"Our History" - Creating a timeline - Part 2

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About this lesson

We will finish creating an engaging timeline using shapes, shape effects, icons and formatted text. 

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

4.15-creating-a-timeline-part2- Exercise.docx
838 KB 4.15-creating-a-timeline-part2- Exercise Solution.docx
1.1 MB 4.14-creating-a-timeline-part2- Course File Complete.pptx
24.1 MB

Quick reference

Slide 6, Our History - Creating a timeline - Part 2

In Part 2 of this lesson we will pick up where we left off in Part 1 and use shapes, text, effects, icons, text alignment tools and the eyedropper utility to complete the timeline. 

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

Use the Eyedropper to Fill Shapes

The eyedropper is a useful utility that helps you acheive a consistent color scheme. The eyedropper can be used to pick up colors that already exist on the slide and fill other shapes with the same color. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, select Shapes. 
  2. Select the Oval shape. 
  3. Hold down SHIFT to maintain the aspect ratio and draw a very small circle on the slide. 
  4. Move the circle so its on top of the first chevron in the middle. 
  5. From the Shape Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Fill. 
  6. Select Eyedropper. 
  7. Hover the eyedropper over the background and click to fill the circle. 
  8. From the Shape Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Outline. 
  9. Select White, Background 1 from the palette. 
  10. Click Shape Effects. 
  11. Select Shadow and Inside Top Left. 
  12. Press CTRL+D to duplicate the circle 3 more times. 
  13. Position each circle in the middle of each chevron. 
  14. Select all of the circles. 
  15. From the Shape Format tab, in the Arrange group, click Align. 
  16. Select Align Middle. 

Format Shapes and Apply Effects

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, select Shapes. 
  2. Select the Oval shape. 
  3. Draw a medium sized circle on the slide. 
  4. From the Shape Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Fill. 
  5. Select Eyedropper. 
  6. Hover the eyedropper over the first chevron and click to select the fill color. 
  7. From the Shape Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Outline. 
  8. Select No Outline. 
  9. Click Shape Effects. 
  10. Select Shadow. 
  11. Choose Offset Bottom Right from the Outer group. 

Add and Format a Line

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Illustrations group, select Shapes. 
  2. Select Line. 
  3. Connect the line to the circle. 
  4. From the Shape Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, click Shape Outline. 
  5. Select Eyedropper. 
  6. Hover the eyedropper over the first chevron and click to select the fill color. 
  7. Click Shape Outline. 
  8. Click Dashes. 
  9. Select Square dot. 

Insert Icons

Icons can be downloaded from an external source  or we can use icons in the PowerPoint icon library. We have downloaded 5 icons from The Noun Project to our PC. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Images group, select Pictures. 
  2. Select From this device. 
  3. Browse to the folder where the icons are saved. 
  4. Select all 4 icons and click Insert. 
  5. From the Picture Format tab, in the Size group, change the height and width to 1". 
  6. Position each icon inside a circle. 

Insert a Text Box for the Year

The first text box needs to contain the year. Our timeline runs from 2017 to 2021. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Text group, select Text box. 
  2. Draw a text box and add the date '2017'. 
  3. Select the placeholder. 
  4. From the Home tab, in the Font group, change the font style to Lato Black and the font size to 40pts. 
  5. Click the font color dropdown arrow and select Eyedropper. 
  6. Hover the eyedropper over the first chevron and click to change the font color. 
  7. Move the text box into position above the chevron. 
  8. Press CTRL+D 4 times to duplicate the text box. 
  9. Repeat steps 2-7. 

Insert 'Dummy' Text

We can add 'dummy' text into text boxes. This is useful if we aren't sure what text needs to go in the text box but want something in there so we can see how it looks and how it affects the overall look and feel. 

  1. From the Insert tab, in the Text group, select Text box. 
  2. Add some 'dummy' text. 
  3. In the text box, type =lorem(2,1)
  4. From the Home tab, in the Font group, change the font style to Lato and the font size to 14pts. 
  5. Change the font color to White, Background 1. 
  6. Press CTRL+D 4 times to duplicate the text box. 
  7. Move the text boxes into position above or below the corresponding year. 

