Timeline Creator

Example: a 20th-century timeline

1. Pick the “Textbook” template and a horizontal timeline.
2. Add coloured periods: First World War (1914–1918), interwar years (1918–1939), Second World War (1939–1945), Cold War (1947–1991).
3. Add single dates: 1929 (Wall Street Crash), 1945 (United Nations founded), 1957 (Sputnik), 1969 (Moon landing), 1989 (fall of the Berlin Wall), with a picture for some of them.
4. Switch to “proportional” so durations are faithful, or keep “regular” for readability when dates are close together.
5. Print on A4 or A3 landscape, or export as an image.

Regular or proportional?

In proportional mode, the distance between dates matches real time: you can see that a period is long or that events crowd together. In regular mode, events are evenly spaced: easier to read, but durations can't be compared. For very long scales (prehistory, Earth's history), use the break symbol to cut an empty stretch.

In class: exercise mode

• Hide dates, titles or everything: students click a card to reveal it and self-assess, with an adjustable tolerance (exact date, ±5, 10 or 25 years).
• Print the student version (answers hidden) for a test and the answer version for marking.
• Share a read-only timeline: students open it without being able to change it, and can make their own copy in the editor.

Accessibility

High-contrast mode and the dyslexia-friendly font with more spacing make reading easier for everyone. The “High contrast” template also suits projection in a bright classroom.

Going further

The step-by-step guide covers every option: vertical or winding timelines, disc-shaped boxes, colours by period, import and export. Years BC are entered as negative numbers (−44 for the death of Julius Caesar).

Guide written and checked by Erwan Hautot · updated 28 October 2026.