11 Free Project Timeline Templates (Excel, Google Sheets, Word & More)

A project timeline template is a premade document that serves as a starting point for making your own project timeline.

We’ve prepared 11 ready-made project timeline templates for project managers that can be easily customized and shared with team members and stakeholders.

The templates are available in various formats (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Sheets, Google Docs, and Google Slides).

You can also use these free project management timeline templates for industry-specific project management — or any other purpose you have in mind.

Let’s dig in!

Project timeline templates comparison table

Want a quick rundown of the project timeline templates? Here’s a table containing the main information:

#1 Basic project timeline template for Google Slides and PowerPoint

Download: Google Slides | PowerPoint

The basic project timeline template is best for presenting task dependencies — it allows you to know exactly what task you need to complete before moving on to the next one. 

This project timeline template is designed for PowerPoint or Google Slides, making it excellent for presentation in meetings.

The first slide has instructions on how to use the template while the second slide is the actual timeline, which displays tasks and milestones horizontally. 

#2 Simple project timeline template for Google Sheets and Docs

Download: Google Sheets | Docs | PDF 

The simple project timeline template helps you keep track of all your tasks, assignees, and milestones without much hassle. 

It also allows you to easily monitor your progress via the “status” column, where you can mark each task with the stage it’s in.

The duration of each task will automatically be calculated based on start and end dates. In the Google Sheets version, you’ll also find a Gantt chart that visually shows the duration and progress of your tasks over time.

#3 Excel timeline template for Agile teams

Download: Google Sheets | Excel

This Agile Excel project management timeline template is designed for organizing all your tasks and milestones throughout a long and complex project.

Task and milestone marks within this template are meant to be dragged across the timeline as needed. 

This template will show you at a glance:

• The most important milestones
• The duration of individual tasks within the project
• Whether certain tasks are overlapping

There’s also a dedicated space for task specifics just below the timeline. 

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#4 Advanced Google Sheets timeline template 

Download: Google Sheets | Excel 

Our advanced Google Sheets project timeline template gives you a bird’s-eye perspective of your project, allowing you to better understand the progress and adjust your project plan accordingly.

Here, the focus is on the project phases — tasks are grouped by color depending on the project phase they are a part of. There are 5 basic phases within this template, but you can always add more or change the existing ones. 

It features a 12-month timeline and allows you to visually track progress across weeks and quarters.

#5 Yearly and quarterly project timeline template for Word and Google Docs

Download: Google Docs | Word

This 2-in-1 template features 2 basic project timeline templates — a yearly and a quarterly project timeline, so you can manage both short-term and long-term projects in the same place.

Within this template, you can: 

• Add task names.
• Adjust the task length.
• Mark important milestones by moving stars across the timeline. 

This template is great if you want to print out your timelines. But, in that case, our advice is to keep the timeline in black and white. 

#6 Multiple project timeline template for Google Sheets and Excel

Download: Google Sheets | Excel 

The multiple project timeline template gives you a quick overview of all your projects within a year, sorted by color. 

The greatest advantage is that you’ll gain a transparent insight into your annual plans and be able to manage possible overlaps of your planned projects. 

This type of project timeline is especially suitable for those who often find themselves managing multiple projects.

Another benefit is that you have endless coloring options — you can choose to assign colors to projects according to different criteria, such as: 

• Project type
• Stage
• Priority
• Department or person responsible

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#7 Project milestone template for Google Sheets and Excel 

Download: Google Sheets | Excel

This template for Google Sheets and Excel helps you visually track project milestones throughout the entire year.

The vertical dashed lines represent the milestones, which aren’t fixed — you can move them around the timeline as required. 

Once you’ve arranged the milestones, you can add tasks to the timeline using horizontal lines in different colors. 

#8 Monthly Gantt Chart for Google Slides and PowerPoint 

Download: Google Slides | PowerPoint

Our monthly Gantt chart template is great for tracking all tasks within a single month. This template is useful for more complex monthly projects as you’ll be able to easily keep track of dependencies. 

It’s also completely customizable and can come in handy if you need to make a presentation for team members or project stakeholders.

For instance, you can adapt it by moving the arrows (which represent tasks) around as they progress, as well as using stars to mark deadlines and milestones. 

#9 3-month project timeline template for Google Sheets and Excel

Download: Google Sheets | Excel 

This 3-month project timeline template can be used to visually track quarterly progress of your projects. 

You can move the colored bars displaying a task across the timeline as you see fit. 

