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 plan, 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

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

• Office Timeline plans are bundled into a single executable file. The only thing that differentiates what the user sees is the Office Timeline license file. This license file is stored here: %ProgramData%\Office Timeline\Current\OfficeTimeline.dll.license
• Office Timeline plans are bundled into a single executable file. The only thing that differentiates what the user sees is the Office Timeline license file. This license file is stored here: %ProgramData%\Office Timeline\Current\OfficeTimeline.dll.license
  
  
• When upgrading your license to Expert, 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 key, it will not activate and users will see “Office Timeline Free” 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 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. 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 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) that users can pull from an internal website and do the installation 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. 
  
  
• 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.

B) Upgrading to Plus

• Office Timeline version 5.x is an older release that does not contain Plus. A major update to Office Timeline was released in June 2021, version 6.0, which contains Plus (Sub-Swimlane and Multiple Timescales functionality).
• Office Timeline plans are bundled into a single executable file. The only thing that differentiates what the user sees is the Office Timeline license file. This license file is stored here: %ProgramData%\Office Timeline\Current\OfficeTimeline.dll.license
• When upgrading your license from Lite or Pro to Plus plans, 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 Plus license key, it will not activate and users will see “Office Timeline Free” 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, Plus 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. 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 Plus 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 (Plus) that users can pull from an internal website and do the installation 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 Plus. 
• 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 Plus.