"Our History" - Creating a Timeline - Part 1

Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

We will learn about a number of techniques to create an engaging timeline slide using SmartArt, fill colors and the eyedropper utility. 

Quick reference

Slide 6: Our History - Creating a Timeline - Part 1

Timelines are a popular way of showing progress, goals, company milstones and product roadmaps. In Part 1 of this lesson we are going to start building a basic timeline to show the key milstones for LandCo since it's inception. We will use a combination of SmartArt, Formatting, Shape Effects and Icons. 

When to use

Use a timeline whenever you want to show linear progress. That might be company milestones, the progress of a project or a product roadmap. 

Instructions

Create a World Map Background

To indicate that our company is global, we are going to change the slide background and use an image of a world map. We can download a world map image from many different sources but we need to be aware of the copyright before using in our presentation. A map icon can be downloaded for free from The Noun Project which works as well as an HD image. 

  1. Click on the last slide in the presentation. 
  2. From the Home tab, in the Slides group, select New Slide. 
  3. Select Blank. 

We can download a map icon from The Noun Project website for free. Go to The Noun Project and search for 'World map'. Download the icon and save it to a folder. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, select Picture. 
  2. Select From device. 
  3. Browse to the folder where the icon is saved. 
  4. Select the map icon and click Insert. 
  5. Use the resize handles to make the image bigger or smaller. 
  6. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, select Shapes. 
  7. Select the Rectangle shape. 
  8. Draw a rectangle over the map image. 
  9. From the Shape Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Outline. 
  10. Select No Outline. 
  11. Right-click on the shape and select Format Shape. 
  12. From Shape Options, in the Fill group, select a dark grey color from the palette. 
  13. Adjust the transparency to 27%. 

Insert a SmartArt Graphic

The main body of the timeline will be made using a SmartArt Graphic. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, select SmartArt. 
  2. From the Process category, select Basic Chevron Process. 
  3. Click on the last chevron. 
  4. From the SmartArt Design tab, in the Create Graphic group, select Add Shape. 
  5. Select Add Shape After. 
  6. Select Add Shape After again. 

Format a SmartArt Graphic

  1. Use the resize handles to make the SmartArt Graphic wider. 
  2. Delete the text inside each chevron. 
  3. Hold down SHIFT and select all the chevrons. 
  4. Adjust the height of the chevrons to make them narrower. 
  5. Select the SmartArt Graphic. 
  6. From the SmartArt Graphic tab, in the SmartArt Styles group, click Change Color. 
  7. Choose Colorful - Accent Colors from the gallery. 
  8. Select the SmartArt Graphic. 
  9. From the Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Outline. 
  10. Select No Outline. 
  11. From the Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Effects. 
  12. Select Bevel and choose Cross. 

