Enterprise / Corporate deployment How-To for IT Administrators

Overview

This article provides guidance to IT administrators and corporate software groups who are evaluating or deploying the Office Timeline add-in. It covers system requirements, software distribution system configuration, and registry key settings.

Other notes

The Office Timeline End User License Agreement (EULA) can be found in the product at installation.  A licensing overview can be found here: https://www.officetimeline.com/license. The most current build of Office Timeline can be found here: https://www.officetimeline.com/updates

System requirements

Tech notes

To deploy Office Timeline within a corporation, follow the instructions below:

1. Purchase a volume license (multi-licenses).  Contact sales@officetimeline.com for info.

2. Download OfficeTimeline.zip from here and install on a prep system.

3. Make sure the target systems have the following software installed:
   - Office 2019, Office 2021 or Microsoft 365
   - .NET Framework 4.8
   - VSTO 2010 Runtime v10.0.60910 or newer (download from here)
   - Microsoft Edge WebView2 Runtime v100.0.1185.50 or newer (download from here)

4. Configure your software distribution system to install Office Timeline using the following command line:

   msiexec /i OfficeTimeline.msi LICENSEKEY=AAAA-BBBB-CCCCC-DDDDD-EEEEE-FFFFF
   _{(Replace the AAAA-... part with your actual volume license product key.)
   The installation must execute with a user logged on.}

   It is possible the installation will execute without a user being logged on, but this scenario is not supported yet. If the activation cannot be performed by the setup (because the activation server is blocked by your company firewall, for example), the add-in will display the activation dialog at the very first run and the user or the system administrator will have to manually enter the product key in that dialog (this solution was chosen to protect the product key).

5. To configure the add-in to not send usage data to Office Timeline, add this parameter to the command line:

   DISABLETELEMETRY=1

6. To block the add-in from checking for updates, add the following parameter to the command line:

   DISABLECHECKFORUPDATES=1

   This will disable both automatic update queries and the ones performed manually by users.

7. If you want to only deploy the Free Edition, configure the following command line:

   msiexec /i OfficeTimeline.msi

Note: If you want to assign Office Timeline license keys to specific users using GPOs or other Windows-specific systems, please follow these steps. 

Corporate Firewall

If automatic activation fails due to a corporate firewall and you would like automatic activation to function, you will need to make exclusions in the firewall for the Office Timeline website and activation service:

• activation.officetimeline.com:443 HTTP/1.1
• www.officetimeline.com:443 HTTP/1.1

Upgrading an Existing Office Timeline Deployment to Pro, Pro+ or Expert

If the Office Timeline Add-in is already installed on end-user machines, either through a previous automated deployment or manual install, you need to be aware of some things for a smooth upgrade:

A) Upgrading to Expert Edition

• Office Timeline version 7.x is an older release that does not contain Expert Edition. A major update to Office Timeline was released in May 2024, version 8, which contains Expert Edition (with custom themes, theme sharing, custom templates, and multi-source Jira imports).
• Office Timeline Free, Basic, Pro, Pro+, and Expert Editions are bundled into a single executable file. The only thing that differentiates what the user sees (Free, Basic, Pro, Pro+, or Expert Edition) is the Office Timeline license file. This license file is stored here: %ProgramData%\Office Timeline\Current\OfficeTimeline.dll.license
  
  
• When upgrading your license from Basic, Pro or Pro+ to Expert Edition, you will no longer be able to activate version 7.x with the same key.  You will only be able to activate version 8.0 or newer bits. If users try to activate version 7.x with the Expert Edition key, it will not activate and users will see “Free Edition” in the ribbon. This means that when we upgrade the key, you’ll need to make sure that all users are prepared to use version 8.x moving forward and they will not be installing or activating version 7.x.
  
  
• When you do an automated roll-out with the latest bits, during installation, Expert Edition gets installed and automatically activated for the end user. The MSI package you create (per the instructions above), will look for a command line parameter LICENSEKEY; If this parameter exists, the install will activate the local machine during roll-out. This process overwrites any existing Office Timeline license (e.g. Pro or Pro+ Edition license). In order for activation to happen during roll-out, you’ll want to make sure that the communication from PowerPoint/Office Timeline to the Internet is not blocked by your firewall. The benefit of doing a deployment and pushing it out is that setup overwrites the existing license and activates Expert Edition for the end user. End users will not need to go to Help > About > Refresh. Another benefit of a roll-out is that no uninstall of the existing installation is necessary. Office Timeline will automatically uninstall previous versions before installing 6.x.
  
  
• If you create an install package of version 8.x (Expert Edition) that users can pull from an internal website and do the install themselves, their existing license should be automatically updated. In case it isn’t, users will need to refresh the license manually by pressing Help > About > Refresh on the Office Timeline ribbon in PowerPoint in order to see Expert Edition. 
  
  
• If a user has never had Office Timeline installed on their machine and they install the latest release via any means (manual install, custom package from intranet portal, or roll-out), they will see Expert Edition.

