner and dates, and you can add fields of your own. They travel with the file.
Getting it onto a slide
Choose a frame and the timeline renders into it. The 16:9 option is a 4K image, 3840 × 2160, that covers a slide edge to edge and stays sharp on a projector. The drawing is scaled to fit, so a bar running past the right-hand edge keeps its label. SVG comes out at the same proportions if you want to enlarge it.
You get a picture for the slide. A .pptx of shapes you could nudge is how a deck quietly stops matching the plan, and a screenshot has the same problem at a worse resolution. When dates move, export again and replace the image. The guide to roadmap slides in PowerPoint makes the full case for that habit.
Where a timeline stops being the right shape
If the lanes are teams and the handoffs between them are the point, use the Swimlane timeline maker; it draws the dependencies. If the window is one month at week resolution, the Monthly roadmap template is already set up that way. If you need a roadmap more than a schedule, the Product roadmap creator starts from themes and stages.
Common mistakes
Building the timeline in slideware first. Rectangles hold no dates, so the second version costs as much as the first, and so does every version after that.
Putting sixty items on one timeline. Past about twenty bars, people stop reading. Group items into tracks and give each audience the filter it needs.
Using it as the project plan. Dependencies only appear if you draw them, and a launch with four teams needs a document that fails loudly when something slips.
Leaving milestones as short bars. Mark them as milestones so they draw as diamonds. A two-day bar reads as work; a diamond reads as a date.
Questions
Does it export a .pptx file?
No. It’s a 4K image for a 16:9 slide. Editable shapes would be one more thing to maintain by hand.
Is it free? Is there an account?
It’s free, and there’s no account. It runs in your browser, and the timeline saves to a file you keep.
Can I start from something other than this?
Yes. Every template on this site opens the same editor with a different document loaded, so pick the closest structure and change it.
Related
- Swimlane timeline makerNine items across four team lanes with the handoffs drawn, plus a view of the milestones alone.
- Monthly roadmap templateFour workstreams across one month at week resolution, and the point where this stops being a roadmap.
- Roadmap slides in PowerPointDraw it once, export at slide size, re-export. Why hand-drawn boxes always go out of date.
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