Using templates to make your job easier is no question. Everybody knows that. But using the right presentation backgrounds is the key to make your projects more presentable.
There will be projects that need specific templates. Specific projects like historical presentations need a heavy supply of history timeline templates. There are also tons of open-source websites that offer free PowerPoint timeline templates.
If you have a project in hand that requires a lot of timeline explanations, you’ll need a keen eye to find the right template. Lucky for you, this article practically sums everything up. This article will cover PowerPoint timeline templates and all sorts of examples.
Also, we made it easier for you to access what you need. You can download PowerPoint timeline add-in and templates on their websites provided. This can save you time so you can focus on other aspects of your presentation.
Three aspects of a winning presentation
1. Physical and mental aspect
Relaxation and meditation allows your mind to think freely.
Being prepared for the physical and mental aspects of a presentation might be challenging for some. Stage fright and anxiety can be difficult to overcome. But you can be prepared for these things.
Stage fright is persistent in nature. The moment that you think about your upcoming presentation, anxiety and panic attacks can happen. You can feel the difference between performing in front of common faces and performing in front of a new and unfamiliar audience.
The mere anticipation of an upcoming performance can cause shivering and nauseating. You can take these steps to be prepared for an upcoming presentation and conquer your stage fright:
- Redirect your focus to your purpose
Instead of focusing on your fear and anxiety, try to refocus yourself to a clearer view — your purpose for your presentation. You are delivering a piece that contributes value to your audience.
- Don’t flood yourself with negative thoughts
Stop thinking about what might go wrong. Stop creating imaginary scenarios that roots in negative thoughts. Instead, try to think of calming images and reassuring scenarios.
- Don’t think of scenarios that can cause low self-esteem
Confidence can take you a long way during your presentations. You can overcome tight situations if you’re confident. So don’t think of scenarios that can lower your self-esteem.
Instead, think of something inspirational. Since you’re going to present a timeline, you need a story. Think of something that inspires you.
- Calm your mind and body
Practice ways to calm both your mind and your body. According to research, meditation and yoga improve your focus by calming the mind and the body. It also reduces the stress and anxiety that come with stage fright.
- Live a healthy lifestyle
Take a pass on some sugar, caffeine, and alcohol as much as possible. Exercising every day and practicing a healthy eating diet can improve your mental state.
- Prepare in advance
This practice is very helpful to overcome your phobia. Preparing your piece and cheat cards can be very fruitful. You’ll never have to stutter in front of an audience if you know your presentation very well.
Practicing over and over again makes you fully aware of your presentation. You’ll be able to deliver your PowerPoint timeline presentation masterfully and legitimately. It might be quite hard for newcomers to choose a trustworthy mobile casino website. Experts will help with that challenge. See their posts about mobile casinos in India and learn what atributes are vital in phone casino platforms. Besides, their experts explain if it’s more comfortable to run pokies on a website or a mobile application. With these experts’ help your phone gambling journey will be a lot more fun.
- Be yourself
Always remember that it is completely fine to make mistakes during a presentation. Be natural, like you’re explaining a concept to a very close friend. Think of your audience as your friends instead of enemies.
Now that you’re physically prepared for your presentation, you have to make sure that the technical aspects are in check. Confidence is not the only key to a winning presentation. You have to combine it with a stunning presentation.
2. Technical aspect
You need to have a plan for your presentation.
Now we have to focus on how are you going to create your presentation from scratch. This will take a lot of time to do. If your project requires planning, you can present it to your audience in the form of a timeline.
This is where PowerPoint timeline templates come in. Using timeline templates can save valuable time. There are also free timeline templates available for Word.
Here are the other benefits if you use timeline templates:
- Provides a clear vision of past and future events
- Improves management of events
- Keeps everything on schedule
- Can also tell stories through timelines
In preparing your presentation, you should keep in mind that you have to get your message delivered. You have to make your audience understand what you want to say. That’s why it is important to captivate your audience through your presentation.
Here are a few tips to make your presentation interesting
Have a catchy one-liner as a summary
You have to summarize your work in one sentence. This should be able to explain the purpose of your presentation. This will also serve as a clear path to follow as you create your content.
You can start a presentation from scratch or use pre-made timeline templates.
It’s a smart way to begin your presentation with a catchy one-liner. You can start from scratch and begin your presentation with a one-liner and an introduction. You can also do this in pre-made timeline templates since these templates are editable.
Identify the three pillars of your presentation
The three pillars serve as the three main ideas of your presentation. Your presentation will revolve around three main ideas and every other aspect should be connected to these three.
As long as the other elements point back to these three pillars, all your other talking points will support the core message of your presentation. You’ll never stray away from discussing your topic if you follow these main ideas.
You can highlight these pillars in your presentation by using a different theme for those slides. A simple yet elegant theme will support the idea on the slide rather than get the attention of your audience.
Be true to your data
Whatever data you get, you need to present it. You just have to make sense of your data so you could explain it well to your audience. You can also use timeline templates for Excel to tabulate your data in a timely manner.
