About the project timeline maker
What is a project timeline maker?
A project timeline shows tasks as bars along a calendar, so you can see at a glance what happens when, how tasks overlap and where the busy periods are. People often call a chart like this a Gantt chart. It communicates a schedule far faster than a table of dates, which is why timelines appear in project updates, proposals and planning meetings.
This free project timeline maker lets you add each task with a name, start date, end date and colour. The chart rescales to fit your first start date and last end date, marks today in red and lets you print the chart, download CSV or export an ICS file. It works in your browser with no account.
How to build a timeline
- List your tasks and decide when each will start and finish.
- Add each task with its name, start date, end date and a colour. Use colour to mean something, such as one colour per phase or per person.
- Look at the chart. The scale adjusts to fit the full span of your project.
- Check for gaps, overlaps and crunches. Look at the red marker to see where you are today relative to the plan.
- Remove or re-add tasks to adjust, then print or export.
What to look for on the chart
A timeline makes problems visible. A long bar might need splitting into smaller tasks. A week with six overlapping bars suggests a crunch where people may be overloaded. A gap between tasks that should follow each other might mean a missing step. A task that starts before the thing it depends on has finished is a likely delay. Seeing these on a chart is easier than hunting for them in a list of dates.
Using colour effectively
Colour should carry information. Assign one colour to each phase, such as research, design, build and launch, or one to each owner or team. Keep the palette small so that the meaning is obvious without a legend. If you print in black and white, rely on task names and positions rather than colour alone. Using colour consistently helps anyone looking at the chart understand it in seconds.
Timeline maker or project plan?
They do different jobs. A project plan holds the detail: owners, status, warnings and a progress bar. A timeline shows the schedule visually. Many people use the project plan template to manage the work and the timeline maker to present it. For a repeating weekly pattern rather than a one-off project, the weekly schedule maker is a better fit.
Where timelines are useful
- Product launches, website builds and software releases.
- Events, from conferences to weddings, where many tasks converge on one date.
- Marketing campaigns that run across several channels. The marketing plan template helps define them first.
- Renovations, moves and building projects.
- Academic projects such as dissertations, where milestones need to be spread across months.
Sharing the timeline with others
A timeline is most useful when everyone can see it. Print it for a planning meeting, save a PDF to attach to an email or export the ICS file so people see key dates in their own calendars. Explain what the colours mean and point out the next milestone, so readers take away the one thing they need to act on.
Tips for a clear and honest timeline
- Keep task names short so they fit on the chart.
- Include approvals, waiting periods and holidays as tasks, so the chart reflects reality.
- Add a buffer at the end rather than padding every task.
- Update it when things change. A stale timeline is worse than none.
- Use milestones, tasks with the same start and end date, to mark key moments such as launch day.
A short example
Imagine a website launch over ten weeks. Research and content run for the first three weeks in blue, design overlaps for two weeks in green, development runs from week four to week eight in orange, and testing and launch fill the last two weeks in red. On the chart you can see that content and design overlap, which is fine, but that testing starts the same week development ends, which leaves no buffer. Adding a spare week before launch takes one edit, and the chart shows the effect immediately.
Print, CSV and calendar export
Print the chart or save it as a PDF from your browser’s print dialog, which is a convenient way to put a timeline into a report or slide deck. Download CSV for a table of tasks and dates. Export an ICS file to add task dates to Google, Apple or Outlook calendar. Everything is processed in your browser and nothing is uploaded to Just Plann.
Project timeline maker FAQ
Does it show dependencies between tasks? Not as arrows. Order your tasks sensibly and read the bars; for complex dependencies, dedicated project software may be better.
Can I save the chart as an image? Use Print / PDF and save as PDF, or take a screenshot.
How many tasks can I add? As many as fit usefully on the chart. Twenty or so remain readable on one page.
Draw your timeline
Add your first three tasks with dates and colours. The chart appears immediately and grows as you add more.