Make a Timeline

TimelineJS works on any site or blog. Make your own in four easy steps.
Having trouble? Watch our video, or see the help section below.

  1. Create your spreadsheet

    Build a new Google Spreadsheet using our template. You'll need to copy the template to your own Google Drive account by clicking the "Make a Copy" button.

    Drop dates, text and links to media into the appropriate columns. For more about working with our template, see our help docs.

    Get the Spreadsheet Template  

    Don't change the column headers, don't remove any columns, and don't leave any blank rows in your spreadsheet.

  2. Publish to the web

    Under the File menu, select “Publish to the Web.”

    In the next window, click the blue "publish" button. When asked, "Are you sure…?" click OK.

    Now, copy the URL that appears in the center of the window. You'll use this in the next step.

    The following has changed as of 18 July 2017!

    Close the 'Publish to the web' window. Copy the URL for your Timeline from the browser's address bar. It should look something like this:
    https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xuY4upIooEeszZ_lCmeNx24eSFWe0rHe9ZdqH2xqVNk/edit#gid=0

    Disregard the URL that appears in the "publish to the web" window. It used to be used below, but changes to Google mean that you'll get an error if you use it now.

  3. Generate your timeline

    Copy/paste spreadsheet URL into the box below to generate your timeline. (Make sure you've published the spreadsheet.)

    Optional settings (show) (hide)

    Set language, fonts, starting slide and more.

    Language
    Fonts

    • PT Narrow and PT Serif
    • Abril and Droid Sans
    • Amatic and Andika
    • Bevan and Pontano Sans
    • Bitter and Raleway
    • Clicker and Garamond
    • Dancing and Ledger
    • Fjalla and Average
    • Georgia and Helvetica
    • Lustria and Lato
    • Medula One and Lato
    • Old Standard
    • Open Sans and Gentium Book
    • Playfair and Fauna One
    • Playfair SC and Playfair
    • PT Sans, PT Sans Narrow, and PT Serif
    • Roboto and Megrim
    • Rufina and Sintony
    • Unica One and Vollkorn
    Map Type

    Currently all Google's base maps are supported. When creating a Google map, style it the way you would like it to appear, and then paste the resulting link into your Google Spreadsheet.

    Default start slide

    You can tell TimelineJS to start at a specific slide number.

    Initial zoom level

    The zoom level at which the timeline portion of TimelineJS will display on load. Specify a value from 0-10 (default is 2). Smaller numbers show a greater span of time.

    Misc
  4. Share your timeline
    Share Link

    Use this to link directly to your timeline.

    If you're embedding on Medium.com or other oembed-aware services, just paste this link on a line by itself where you want your timeline to appear.

    Embed

    Copy this embed code and paste it on your site where you want your timeline to appear (just like a YouTube video).

    Preview  Open Preview in a new window  

Preview Embed