After you tabulate your data, you have to think of a way to sway those with opposing ideas. In order to convert a presentation positively, you have to look at your presentation from different perspectives. Just get real with your audience and provide enough data to support your claims.
Inspire your presentation with a true story
Your audience will tend to remember a story more than plain old facts. That’s why it would be good to add a realistic story and inspire your presentation with that story.
And since we’re using PowerPoint timeline templates, you can use timelines to enact your story. Take a walk and inspire your thoughts with a true story. Then, make your presentation with animated timeline PowerPoint templates for free and make your story come to life.
Create a storyboard from your timeline
If your method of creating a presentation starts with ease, then it’s time for you to change that. You don’t want to ease in a topic and slowly build into a conclusion. That’s plain and mediocre.
What you want to do instead is create a storyboard. Since you already have inspiration from a true story, the next thing to do is plot the events on your presentation.
You have to get their full attention from the very beginning. Try to start with an interesting fact. This will pique your audience’s interests. After you get your audience’s attention, now is the time to start your story.
10-20-30 rule for presentations
It’s simple. 10 slides are all you need in a presentation. 20 minutes is all you have for the presentation. The font you are using should be no less than 30 points.
This simple rule will make your presentation more effective. By being concise and direct to the point, you’ll be able to present your project professionally.
Ten slides is more than enough to present an idea. You only have to place the key ideas in your slides. You can use PowerPoint timeline templates in a couple of slides to summarize your story.
Design your slides
If you get sloppy with your design, you are failing your whole presentation. Unprofessional-looking slides will gain less respect and authority over professional-looking presentations.
Good thing PowerPoint timeline templates are reliable and editable. These pre-made templates can be edited at your own will. You can start creating your content with minimal effort in making your presentation look professional.
Practice like it’s the actual presentation
In order to perfect the craft of presentation, you should practice until you master it. You should be wary of your contents like the back of your hand. If anyone has a question about your presentation, you can answer it with no sweat.
You have to get a brutally honest friend as an audience. It’s less intimidating than a complete stranger. Practice your presentation with a friend and get their insights.
Then you have to repeat this step over and over again until you master it. Don’t rehearse it like some poem. You don’t have to repeat exactly what you said in the previous practice.
Instead, practice it in a conversational manner. This way, you are rehearsing and learning your presentation at the same time. With more knowledge about your presentation, you’ll be able to deliver it with more authenticity.
Now that you have proofread your work and it’s up and running, it’s time that you prepare for the actual presentation. Remember that a stunning presentation is only a contingency plan to the real deal — you.
3. Presentation proper
You need to prepare for your presentation.
When the day arrives that you need to present your project in front of an audience, you have to be prepared for it. You have to know what to do hours before and during your presentation. You have to prepare yourself for both foreseen and unforeseen circumstances.
To prepare yourself for these scenarios, you have to make a mini checklist of the things you need to do before the presentation. Here are some tips for a winning presentation:
Arrive at least 1 hour before the presentation
It’s best that you arrive at the venue at least an hour before the presentation. This will give you time to keep yourself grounded on the venue and feel the ambiance before the big show.
This also gives you time to set-up and prepare the technology you need for the presentation. Make sure your projector is running and your connectors and adapters are complete.
Adjust to your surroundings and calm down
You will need to adjust to your new surroundings before the presentation. The faster you adjust, the more comfortable you can deliver your project presentation.
Getting nervous is absolutely normal. But you have to face the fear instead of turning your back on it. Take slow and deep breaths and meditate on the more important things — the value of your presentation.
Know who you’re speaking to
It is of paramount importance to know your audience when you’re about to present. I don’t know how to emphasize this more.
Just like in any conversation, you need to have an idea of who you are talking to. But this time, try to get a little deeper by putting yourself in their shoes. Imagine you’re the audience of your presentation. What would you think of yourself?
Show compassion to your audience
You need to show your audience that you care for what they think. Be true to your compassion and your audience will respond. You need to connect with your audience to make them listen to what you have to say.
Use body language to convey your message
Move around. Smile. Talk to your audience like how you talk to a dear friend. You have to let your body show your confidence.
If your audience senses your confidence, they’ll find you authoritative. You can be confident with your slides by using the right templates for the job.
Keep your content simple
By using PowerPoint timeline templates, you can easily show your audience a clear scope of what is happening. Communicate your message easily by keeping your content simple. Always remember the key message that you want to pass to your audience.
Keep steady eye contact with your audience
Quite simple, isn’t it? However, most presenters fail at this task. Keeping eye contact seems to shake a lot of nerves for most people.
But I have to look at my audience to make my presentation effective. Exactly. You have to look at them in the eye to build rapport and connect with them. Try focusing on their foreheads or their nose bridge if you can’t stare at them directly.
Now you don’t have to burden yourself looking your audience directly in the eye. Instead, you can just make it seem like you’re looking them in the eye. From a distance, your audience won’t even one from the other.
Start strong
The key to gaining your audience’s attention is to start your presentation strong. After you introduce yourself, you have to be able to get your audience’s attention. You can either ask them a question or state a shocking fact, depending on your choice.