Hints & tips

  • The =lorem script outputs dummy lorem ipsum test text. The numbers in the brackets represent the number of paragraphs and the number of lines withing each paragraph. We can also use =rand in the same way to output random text. 
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  • 00:04 Welcome back to part two where this lesson continues.
  • 00:07 And just to add a little bit of detail into this design,
  • 00:11 I'm going to go to my shapes, pick up my circle tool, and
  • 00:15 I'm going to hold down Shift and draw a reasonably small circle.
  • 00:20 I'm going to move this on top of my first chevron.
  • 00:24 I'm going to place it somewhere in the middle just here.
  • 00:28 So I kind of want this circle to look like it's been punched through that
  • 00:31 bevel shape.
  • 00:32 So I want to ensure that the background of this circle is exactly the same as
  • 00:36 the background color behind.
  • 00:38 And if you want to use other colors that you have in your presentation when filling
  • 00:43 in shapes, you can use something called the eyedropper tool.
  • 00:47 And this is something I love.
  • 00:48 I use it all the time.
  • 00:49 It really helps me keep a level of consistency when it comes to the colors
  • 00:53 that I'm using my presentation.
  • 00:55 So if I click on this circle, go up to Shape Fill, and
  • 00:59 bout halfway down, I have this option for Eyedropper.
  • 01:04 You'll see as soon as I click this, my cursor changes to other all pipette
  • 01:09 I think we call them and I can hover over any part of my PowerPoint presentation.
  • 01:15 And it's going to allow me to fill that shape with whatever color I click on.
  • 01:21 So I'm going to hover over the background and click to fill.
  • 01:25 I'm also going to give the shape a white outline.
  • 01:29 And I'm going to add a shape effect of Shadow on the inside top left.
  • 01:35 And now you can see that that kind of makes it look like it's been
  • 01:38 punched through that beveled shape.
  • 01:41 I'm now simply going to duplicate this four more times.
  • 01:48 And move these into position on each bevel.
  • 01:52 And if you want to get this alignment exact,
  • 01:54 remember you can use your alignment tools which we will do in a moment.
  • 01:58 Let's just roughly place these.
  • 02:00 And now I'm going to select all of them, and I'm going to use my alignment tools.
  • 02:06 And I'm going to say Align Middle to make sure that those are all in line.
  • 02:11 So there we go.
  • 02:11 I'm starting to have the effect that I want.
  • 02:14 So let's very quickly refer back to our completed version so
  • 02:17 we can see what else we need to do.
  • 02:19 So up to View, and I'm going to go to Switch Windows and go to my Pitch Deck.
  • 02:24 So now all we have left to do is add in some shapes.
  • 02:27 We know how to do that fairly straightforward.
  • 02:30 And also some icons in the middle.
  • 02:33 I have straight line connectors,
  • 02:35 which I've just set up as dashed lines connecting the icons to the timeline.
  • 02:41 So let me show you how to do one, and then I'll leave the rest for
  • 02:44 you to do yourself.
  • 02:45 So this is a basic shape.
  • 02:47 Up to Shapes, let's grab our circle, hold down Shift and
  • 02:51 draw a circle of a reasonable size.
  • 02:55 In fact, I think I want that slightly smaller.
  • 02:58 And there we go.
  • 02:59 So now I want to fill this shape and
  • 03:01 I want to fill it with the same color as its corresponding shape in the timeline.
  • 03:08 So once again, we're going to use that technique of the Eyedropper.
  • 03:12 So let's go up to Shape Fill down to Eyedropper, hover over that blue color and
  • 03:17 click to select, and it's going to fill.
  • 03:19 I'm going to remove the shape outline because I want to shape effect on this
  • 03:24 one as well.
  • 03:26 I want a little shadow of to the bottom right.
  • 03:29 And then all I need to do is connect the circle to the timeline using a line.
  • 03:35 So all I need to do here is go up to Insert back into Shapes.
