Timeline Express is the best WordPress timeline plugin , which allows you to create a beautiful animated vertical timeline on your site. Populate your site with announcements, set the date and Timeline Express will load the latest and greatest announcements in proper chronological order. Use the inc
PricingFree downloadThe WordPress.org download is free. Pro versions, add-ons or external services may cost extra.
CompatibilityRequires WordPress 4.0.
SourceWordPress plugins · Nov 5, 2026
01 / Source details
Aboutthistool.
Timeline Express is the best WordPress timeline plugin , which allows you to create a beautiful animated vertical timeline on your site. Populate your site with announcements, set the date and Timeline Express will load the latest and greatest announcements in proper chronological order.
Use the included shortcode ( [timeline-express] ) to place Timeline Express timeline anywhere on your site.
If you’re looking for power, flexibility and top tier support – look no further.
View the Timeline Express Demo
Timeline Express Features
Easy to use shortcode to place the timeline anywhere on your site ( [timeline-express] )
Responsive timelines, that look great on all devices.
Cross browser tested, and mobile friendly.
Hundreds of Font Awesome icons included. Specify a different icon for each announcement.
Beautiful CSS3 animations.
Specify the timeline announcement excerpt length.
Hide the date of the announcement on the timeline.
Hide the ‘read more’ link for each announcement on the timeline.
Specify a custom image to display for each announcement on the timeline.
Specify ‘Ascending’ vs ‘Descending’ display order for announcements on the timeline.
Powerful extensions (both free and paid).
Localized date formatting, for international users.
i18n ready – Translated for international users.
Pro Features
Setup multiple timelines and assign announcements to any, or all, of the timelines.
Tighter layout, less distance between each announcement on the timeline.
Create and assign categories to your announcements.
Timeline sorting features. Sort timelines by categories, timeline or a combination of the two.
Priority support, code snippets provided when needed etc.
Full Feature List
Timeline Express has been successfully used on a number small and large scale sites. Our users have created a number of amazing things with our plugin.
The small list above demonstrates the flexibility and power behind Timeline Express. Check out our documentation for some helpful code snippets,
Timeline Express Add-Ons
We have built out some powerful add-ons that extend Timeline Express beyond it’s core capabilities. Many of the add-ons have been user requested features, which we’ve spun off into add-ons. If your looking for some advanced feature that you don’t see in the base plugin, checkout a list of our add-ons.
Timeline Express – HTML Excerpts
Timeline Express – No Icons
Timeline Express – White Label Branding
Timeline Express – Single Column Timeline
Timeline Express – Timeline Post Types
Timeline Express – Historical Dates
Timeline Express – AJAX Limits
Timeline Express – Twitter Feed
Timeline Express – Toolbox
View All Add-Ons
Timeline Express Translations
Timeline Express comes ready for translation! With all of the proper i18n functions in place, 100% of our plugin is ready for translation. If you’re multi-lingual, and interested in translating the plugin into one of the languages not yet available, we’re willing to pass a long Single Site license of Timeline Express Pro, which is good for one full year. We’re huge fans of the open source community, and believe that this plugin should be available to everyone, in their native language. If this is something you would be interested in, please get in touch with us on our Contact Page .
The Timeline Express polyglot project can be found here .
View the Timeline Express Demo
Looking for additional documentation? Check out the knowledge base .
Multi-lingual Sites & Timeline Express
Timeline Express has been thoroughly tested with some of the top rated, and widely used translation plugins.
Two multi-lingual plugins which we are fully, 100% compatible with are WPML and Polylang .
Timeline Express may be compatible with other multi-lingual plugins, we just haven’t thoroughly tested it with otheres. If you find it’s compatible with other plugins, please get in touch and let us know and we can add it to this list.
This plugin was originally inspired by the great folks at CodyHouse.io . Have an idea for a feature you want to see added to Timeline Express? We love hearing about new ideas! You can get in contact with us through the contact form on our website, WP Timeline Express .
Developer Documentation
Hooks + Filters
Use Custom Images Instead of Font Awesome Icons (New v1.1.6.7)
Users can now use the custom announcement image in place of the font awesome icons by using the following filter. Huge thanks to Pete Nelson for the pull request and making this possible and available for everyone.