B) Upgrading to Pro+ Edition

• Office Timeline version 5.x is an older release that does not contain Pro+ Edition. A major update to Office Timeline was released in June 2021, version 6.0, which contains Pro+ Edition (Sub-Swimlane and Multiple Timescales functionality).
• Office Timeline Free, Basic, Pro, Pro+, and Expert Editions are bundled into a single executable file. The only thing that differentiates what the user sees (Free, Basic, Pro, Pro+, or Expert Edition) is the Office Timeline license file. This license file is stored here: %ProgramData%\Office Timeline\Current\OfficeTimeline.dll.license
• When upgrading your license from Basic or Pro to Pro+ Edition, you will no longer be able to activate version 5.x with the same key.  You will only be able to activate version 6.0 or newer bits. If users try to activate version 5.x with the Pro+ Edition key, it will not activate and users will see “Free Edition” in the ribbon. This means that when we upgrade the key, you’ll need to make sure that all users are prepared to use version 6.x moving forward and they will not be installing or activating version 5.x.
• When you do an automated roll-out with the latest bits, during installation, Pro+ Edition gets installed and automatically activated for the end user. The MSI package you create (per the instructions above), will look for a command line parameter LICENSEKEY; If this parameter exists, the install will activate the local machine during roll-out. This process overwrites any existing Office Timeline license (e.g. Basic or Pro Edition license). In order for activation to happen during roll-out, you’ll want to make sure that the communication from PowerPoint/Office Timeline to the Internet is not blocked by your firewall. The benefit of doing a deployment and pushing it out is that setup overwrites the existing license and activates Pro+ Edition for the end user. End users will not need to go to Help > About > Refresh. Another benefit of a roll-out is that no uninstall of the existing installation is necessary. Office Timeline will automatically uninstall previous versions before installing 6.x.
• If you create an install package of version 6.x (Pro+ Edition) that users can pull from an internal website and do the install themselves, their existing license should be automatically updated. In case it isn’t, users will need to refresh the license manually by pressing Help > About > Refresh on the Office Timeline ribbon in PowerPoint in order to see Pro+ Edition. 
• If a user has never had Office Timeline installed on their machine and they install the latest release via any means (manual install, custom package from intranet portal, or roll-out), they will see Pro+ Edition.

C) Upgrading to Pro Edition

• Office Timeline version 3.x is an older release that does not contain Pro Edition or the drag & drop UI. A major update to Office Timeline was released in October, 2019, version 4.0, which contains Pro Edition (Swimlane functionality) and the drag & drop UI.
• Office Timeline Free, Basic, Pro, Pro+, and Expert Editions are bundled into a single executable file. The only thing that differentiates what the user sees (Free, Basic, Pro, Pro+, or Expert Edition) is the Office Timeline license file. This license file is stored here: %ProgramData%\Office Timeline\Current\OfficeTimeline.dll.license
• When upgrading your license from Basic Edition to Pro Edition on a build older than 4.x, you will no longer be able to activate the old build (e.g. version 3.x) with the same key.  You will only be able to activate version 4.0 or newer bits. If users try to activate an older version (e.g. version 3.x) with the Pro Edition key, it will not activate and users will see “Free Edition” in the ribbon. This means that when we upgrade the key, you’ll need to make sure that all users are prepared to use version 4.x or higher moving forward and they will not be installing or activating older versions.
• When you do an automated roll-out with the latest bits, during installation, Pro Edition gets installed and automatically activated for the end user. The MSI package you create (per the instructions above), will look for a command line parameter LICENSEKEY; If this parameter exists, the install will activate the local machine during roll-out. This process overwrites any existing Office Timeline license (e.g. Basic Edition license). In order for activation to happen during roll-out, you’ll want to make sure that the communication from PowerPoint/Office Timeline to the Internet is not blocked by your firewall. The benefit of doing a deployment and pushing it out is that setup overwrites the existing license and activates Pro Edition for the end user. End users will not need to go to Help > About > Refresh. Another benefit of a roll-out is that no uninstall of the existing installation is necessary. Office Timeline will automatically uninstall previous versions before installing the latest build.
• If you create an install package of version 4.x or higher (versions containing Pro Edition) that users can pull from an internal website and do the install themselves, they will need to refresh the license manually by pressing Help > About > Refresh on the Office Timeline ribbon in PowerPoint in order to see Pro Edition. If existing users do not refresh their license, even if they are on version 4.x (or higher), they will see the Basic Edition (formerly named Plus Edition). This is because an existing Basic user already had Basic Edition activated and we do not update the license file during a manual install. The same is true if existing Basic users who already have Office Timeline 3.x install the latest version of Office Timeline from our website. They too will need to press Help > About > Refresh in order to get Pro Edition to appear.
• If a user has never had Office Timeline installed on their machine and they install the latest release via any means (manual install, custom package from intranet portal, or roll-out), they will see Pro Edition.