Quick Tip: Making Timelines in PowerPoint

Assigning my students a digital timeline was always a nightmare, because it meant they would spend HOURS adjusting boxes and lines in PowerPoint. It’s a task that definitely lives at the “Substitution” phase of the SAMR model, so time spent doing it on a computer should either be faster than paper pencil or offer some other value to make it worthwhile. Nowadays, there’s a fast way to do it automagically in a format that can be easily shared or integrated into a larger presentation.

First, start with a fresh text box on your PPT slide and make a list of dates followed by events:

Highlight and right click on the dates and select “CONVERT TO SMARTART”

Next, select “BASIC TIMELINE”:

Voila! Timeline:

For additional details on SmartArt graphics, check out the documentation from Microsoft: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/learn-more-about-smartart-graphics-6ea4fdb0-aa40-4fa9-9348-662d8af6ca2c