Office Timeline Review 2026

Last updated: February 2026

What Is Office Timeline?

Office Timeline is a specialized tool for creating professional-looking timelines, Gantt charts, and project roadmaps directly inside PowerPoint or through an online browser-based editor. It's not a project management tool. It's a project communication tool. The distinction matters.

If you've ever spent hours manually dragging shapes around in PowerPoint to build a project timeline for a stakeholder presentation, Office Timeline exists to eliminate that pain. You feed it dates and milestones (manually or by importing from Excel, Microsoft Project, Jira, or Smartsheet), and it generates polished visual timelines in minutes that you can drop into any presentation, report, or proposal.

The product comes in two forms: a PowerPoint add-in (Windows only) that lives directly in your ribbon, and an online version that works in any browser (including Mac). Both produce the same style of output, but the add-in gives you tighter PowerPoint integration while the online version offers broader platform access.

Key Features

Timeline and Gantt Chart Creation

The core function. You add tasks, milestones, and date ranges, and Office Timeline automatically generates a clean, formatted visual. The tool handles spacing, alignment, and date scaling so you don't have to fiddle with individual elements. You can create simple milestone timelines, detailed Gantt charts with task bars, or hybrid views that combine both. The automatic formatting is genuinely good. Output looks professional without requiring any design skill.

Swimlane Diagrams

For projects involving multiple teams, phases, or workstreams, swimlanes let you group related tasks into horizontal bands. This is essential for executive presentations where you need to show how different departments' work aligns, or for program-level views showing multiple projects running in parallel. The Plus and Expert plans support sub-swimlanes for additional detail levels.

Data Import

Rather than manually entering every task and date, you can import data from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, Microsoft Project files (.mpp), Jira projects, and Smartsheet sheets. This is a major time-saver if your project data already lives in these tools. You map your columns to Office Timeline's fields, and it builds the visual automatically. The Expert tier added Jira import, which is particularly useful for software development teams.

Templates Library

Office Timeline includes a library of pre-designed templates for different use cases: project plans, product roadmaps, strategic plans, construction schedules, marketing campaigns, and more. Templates give you a professionally designed starting point that you can customize with your own data and branding. This is especially helpful if you're not sure how to structure your visual.

Dependencies and Critical Path

Available on the Expert plan, you can define task dependencies (finish-to-start, start-to-start, etc.) and the tool will calculate and display the critical path through your project. This adds a project management layer to your visuals, showing stakeholders not just what's planned but which tasks directly impact the final deadline.

Export and Sharing

Timelines can be exported as PowerPoint slides (native .pptx), PNG images, JPEG, SVG vector graphics, or PDF documents. The PowerPoint output is fully editable, meaning recipients can modify it without having Office Timeline installed. The online version also supports direct sharing via link.

Office Timeline Pricing in 2026

Office Timeline offers three plans, all billed annually (no monthly option):

• Lite: approximately $108/year (less than $9/month). Basic timeline and Gantt chart creation with up to 2 swimlanes, limited templates, and standard export options. Good for occasional use and simple project visuals.
• Plus: approximately $204/year (less than $17/month). Adds more swimlanes, sub-swimlanes, expanded template library, and additional data import options. The sweet spot for most project managers who create timelines regularly.
• Expert: approximately $252/year (less than $21/month). Everything in Plus, plus task dependencies, critical path analysis, Jira import, and advanced customization options. Best for PMO leads and program managers who need detailed project visuals.

The Online version costs $149/year per user. There's a free version of the online tool with basic functionality for creating simple timelines. All paid plans include a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Note: Office Timeline previously offered a "Pro" plan that is no longer available for new purchases, though existing subscribers can continue renewing.

Pros

• Produces genuinely beautiful output: the timelines and Gantt charts look professional and polished without any design effort, which is the entire point
• Smooth PowerPoint integration: the add-in lives in the ribbon and produces native PowerPoint slides, so there's no export friction or compatibility issues
• Massive time savings: what takes hours of manual formatting in PowerPoint takes minutes with Office Timeline. Project managers consistently cite this as the biggest benefit
• Import from real project tools: pulling data from Excel, MS Project, Jira, and Smartsheet means you're visualizing actual project data, not retyping everything
• Low learning curve: the drag-and-drop interface is intuitive enough that most users create their first timeline within 15 minutes of installation
• Editable output: recipients can modify the PowerPoint slides without needing Office Timeline installed

Cons

• Windows-only desktop add-in: the PowerPoint add-in only works on Windows. Mac users are limited to the online version, which is functional but lacks the tight PowerPoint integration
• Annual billing only: there's no monthly option, so you're committing to a full year. The money-back guarantee helps, but it's still a higher upfront commitment than month-to-month billing
• Not a project management tool: it visualizes project data but doesn't manage it. You can't assign tasks, track progress in real-time, or collaborate with team members on project execution
• No real-time collaboration: multiple people can't edit the same timeline simultaneously. This limits its usefulness for teams that need to co-create project visuals
• Lite plan is quite limited: the restrictions on swimlanes and templates in the Lite plan mean most serious users will need the Plus plan at minimum
• Color customization is tedious: updating colors for many elements can be time-consuming unless you pre-configure brand colors as PowerPoint theme colors

Who Should Use Office Timeline?

Project managers who regularly present project status, roadmaps, or timelines to executives, clients, or stakeholders. Program managers who need to visualize multiple projects on a single view. Consultants who include project plans in proposals and reports. Marketing teams building campaign timelines. Anyone who spends too much time making PowerPoint slides look good for project updates.

Who Should NOT Use Office Timeline?

Teams looking for actual project management software with task assignment, resource management, and real-time progress tracking. For that, use Asana, Monday.com, Microsoft Project, or Jira. Also not ideal for Mac-heavy organizations that need desktop-level functionality (the online version works but isn't as capable). Teams that need real-time collaborative editing should also look elsewhere.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Verdict

Office Timeline is a niche tool that solves a real, specific problem extremely well. If you regularly create project timelines and Gantt charts for presentations, it will save you hours of manual formatting every month. The output is genuinely polished, the data import from project tools eliminates re-entry, and the learning curve is minimal. The Windows-only limitation for the desktop add-in, annual-only billing, and lack of real-time collaboration are notable drawbacks. But this tool isn't trying to do everything. It's trying to make your project visuals look great with minimal effort, and it delivers on that promise. Start with the free online version to see if the approach fits your workflow, then upgrade to Plus or Expert if you need swimlanes, dependencies, or advanced imports.