How To Make A Pro-looking Timeline FAST

When it comes to making timelines, I either: 1) Spend way too long making one in my go-to diagramming software ; or 2) Make one using the built-in shapes and templates(i.e. SmartArt) that ends up looking, well, like SmartArt. I don't have strong design skills, so I almost never try to customize the awesome pre-made graphic templates from Adobe Stock or Envato Elements .

This morning I faced a double conundrum (a 'dubundrum'?) because not only did I need to make a sweet-looking timeline, but I also needed to show a group how to make one for themselves. They don't all use diagramming software but they still may want their figures to be more custom-looking than SmartArt-looking. It was quite the dubundrum.

Fortunately for me, them, and my dubundrum, I found Adobe Express Timeline Maker while looking for a solution.

Adobe Express , officially "Adobe Creative Cloud Express", is a social media graphic, photo, and storytelling platform. If you are familiar with Adobe Spark, Express is the new Spark plus some great new features.

One of these great new features is the Timeline Maker . The Timeline Maker is fast, super easy-to-use, and included in the free subscription tier.

Making a pro-looking timeline is as simple as: entering a title, adding events, and choosing one of the six built-in designs.

Events consist of a name, date, description, and optional image(photo or icon). Although images are limited to an internal database, there appears to be plenty of variety and stock for my needs.

Adobe Express Timeline Maker has some significant limitations, yet they feel like a fair tradeoff for the tools' simplicity and ease of use.

Most notably, there are only six(6) designs and they are not customizable. Also, you can't save the project and come back to it, or upload your own photos. It is also curious that Timeline Maker is not included in the main Adobe Express navigation. It is best to bookmark it so you can find it later.

However, if you want to make a nice timeline in just a few minutes, you can't beat this free (albeit somewhat hidden) tool. BTW, another sweet Express tool that is just as 'handy-but-limited' is the Chart Maker . Check it out.