  • 03:40 I'm going to select line, and then we're just going to drag
  • 03:47 To connect those two shapes.
  • 03:50 Now, I also want this line to be that same blue color.
  • 03:53 So I can go to Shape Outline and again use my Eyedropper tool and
  • 03:57 select the exact same blue.
  • 04:00 I'm also going to change this from a solid line to a dashed line.
  • 04:07 And just like that we've connected both of those shapes.
  • 04:10 Now for the icons again, I just downloaded some icons from the noun project for use.
  • 04:16 Alternatively, you could use the icons that you have in PowerPoint.
  • 04:21 So let's jump up to insert, go to Pictures and
  • 04:25 from this device and I'm going to use this home icon.
  • 04:29 Now instead of dragging this, I'm actually going to define the height and
  • 04:33 width myself.
  • 04:34 So let's put 1.1 in here.
  • 04:35 Let's see what that looks like.
  • 04:40 And that might be a little bit too large.
  • 04:43 Let's take it down.
  • 04:44 I think one inch is just about right.
  • 04:46 And we're just going to place that in the middle of our shape.
  • 04:49 The only other thing we really need to do here for
  • 04:52 this one is add in the date to 2017.
  • 04:54 So for this, we're just going to use a Text Box.
  • 04:58 Just going to draw it and type in 2017, and
  • 05:01 then apply some formatting to that text.
  • 05:04 So select the placeholder.
  • 05:05 I'm going to change this to Lato Black.
  • 05:10 And we're going to pump this size up to 40.
  • 05:15 And we're also going to make this text the same color.
  • 05:19 So let's highlight it.
  • 05:20 Go to our font formatting and use our Eyedropper tool to select that blue color.
  • 05:26 And I'm going to drag that in because that text box is a bit large and
  • 05:30 then move this down into place just above that first shape.
  • 05:34 And then the final thing I have is just some text above.
  • 05:38 Now I'm just going to put in some dummy text you can put in whatever
  • 05:40 text you like.
  • 05:41 But let me show you a quick technique for adding in dummy text.
  • 05:45 Because sometimes when you're doing something like this, if you're trying to
  • 05:50 work out where to place items and how much space they're going to take up,
  • 05:54 sometimes it's nice to have just some dummy text on the page.
  • 05:57 So let me show you a quick way of entering text or dummy text.
  • 06:01 I'm going to go to Insert, insert another little text box.
  • 06:07 And I'm going to type in = lorem open brackets.
  • 06:12 You then need to specify how many paragraphs you want and
  • 06:15 how many lines within that paragraph.
  • 06:18 So I'm going to say two paragraphs with two lines, close the bracket and
  • 06:21 hit Enter.
  • 06:22 And you can see that that at the moment is quite large.
  • 06:26 I'm going to change the font to let's say Lato.
  • 06:28 But I'm going to take that size way down.
  • 06:32 I'm also going to change the font color to white, and
  • 06:35 I think I have a bit too much text in here.
  • 06:37 Let's just delete some of that out.
  • 06:39 We have a little text box with some dummy text.
  • 06:43 I can just move that above where we have 2017.
  • 06:46 So that is pretty much what I did for
  • 06:48 each of these different shapes in this piece of SmartArt.
  • 06:52 So if we now jump back to our completed version, you can see that I've
  • 06:57 pretty much just follow that same process for the rest of these.
  • 07:01 I've just put these dates and text boxes in a slightly different place.
  • 07:06 And the end result is a really nice effective looking timeline.
  • 07:10 Have a little play around with this create your own timelines.
  • 07:13 As I said, you don't necessarily have to use SmartArt you could just use shapes.
  • 07:17 But start thinking about the different types of designs you can come up with, and
  • 07:21 how it applies to your daily work.
  • 07:23 That's it for now.
  • 07:24 I will see you in the next lesson.

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