How to Create a Timeline With Office in XP
Whether you have important or local events to keep in chronological order, projects to keep track of or you're doing a family history, creating a timeline is essential to organization and planning. Within Microsoft Office, Excel is an useful tool that users can create a timeline by performing date calculations and using the drawing and formatting tools. Users can apply SmartArt graphics, photos, text and colors to the timeline to make it visually aesthetic and readable.
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Instructions
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Sketch out a timeline on paper to avoid confusion of the dates, events or numbers before you create a timeline in Microsoft Excel.
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Open the Microsoft Office Excel program. Open a new Excel worksheet. Click on the “Microsoft Office” round icon on the top-left corner and scroll down to “New” to ensure that you have a blank worksheet.
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Select the “Page Layout” on the main menu and uncheck the “View” box under the “Gridlines” section to remove the grids on the worksheet.
Click on “Header & Footer” under "Insert" menu tab. Type in the header in the center of the white box. Customize your font if needed.
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Click the “Shapes" drop-down box under the "Insert" menu tab. Choose a line with double arrows in the “Lines” section.
Click anywhere in the middle of the worksheet on the left side. Hold the "Shift" key and drag the line across the worksheet to make a straight and horizontal line.
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Find and choose the "Flowchart:Connector” object in the scroll box of geometric shapes, arrows and lines on the left side of the menu.
Click anywhere and hold the “Shift” key to make a small circle, which is set as a connector dot on the drawn line. Click on the circle and press “Control + C” to copy the circle. Make two copies of the circle by pressing “Ctrl+V” to paste twice. Place the three circles on the line.
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Click the “Insert” menu tab and click the “Shapes” drop-down box. Choose the “Rounded Rectangle” object in the “Rectangles” section. Click anywhere on it and drag it with the “Shift” key. Make two more copies and ensure the rounded rectangles are above the small circles.
Click the rounded rectangle and type your event or task in it. Right-click the text to customize the font type, font size and font color.
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Choose the “Rectangle” object in the “Rectangles” section. Click anywhere and drag it using the “Shift” key. Place each rectangle below the small circle, since each circle represents a date.
Click the rectangle and type in the date. Right-click the date to customize the font.
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Choose the “Line” object in the “Lines” section and click on the bottom edge of the first rounded rectangle and drag it toward the first small circle on the line. Draw another two lines to connect the other circles to the rounded rectangles.
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Click on the “Microsoft Office” icon again and scroll down to “Save As.” Save it as “Excel Workbook” and name your file. Click the “Save” button.
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References
- Photo Credit agenda with pen image by Nicky Jacobs from Fotolia.com
