Overview
Office Timeline Online comes in two flavors, free and premium. Both versions are fully functional timeline makers, but they offer different levels of access to key features. Here we’ll explain all the key differences between free and premium licenses. We'll cover:
A) Quick comparison - free vs premium licenses
B) In-depth breakdown of the different levels of access
1. Access to timelines exceeding 10 items
2. Access to collaboration features
2.1. Maximum number of collaborators per timeline
2.2. Editing timelines owned by premium accounts
4. Importing data from other tools
6. Templates
C) What happens when my premium license is downgraded to Free Edition?
Read on or use the links above to jump straight to the chapter you're interested in.
A) Quick comparison - free vs premium licenses
For a quick overview of the different levels of access free and premium users have to key features, check out the comparison table below:
B) In-depth breakdown of the different levels of access
1. Access to timelines exceeding 10 items
One of the biggest differences between free and premium licenses is the maximum number of milestones and/or tasks you can manage on a timeline. Here’s a breakdown of how it works:
a) Timeline owners
- Free users are limited to 10 milestones and/or tasks per timeline, while premium users can have up to 150 items on their timeline.
- Free Edition timelines that already have over 10 items are watermarked and aren’t editable. On the other hand, premium users can edit any timeline that they own, regardless of item count.
To unlock a timeline that isn’t editable because it has over 10 items, free users can either upgrade their account or transfer their timeline to a premium user.
b) Collaborators on someone else's timeline
The 10-item limitation applies in the context of collaboration as well. Collaborators (whether free or premium accounts) on a shared timeline owned by a free user will not be able to add an 11th item to it and, if the timeline exceeds 10 items, they will not be able to edit it.
For collaborators to manage timelines with more than 10 items, both the timeline owner and the collaborators themselves need a premium license.
If you're a collaborator on a timeline owned by someone else, see this simple matrix below for a quick overview of how (or if) the 10-item limitation applies to you based your license type and the timeline owner’s:
2. Collaboration
Free and premium users have different levels of access to features specific to collaboration as well:
2.1. Maximum number of collaborators per timeline
a) Timeline owners
- Premium users can add to their timelines as many collaborators as they need.
- Free users are limited to maximum 3 collaborators per timeline, without counting the owner. This means that, if a timeline already has 3 (or more) collaborators, as a free user, you will not be able to add more.
If you have a free account and want to add more collaborators to your timeline, consider upgrading to a premium license. Alternatively, you can remove existing collaborators until you are below the limit of 3, or transfer timeline ownership to a premium user.
b) Collaborators on someone else's timeline
- Premium collaborators on a timeline owned by a premium user can add as many collaborators as they wish as long as they have sharing permissions.
- Premium collaborators on a timeline owned by a free user will not be able to invite more collaborators, if the limit of 3 is already reached.
To add other collaborators, the timeline owner needs to upgrade their account, reduce the existing collaborators below the limit of 3, or transfer timeline ownership to a premium user. - If you are a free collaborator on any shared timeline (whether the owner is free or premium), you will not be able to invite more collaborators either if the limit of 3 is already reached.
To add other collaborators, both you and the timeline owner need a premium license.
2.2. Editing timelines owned by premium accounts
Timelines owned by premium users cannot be edited by free collaborators. Therefore, if a premium user has given you editing rights on a timeline they shared with you, you will need to upgrade to a premium license too to be able to use those rights and make any changes.
3. PowerPoint downloads
- Premium users can download their whole timelines as PowerPoint slides, regardless of the number of items they include.
- Free PowerPoint downloads are limited to 10 milestones and/or tasks per timeline. This means that, as a free user, if your online timeline exceeds 10 items, only the first 10 will be exported to PowerPoint.
Note: This 10-item limitation applies in the context of collaboration as well. Therefore, collaborators on a shared timeline owned by a free user will be limited to 10 items too when downloading the timeline as a PowerPoint file. To download the full slide, both the timeline owner and the collaborators need a premium license.
If you’re a collaborator on someone else’s timeline, check out this table to see how (or if) the 10-item limitation applies to you when downloading to PowerPoint:
4. Importing data from other tools
Free users can import up to 10 milestones and/or tasks per timeline from tools like Project, Excel, Smartsheet and Jira. With a premium account, however, you can load up to 150 data rows from your source file and generate a detailed timeline in seconds.
5. Refreshing data
Premium users also have the ability refresh timelines imported from Project or Jira when the data in the linked source changes. This feature is available to premium accounts exclusively.
6. Templates
- Premium accounts have full access to all the templates available in Office Timeline Online’s gallery.
- Free accounts can use only the simpler templates that don’t exceed 10 items (tasks or milestones). They can, however, import a maximum of 10 data rows into any template available in our web tool’s gallery.
C) What happens when my license is downgraded to Free?
When your subscription expires or your license is revoked, you don't lose your Office Timeline Online account or any of your work. Your account will revert to Free Edition and everything will still be there, but accessible only within the Free User limitations described in the chapters above.
This also means that:
- Any of your timelines that exceed 10 milestones and/or tasks will no longer be editable after the downgrade. To unlock them, you’ll need to upgrade your account again or transfer the timelines’ ownership to a premium user.
- If you have timelines that exceed the limit of max 3 collaborators, the existing collaborators will not be removed, but you (or others) will not be able to add more. To add other collaborators, consider upgrading your account, or, alternatively, you can remove existing collaborators until you are below the limit, or transfer timeline ownership to a premium user.
- If you are a collaborator on a timeline owned by a premium user, you will no longer be able to edit it. To regain access, you will need to upgrade to a premium account.
If you have questions or need help, don’t hesitate to contact us at support@officetimeline.com.