Hints & tips

  • Remember to check the copyright for any image downloaded from the web. 
Login to download
  • 00:04 Timelines are something that you see all the time in PowerPoint presentations.
  • 00:09 They're a great way of showing things like progress and key milestones.
  • 00:15 For example, you might have some kind of timeline which shows your company's
  • 00:19 inception and how your company has changed through the years.
  • 00:23 Or you might have a timeline which shows the main goals that your company have
  • 00:27 hit since inception.
  • 00:28 You could even use something like a timeline to show a product roadmap or
  • 00:33 the progress of a project.
  • 00:35 And you can see here in the PowerPoint presentation,
  • 00:38 I've constructed a very basic timeline, which is really simple.
  • 00:41 It's just using a combination of many things that we've already seen to build
  • 00:46 a really effective looking slide.
  • 00:48 Some key things to note here, you can see that we have a world map in
  • 00:52 the background, which is slightly faded out.
  • 00:55 We're using some SmartArt in the middle, which is the actual timeline itself and
  • 00:59 SmartArt isn't something that we've looked at yet.
  • 01:02 So this is a new skill you're going to be learning.
  • 01:05 I've applied some bevel effects.
  • 01:07 I've used some shapes and icons and some text and that is pretty much it.
  • 01:11 And this is what I mean.
  • 01:12 You don't need to be an amazing graphic designer or really have an eye for
  • 01:17 design to build something in PowerPoint that looks really effective using
  • 01:21 some basic skills.
  • 01:22 So let's take a look at how I created this.
  • 01:25 So we're going to add our timeline slide to the end.
  • 01:27 So make sure that you're clicked on the last slide up to new slide and
  • 01:31 we're just going to insert a blank.
  • 01:33 Because what I want to add on here first of all is the map of the world.
  • 01:37 Now, there are various different places where you can download PNG files of maps.
  • 01:41 And as I said, be careful where you're downloading from.
  • 01:44 Make sure you have the relevant copyright.
  • 01:46 However, if you do have a subscription to the Noun Project,
  • 01:50 which is that site where you can go to get icons,
  • 01:53 they actually have a really nice map that you can use on there.
  • 01:57 And that's exactly what I've done.
  • 01:58 I've downloaded a world map from the Noun Project.
  • 02:03 So now all I need to do is jump up to Insert,
  • 02:06 down to Pictures and insert from this device.
  • 02:09 Navigate to the folder where you have your icon saved.
  • 02:12 And there is my worldmap.png and click on Insert.
  • 02:17 And there we go.
  • 02:17 So now what I'm going to do, is I'm going to resize this.
  • 02:21 Now you can see I've got quite a lot of white space around this map.
  • 02:24 Now, when I have things like this in general, I like to crop.
  • 02:28 So I'm going to use my crop tool.
  • 02:30 I'm just going to remove some of this white space, so
  • 02:33 it's a little bit easier for me to resize.
  • 02:36 And now I'm going to drag this handle all the way out and
  • 02:39 make this fairly large, so that it fills up most of the slide.
  • 02:44 Just going to position that dead in the center using my Smart Guides and let go.
  • 02:49 Now I want to put my transparency over the top.
  • 02:52 So this is our favorite trick, we're going to insert a shape.
  • 02:56 We're going to use our rectangle tool, and
  • 02:59 we're just going to draw a big old rectangle all the way over the top.
  • 03:03 As you can probably tell, I am quite the fan of using transparencies.
  • 03:08 I'm going to make sure I have no outline on that shape and
  • 03:11 then we're going to right click and jump straight in to format that shape.
  • 03:15 Let's expand fill, and I'm going to use a very dark gray color, but
  • 03:20 I'm going to adjust that transparency to show some of that map through.
  • 03:25 And I think I'm going to set this to, let's do 27%.
  • 03:31 I think that looks good.
  • 03:33 So now we have our background in place, it's time to start building up a timeline.
  • 03:38 Now to construct the timeline, you can do this in numerous different ways.
  • 03:41 You could just use basic shapes if you wanted to, but
  • 03:44 I want to show you how you can use SmartArt.
  • 03:47 Now, you'll find SmartArt on the Insert tab, and it's in the Illustrations group.
  • 03:52 And SmartArt graphics are divided down into all different categories.
  • 03:56 So it really depends what it is that you want to insert.
  • 04:00 And these are really good.
  • 04:01 You can come in here ,if you want to build something like a hierarchy diagram, or
  • 04:06 maybe a relational chart or something like a matrix or a pyramid chart.
  • 04:10 They make it super simple and quick for
  • 04:12 you to build out these different styles of chart.
  • 04:15 You could even come in here if you wanted to do some kind of process flow.
  • 04:19 Now I'm using these in a slightly different way,
  • 04:21 we're using them to build a timeline.
  • 04:23 And for this, I'm going to use this piece of SmartArt just here,
  • 04:28 the basic chevron process chart, and click on OK.
  • 04:31 Now a couple of things to note here when you're using SmartArt, you'll notice that
  • 04:37 you have to contextual ribbon SmartArt design and also a format ribbon as well.
  • 04:42 So this is where you can come to basically customize every single element of
  • 04:46 your SmartArt graphic.
  • 04:48 Now, you'll see by default, I have three chevrons added in here.
  • 04:52 And I actually want to have five chevron's because what I'm doing here is I'm
  • 04:57 showing a timeline of the last five years of our company from 2017 to 2021.
  • 05:02 So I'm going to add two more shapes in.
  • 05:05 And this is a fairly straightforward process.
  • 05:07 If I click on that last chevron, go up to my SmartArt design tab, and in this
  • 05:13 first group, you see I have an option here to add shape after or add shape before.
  • 05:19 So I'm going to say add shape after.
  • 05:22 And then I'm going to add another one, so that I have five chevrons.
  • 05:26 Now I can basically resize this entire thing and move it into the correct place.
  • 05:31 So let's make this a lot wider than it currently is.
  • 05:36 I'm going to place that in the middle using my guides, and
  • 05:39 I think that looks pretty good.
  • 05:40 Now for my particular timeline, I don't want any text in the middle.
  • 05:44 Now when it comes to editing your SmartArt graphic,
  • 05:47 you'll notice that there is a little arrow pointing to the left.
  • 05:52 If I click that, it's going to produce a little pop out menu.
  • 05:55 So if I want to add text into each of these chevrons,
  • 05:58 I can actually do it from this little panel just here.
  • 06:02 I can type in whatever I need to type in.
  • 06:04 Now I can also click inside these objects and add whatever text I need to add.
  • 06:09 And you'll notice that the text resizes itself within the available space.
  • 06:14 Now, I don't actually want any text within my chevrons for my design.
  • 06:18 So I'm going to go in and just delete out this text.
  • 06:23 I'm just double clicking to select and then pressing Delete.
  • 06:26 I also want these chevrons to be a little bit narrower.
  • 06:30 So I'm going to select them all by holding down my shift key and
  • 06:34 then I'm going to just drag to make them a bit narrower.
  • 06:38 And there we go.
  • 06:38 I think that looks a lot better.
  • 06:40 Now I want to change the color of these, so that they match my theme.
  • 06:44 And once again, this is a very straightforward process.
  • 06:46 Just make sure you have the entire SmartArt graphics selected by clicking on
  • 06:51 this border and then in Change Colors I have various different colors
  • 06:56 that I can change this to.
  • 06:57 So I'm going to go for this first one here Colorful.
  • 07:00 Another thing I want to get rid of here is the outline of the shape.
  • 07:03 So currently, you can see that they have a white outline.
  • 07:07 I'm going to select them all, jump up to Format and
  • 07:11 I'm going to say that I want no outline.
  • 07:14 But what I do want is a bevel style effect and
  • 07:17 we haven't looked at shape effects too much as yet.
  • 07:20 So this will give you a good chance to explore some of the options you have in
  • 07:24 there because some of these can look really effective.
  • 07:27 So if I click the Shape Effects drop down, I have a whole host of different
  • 07:32 things that I can apply from Shadows, Reflection, Glow, so on and so forth.
  • 07:37 Now for this particular design, I'm going to say I want a bevel design.
  • 07:41 And I think I'm going to go for this one,
  • 07:44 the cross to give that a nice beveled look.
  • 07:47 That's the end of part one, this lesson continues in part two.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

Gift this course