Also, next to the task name there’s a column with the dropdown menu where you can mark the task as Not started, In progress, and Done. When the task is marked as Done it will count toward the overall project progress, which is expressed in percentages next to the project’s name. 

#10 6-month project timeline template for Google Sheets and Excel

Download: Google Sheets | Excel 

The 6-month project timeline template is intended for tracking several projects for a half-year-long period. 

Thanks to the colored bars — each representing a specific task belonging to a specific project — team members and stakeholders can get insight into the overall progress over 6 months. 

You can move colored bars across the timeline to quickly create a detailed project timeline. 

#11 1-year project timeline template for Google Slides and PowerPoint

Download: Google Slides | PowerPoint

Our 1-year project timeline template is intended for visualizing your annual plans, which makes it ideal if you run large projects throughout the year. 

Essentially, this template allows you to see the bigger picture of your entire business plan and share it with stakeholders.

The template consists of an introductory slide with template instructions and a slide with tasks represented on a 12-month timeline. You can also add milestones and deadlines to the timeline to get a complete overview of your business plan or project.  

Project timeline templates 101

A project timeline is a visual overview of all tasks, milestones, and deadlines of a single project, organized in chronological order. It gives you a complete overview of all your project tasks, enabling you to spot and eliminate any potential bottlenecks before you even start. This, in turn, helps you avoid delays during project execution.

Unfortunately, it can take a long time to create a detailed project timeline. Luckily, you can always use project timeline templates. 

Project timeline templates are often created to be accessed online in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, but they can also be used offline in Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.

How to choose a project timeline template?

When deciding which template to use to create your project timeline, consider these points:

• Format — choose Google Sheets or Excel if you need a more complex timeline, or opt for Docs, Word, PPT, or PDF if you’re looking for simple and easy-to-use timelines.
• Purpose — think about what you’re using the timeline template for (presenting the project plan, tracking progress throughout the year, etc.), and pick the template that best fits your purpose.
• Time span — make sure to choose the template which covers the right amount of time for your project, to avoid unnecessary adjustments. 

Why use a project timeline template?

Project timeline templates offer many benefits. With their help, you can:

• Save valuable time at the start of your project by eliminating the tedious task of creating a timeline from scratch.
• Ensure you’ve covered all important information in your project timeline, instead of thinking about what needs to be included every time.
• Get an idea of how a project timeline should look in case it’s your first time creating one for your project.

All this contributes to the success of your project early on. And with PM statistics showing that as many as 50% of projects end up as failures, it’s clear you need to work hard to secure the success of your project from the get go. 

FAQ 

Here are some of the most common questions about project timeline templates.

What is the best format for a project timeline?

The best format for a project timeline is a Gantt chart view in a PM tool. However, if you’re not using project management software, Google Sheets and Excel are the next best thing.

What’s the difference between a timeline and a Gantt chart?

The difference between a timeline and a Gantt chart is that the timeline is focused just on tasks and milestones, while the Gantt chart also includes tasks dependencies, giving you a clearer picture of potential bottlenecks.

Are there free timeline chart templates? 

Of course! All our timeline templates are 100% free. Simply pick your favorites, download them, and you’re set to go. 

Manage your project timelines with ease in Plaky by CAKE.com

Project timeline templates can save you a lot of time during project execution. However, they can be quite limiting too — and above all, a bit basic. 

If you want to create detailed and customizable project timelines, you need a project management tool to help you.

Plaky is powerful but user-friendly task management software that’s perfect for tracking both task and project timelines.

Tracking project timelines in Plaky’s Gantt chart gives you a bird’s-eye view of entire timelines, letting you see any potential bottlenecks or task overlaps and fix them right away. 

Plaky’s Gantt chart is highly customizable, so you can:

• Move tasks across timelines as well as extend and shorten task length.
• See tasks’ start dates, due dates, timelines — or all 3. 
• Group, label, and color tasks according to different criteria.
• Adjust the timeline to cover hours, days, months, quarters, or years. 

But, the best thing about Plaky is that it has SO much more to offer than just Gantt charts. You can create detailed tables with different information thanks to custom Fields, track task progress on a Kanban board, add Files and Comments to tasks, etc. 

Bottom line?

Plaky by CAKE.com is a great tool for managing long and complex projects, especially if you need a robust tool where you can get a clear overview of all your tasks. 

Moreover, Plaky makes it easy to collaborate with your team members and make sure everyone is on the same page — all within a centralized platform and in real time!

Create elaborate project timelines in a few clicks — try Plaky! 

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