The next installment in my “5 Reasons Why…” PM-related product overview series focuses on Office Timeline. Project software is great for managing projects but it is not good at creating elegant project presentations for important executive reviews or client meetings. Office Timeline is a lightweight timeline maker built right into PowerPoint, which made it easy for me to get up and running fast – and in the busy, face-paced and often overwhelming world of project management any solid tool with a short learning curve catches my attention (and yes, I don’t like to ask for directions either). It has a familiar and intuitive interface which made it simple to create professional looking timelines and Gantt slides for high-level presentations.
Here are 5 things that I really found valuable…
Built right into PowerPoint. I have had to do plenty of Client and Executive reporting and came to realize that VP's and customers love to see material presented in a PowerPoint. Office Timeline is built right into PowerPoint. For me this was pretty cool because it makes it easy and familiar to create nice looking slides for project status reporting, executive reviews, project proposals, kick-offs or any other high level project presentations. I just opened PowerPoint, clicked on the Office Timeline ribbon and had a slide built in about a minute. It was that easy.
Unexpected Project Management Functionality. I could see how Office Timeline can be used as a basic PM Tool for small projects. It easily creates outlines of key milestones and tasks, calculates task duration, tracks progress against the timeline and tracks percent complete for each task all from within PowerPoint. Everyone has a project of some type, many are small projects and few of those require using Microsoft Project. Office Timeline would be an excellent tool for anyone who has a small project and uses Microsoft Office.
Delivers “Wow” Effect. If you are creating project presentations for execs or customers you may be constantly thinking how to make them look impressive or how to keep them fresh. When I tried the product the primary area of interest for me was whether it was actually able to generate stunning, fresh presentations which would have a “wow" effect on my audience. It did exactly that, automatically creating stunning PowerPoint visuals. Beyond all of PowerPoint’s rich formatting which Office Timeline leverages, it also adds a bunch of project focused styling controls to PowerPoint. This gave me the ability to really customize and style my Gantt charts and timelines.
Here are 5 things that I really found valuable…
Built right into PowerPoint. I have had to do plenty of Client and Executive reporting and came to realize that VP's and customers love to see material presented in a PowerPoint. Office Timeline is built right into PowerPoint. For me this was pretty cool because it makes it easy and familiar to create nice looking slides for project status reporting, executive reviews, project proposals, kick-offs or any other high level project presentations. I just opened PowerPoint, clicked on the Office Timeline ribbon and had a slide built in about a minute. It was that easy.
Unexpected Project Management Functionality. I could see how Office Timeline can be used as a basic PM Tool for small projects. It easily creates outlines of key milestones and tasks, calculates task duration, tracks progress against the timeline and tracks percent complete for each task all from within PowerPoint. Everyone has a project of some type, many are small projects and few of those require using Microsoft Project. Office Timeline would be an excellent tool for anyone who has a small project and uses Microsoft Office.
Delivers “Wow” Effect. If you are creating project presentations for execs or customers you may be constantly thinking how to make them look impressive or how to keep them fresh. When I tried the product the primary area of interest for me was whether it was actually able to generate stunning, fresh presentations which would have a “wow" effect on my audience. It did exactly that, automatically creating stunning PowerPoint visuals. Beyond all of PowerPoint’s rich formatting which Office Timeline leverages, it also adds a bunch of project focused styling controls to PowerPoint. This gave me the ability to really customize and style my Gantt charts and timelines.
Simple Beauty trumps Complexity. In my experience, a typical project schedule means very little to most of the resources engaged on a project. They may not always say it, but they are thinking it…”Make this more simple for me to understand because I already have too much to do!” Sending team members a Microsoft Project file, Excel, or Visio file will simply be ignored by most of the “non” project managers working on the project. Office Timeline was very good at creating, beautiful and clear, visual project representations that would get the attention of everyone on the team. It creates impressive project slides that would be easy for anyone to digest because they deliver the right amount of detail in the right format for quick and accurate understanding….a presenters dream.
Must Have Time Saver. Above all this is a productivity tool. It was so quick and easy to build a great looking project slide, and update it with the click of a button as schedules change. Part of that is because Office Timeline is integrated into PowerPoint, but the other part is because it is pretty robust automation. I was able to import data from Excel and have a professional looking project status slide in under a minute. Previously, building such a timeline or Gantt slide would have taken me an hour or more to build.
Ready for more?
You can check Office Timeline on your own by watching a short video. You can also download the Office Timeline Free Edition. Then, let me know what you think? I’m looking forward to your feedback!
Must Have Time Saver. Above all this is a productivity tool. It was so quick and easy to build a great looking project slide, and update it with the click of a button as schedules change. Part of that is because Office Timeline is integrated into PowerPoint, but the other part is because it is pretty robust automation. I was able to import data from Excel and have a professional looking project status slide in under a minute. Previously, building such a timeline or Gantt slide would have taken me an hour or more to build.
Ready for more?
You can check Office Timeline on your own by watching a short video. You can also download the Office Timeline Free Edition. Then, let me know what you think? I’m looking forward to your feedback!
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