Use Alternate Image Size For Announcements (New v1.1.5.5)
By default Timeline Express generates a custom image size to use within the timeline. If you would like to use another image size, you can use the following filter.
Define your own custom fields to use in Announcement posts (New v1.1.5)
Users can now add custom fields to Timeline Express announcement posts. This allows for greater control over the announcements and the front end display. Using this hook in conjunction with a custom single announcement template will give you the greatest control.
Example:
function add_custom_timeline_express_field( $custom_fields ) { $custom_fields = array( array( 'name' => __( 'Example Text Field', 'timeline-express' ), 'desc' => __( 'this is an example user defined text field.', 'timeline-express' ), 'id' => 'announcement_user_defined_text', 'type' => 'text_medium', ), array( 'name' => __( 'Example WYSIWYG', 'timeline-express' ), 'desc' => __( 'this is an example wysiwyg field.', 'timeline-express' ), 'id' => 'announcement_user_defined_wysiwyg', 'type' => 'wysiwyg', ), array( 'name' => __( 'Example Email Field', 'timeline-express' ), 'desc' => __( 'this is an example user defined email field.', 'timeline-express' ), 'id' => 'announcement_user_defined_money', 'type' => 'text_email', ) ); return $custom_fields; } add_filter( 'timeline_express_custom_fields' , 'add_custom_timeline_express_field' );
This example would add 3 new fields below the ‘Announcement Image’ field on the announcement post.
The first field is a simple text field. The second field is an example WYSIWYG, and the third is an email field.
Note: You can add as many fields as you would like, and display them on the front end using the get_post_meta() function.
Customize the ‘announcement’ slug (New v1.1.4)
Users can now define their own slug for announcement posts using the provided filter 'timeline-express-slug' . This alters the URL structure of the announcement, possibly for SEO purposes. You would enter the following code into your active themes functions.php file.
After you enter the code into the functions.php file, you’ll want to refresh your permalinks. You can do so by going to ‘Settings > Permalinks’ and simply clicking save. That will prevent the 404 page you may see upon altering the slug.
Example:
// alter '/announcement/' to be '/event/' function timeline_express_change_announcement_slug( $slug ) { $slug = 'event'; return $slug; } add_filter('timeline-express-slug', 'timeline_express_change_announcement_slug' );
This example would change the default /announcement/ slug, to /event/ .
Alter the ‘Read More’ button text (New v1.1.3.1)
Users can now alter the ‘Read More’ button text using the provided gettext filter and the ‘timeline-express’ text domain.
Example:
// alter 'Read more' to say 'View Announcement' function timeline_express_change_readmore_text( $translated_text, $untranslated_text, $domain ) { switch( $untranslated_text ) { case 'Read more': $translated_text = __( 'View Announcement','timeline-express' ); break; } return $translated_text; } add_filter('gettext', 'timeline_express_change_readmore_text', 20, 3);
This example would alter ‘Read more’ to say ‘View Announcement’.
Add custom classes to the ‘Read More’ button (New v1.1.3.1)
Users can now add custom classes to the ‘Read More’ announcement button. This allows for greater control in fitting the Timeline into your currently active theme.
Parameters :
$button_classes = default button classes assigned to the ‘Read More’ button
Example:
// add a custom class to the Timeline Express readmore link function timeline_express_custom_readmore_class( $button_classes ) { return $button_classes . 'custom-class-name'; } add_filter( 'timeline-express-read-more-class' , 'timeline_express_custom_readmore_class' );
This example would print the following ‘Read More’ button HTML onto the page :
Setup a custom date format for front end display (New v1.0.9)
New in version 1.0.9 is the localization of dates on the front end. The date format is now controlled by your date settings inside of ‘General > Settings’.
If, for one reason or another, you’d like to specify a different date format than provided by WordPress core you can use the provided filter timeline_express_custom_date_format .
The one parameter you need to pass into your function is $date_format, which is (as it sounds) the format of the date.