You only have a few minutes to grace your audience. Within these few minutes, you need to introduce your audience to the main idea of your presentation. That way, they won’t see your presentation as dull.
Project your voice
Yes, you might be using a microphone in your presentation. But a microphone only acts as a receiver. If you don’t project your voice well, you will sound inappropriate and uncomfortable.
It’s best to project your voice well so you’ll pronounce every word clearly. Your audience will understand you clearly.
Don’t read your slides
This is just mortal sin. Unless it’s necessary to read something from your slide to prove a point, don’t ever do this. It makes your whole presentation look unprofessional.
Your PowerPoint presentation should only be a visual aid for your audience. Your presentation is there to make your audience see what’s happening in the timeline — not to be your notepad.
Tell a story
Tell something about yourself. Since you’ve inspired your presentation with a true story, you should be able to tell your story to your audience. Tell your story to your audience and help them connect with you.
Using your story, lead them to the points that you need to discuss. However, you need to choose the right story for the right audience. This might be the reason to lose your audience’s attention.
Summarize key points
How much of your presentation do you think your audience will retain after 20 minutes? Not much. That’s why after your presentation, you should summarize your key points (main idea and the three pillars).
This will act as a recap for your audience. And to make sure that your audience will remember your take-away points.
Don’t extend
You should be able to manage your time during the presentation. Discuss everything and summarize your presentation within the time allotted. Overextending can be a bit off for your audience.
If possible, try to end in a shorter amount of time. Then have a little Q&A until your time runs out. This gives your audience room to interact with your presentation. This makes you also look well-prepared for your presentation.
Relax and enjoy
A presentation is, after all, a performance. If you know you’re prepared, then you should have nothing to worry about. Stand in front of your audience with confidence, and enjoy your performance.
Since you’ve finished our whole guide, then you’re ready to perform in front of a real audience. When making your presentation, you can use these PowerPoint timeline examples for your projects.
Examples of timeline templates
Word and Google Docs timeline templates
While you can make timeline templates on the software itself, there are also websites that offer free timeline templates for Google Docs and MS Word. Here are some of the websites that offer free timeline templates for Word.
A collection of free timeline templates for GDocs and Word on the website.
This website offers a collection of professional templates. These templates are editable. You can edit the templates automatically on the website. You can also do it manually.
With tons of template designs available on the website, you’ll certainly find what you need for your presentation. Inspired by professionals, these templates will make your presentation look professional.
SmartSheet platform is a multi-tool for dynamic work.
SmartSheet has a very interesting set of templates. Although the templates are limited in number, the templates are very specific with the tasks.
There are timeline template examples like PPE Inventory Tracker and Project Schedule Management templates. These examples are only a few of the highly-specific timeline templates available on the website.
There are a couple of Google Docs timeline templates to use for your projects. Some of them are history timelines while others are more of a project management type of timeline template. Here are some templates that are compatible with Google Docs, for those always on-the-go!
- Templates.net
There are various fancy and colorful timeline templates on the website.
There are history timeline templates and project timeline templates on Templates.net. They offer colorful templates that are simple, yet pleasing to the eye.
These templates are available in document format. A4 and US sized letters are downloadable and printable. Your project timeline will look much more presentable with the use of these templates.
These three websites offer timeline templates that will be useful. You can use these templates for both MS Word and Google Docs.
Google Slides and PowerPoint timeline templates
There are also timeline templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint. If you want to make a slideshow using timeline templates, then these websites will provide a variety of templates to choose from.
Allppt.com provides free Powerpoint template diagrams that show the timeline of events.
There are a lot of templates that you will find on this website. These professional diagrams and sleek templates can be downloaded free-of-charge.
You can show result, correlation, and progress with the use of these timeline template diagrams. Make a winning business presentation and present your facts clearly using these timeline templates.
You can easily search what you’re looking for using the tags on the website.
From an infographic timeline to a road map, this website offers new and refreshing templates to choose from. It’s also very easy to navigate since you can search for the template you want using tags.
You can also find different kinds of presentation templates on the website. There are also templates which feature charts and diagrams. You can also use these templates for your other presentations.
These templates are available for Powerpoint and Google Slides. You can download these templates as PPTX files or directly use them in Google Slides.
Final word
It is always a good idea to come prepared for your presentation. No matter which presentation you are going to do, you can use these simple tips to prepare for your presentation.
Remember the three aspects that you need to prepare before your presentation. Make sure that these three are always kept in check. Prepare yourself physically and mentally, do your slides properly, and get ready for the presentation proper.
With these in mind, your presentation will surely leave a mark in your audience’s thoughts.
I’m a tech enthusiast, entrepreneur, digital marketer and professional blogger equipped with skills in Digital Marketing, SEO, SEM, SMM, and lead generation. My objective is to simplify technology for you through detailed guides and reviews. I discovered WordPress while setting up my first business site and instantly became enamored. When not crafting websites, making content, or helping clients enhance their online ventures, I usually take care of my health and spend time with family, and explore the world. Connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin or read my complete biography.