Some formatting examples:
m.d.Y – 11.19.2014
d-m-y – 11-19-14
d M y – 19 Nov 2014
D j/n/Y – Wed 11/19/2014
l jS \of\ F – Wednesday 19th of November
Example:
function custom_te_date_format( $date_format ) { $date_format = "M d , Y"; // will print the date as Nov 19 , 2014 return $date_format; } add_filter( 'timeline_express_custom_date_format' , 'custom_te_date_format' , 10 );
d – Numeric representation of a day, with leading zeros 01 through 31.
01Download the plugin .zip file, and keep in mind where on your computer you saved it.
02Log in to your website (ie: yourdomain.com/wp-admin), and head into Plugins > Add New
03On the following screen, click the ‘Upload Plugin’ link at the top of the page.
04Browse your computer to the location you downloaded the .zip file in step one, select it and click the ‘Install Now’ button.
05After the plugin has successfully installed, click “Activate Plugin” and enjoy!
06On the left hand menu, hover over ‘Timeline Express’ and click ‘New Announcement’
07Begin populating the timeline with announcements. (Note: Announcements will appear in chronological order according to the announcement date that you set)
08Once you have create your announcements, head over to the settings page (Settings > Timeline Express) to customize your timeline settings.
09Create a new page, and enter the shortcode [timeline-express] to display the responsive, animated timeline. (Note: Timeline Express displays best on full width pages)
03 / Source details
Frequently asked questions.
Is there some demo I can checkout? I want to see how the plugin appears on the front end of a WordPress site before I install it.
Yes! Check out the demo we’ve set up on our site, which shows off some of the features of the pro version.
View the Timeline Express Demo
Can I filter announcements by categories/Can I create multiple timelines?
Not in the free version, but with our pro version you can create numerous timelines and assign posts to a single timeline or all timelines. Also with the pro version you can easily filter announcements by categories on the front end.
View the Timeline Express Pro Demo
How do I use this plugin?
Begin by simply installing the plugin. Once the plugin has been installed, go ahead and begin creating announcement posts. You’ll find a new menu item just below ‘Posts’. After you have a substantial number of announcements set up, you’re ready to display the timeline on the front end of your site.
Timeline Express displays best on full width pages, but is not limited to them. Create a new page, and drop the shortcode into the page – [timeline-express] . Publish your page, and view it on the front end the see your new super sweet timeline! (scroll for animation effects!)
What template is the single announcement post using? Can I customize it at all? I want to do x, y or z.
Yes! In version 1.2 and above, we have a templating engine built into the plugin – allowing you to fully customize both the announcement containers on the timeline or the single announcement page. All you have to do is copy over the proper templates.
Take a look at our documentation articles on customizations .
Why can’t I save dates prior to ‘1970’?
Due to a limitation with the built in php function strtotime() , you may not be able to save dates prior to 1970. We’ve built out a premium add-on that works with both the free and pro versions of Timeline Express to allow dates to be saved between the years 1000-9999. If this is a feature you need, please consider purchasing the Historical Dates Add-On .
Can I create more than one timeline?
The free version limits you to one timeline. With the pro version , you can create unlimited number of timelines and even assign categories to your announcements.
Can I assign categories to my announcements?
You can assign categories and filter your timelines by category with the pro version only.
At what width are the breakpoints set?
Breakpoints are set at 822px. The timeline will shift/re-adjust automatically based on the height of each announcement container.
How can I translate this plugin?
The text-domain for all gettext functions is timeline-express .
If you enjoy this plugin and want to contribute, we are always looking for people to help translate the plugin into their native language. Anyone who translates this plugin to 100% completion, will receive a single site license for Timeline Express Pro, valid for 1 full calendar year.
If you need help getting started, read through Codex article “[GlotPress]”(https://make.wordpress.org/polyglots/handbook/tools/glotpress-translate-wordpress-org/) for more information.
FinderPress Media Auditor helps site administrators scan for broken images, missing Media Library files, unreachable media URLs, and other media issues across WordPress content. Use it to audit images, video, audio, PDFs, featured images, and attachment files without sending scan data to an external
The Accepted Payment Methods plugin is a straightforward, lightweight solution that enhances your website by displaying visually appealing icons of the payment methods you accept. This plugin is ideal for a variety of websites, including e-commerce platforms, service-oriented websites, and informati