Scribble Code Timeline User guide
Aeon Timeline is a powerful timeline tool for creative thinking. It can be used to create timelines for stories, projects, or any other purpose. The software allows you to create multiple arcs, add events and entities, and track relationships between them.
Advertisement
Advertisement
AEON TIMELINE
THE TIMELINE TOOL FOR CREATIVE THINKING.
BY SCRIBBLE CODE
FOR MAC OS X AND WINDOWS
(WINDOWS USER GUIDE) w w w. s c r i b b l e c o d e . c o m
• s u p p o r t @ s c r i b b l e c o d e . c o m
Introduction!
Major Concepts!
Meta-data, Notes and Exporting!
Getting Started!
User Interface!
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
Table of Contents
i
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Measuring Distances Between Events!
Event Durations and End Dates!
Resolving Ambiguity of Partial Dates!
Filtering!
External Links and Images!
External Links in the Inspector!
Adding External Links to an Event!
Displaying Images or Icons on the Timeline!
How External Links are Maintained!
Timeline Styles and Precision!
Custom (Fantasy) Calendars!
Timeline Styles and Precision for Custom Calendars!
Import/Export, Printing, and Synchronizing!
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
ii
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Settings, Preferences, and Files!
Contact and Support!
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
iii
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Introduction
Mission Statement
Many traditional timeline applications are written to suit a single need: to create an attractive display of onedimensional time. They are presentational, static, and perfectly suited to overhead slides and projectors.
Aeon Timeline aims to be different. The idea began as a conversation amongst writers, but has flourished into a timeline application suitable for a range of disciplines.
The design of Aeon Timeline has been shaped by six guiding principles:
1. Real-world Interactions: More than just dots on a line, the tool should capture the interaction between an event, and the people, places and ideas that made that event happen.
2. Aid Creativity and Works-in-Progress: It should be easy to create and modify information on the fly in an unobtrusive manner. The user should never have to jump through hoops just because they want to shift the last fifteen events to the previous year.
3. Simple Navigation: Large timelines can be hard to visualise and navigate. Look at it in its entirety and you cannot see the detail. Focus on the detail and you lose all context. The tool should never leave the user unsure of where they are in their timeline, and where they want to go next. And it should get them there as quickly as possible.
4. Hidden complexity: The tool should allow the user to focus on what matters to them right now. At every moment, a huge cast of people are diverging and intersecting in ways that could change their future forever. You know that, and you have recorded half of it, but right now, all you want to know is who was in the back alley behind the supermarket when the delivery driver was murdered.
5. Concurrent Arcs: The tool should allow concurrent story arcs to be displayed on the one timeline, but the user should be able to group the events for visual clarity. Any number of ideas will share an overlapping timeline, with interwoven events that bear no resemblance to each other aside from their neighbouring dates. Sometimes, you might want to consider alternative paths that somebody could take as separate branches of the same timeline, or model the additional mischief someone could achieve if they used a time machine to modify their history.
6. Data freedom: Your timeline is your data, nor ours. The tool should provide the ability to record the data the user wants to record, and transfer that data wherever they want to use it.
New ideas and suggestions are implemented if they will integrate into the existing application and improve the application against these six fields.
A Writer’s Fantasy
Aeon Timeline is the only timeline tool available on the Windows market that allows the user to create their own custom Fantasy Calendar system.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
1
Just because your timeline is set off-world, on a planet with 10 hour days and 100 day years, divided into 5 seasons named after a different culture's Gods, doesn't mean you should have to draw your timeline by hand.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
2
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Major Concepts
This section provides a brief overview of the major concepts and timeline elements you need to get the most from your experience using Aeon Timeline. This, along with the section on the User Interface, is recommended reading for anyone wishing to use Aeon Timeline. Once you have a grasp of these main concepts and the key interface components, you should find Aeon Timeline an intuitive tool to use, and may only need to refer to the remainder of this document if you get stuck with a particular issue.
The description of each of these concepts is kept reasonably brief. For more information, you may wish to read further into the manual.
Calendars
Calendars form the basis of Aeon Timeline date calculations. They define the way time is divided into days, weeks, months, years and eras. Aeon Timeline ships with an implementation of the standard Gregorian Calendar, which will be the only calendar many users will need. In addition to this, Aeon Timeline has specific calendar types to allow the user to plot relative time (such as the number of weeks, days or hours counting from zero).
Aeon Timeline allows users to define their own custom Fantasy Calendars, which keeps the same basic structure of days, weeks, months, years, and eras, but allows the user to configure the names, length and number of each of these time periods to create alternative calendar systems for Fantasy or Science Fiction works. Every calendar is defined to be infinite in both directions, including one backward counting era stretching into the past (our equivalent of BC), and another forward counting era stretching into the future
(our equivalent of AD).
The same calendar can be used as the basis for any number of Timeline projects.
Although calendars must be defined to stretch infinitely in both directions, timelines have their own start and end dates that limit your timeline to the specific period within the calendar system.
Timelines
The Timeline is the principal component of an Aeon Timeline document. In its most basic form, a timeline contains a start and end date, and arranges a sequence of events into chronological order.
In Aeon Timeline, timelines are based on a selected calendar, each timeline contains not only the events that occur within a time period, but also the entities (people, places, and more) relevant to those events, and the individual arcs that group parallel events into logical sequences.
Events
A timeline is composed of a series of events: an occurrence that happens at a particular time and place for a given duration.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
3
In Aeon Timeline, events are graphically represented on the timeline using their title, start date, and end date. Additional meta-data allows the user to record more information about the event, including a label which dictates the colour of the event in the timeline, tags (keywords) for filtering different events, and a notes section to record additional information about the event for later reference and exporting. Each event is allocated to an arc, which allows events to be logically grouped to show parallel sequences of events.
In addition to this, Aeon Timeline can be used to record the people, places and objects (known as Entities) that are associated with the event.
Entities
An entity is a person, a building, a company, a place, an idea, an object, a smoking gun. It can represent anything that can be associated with a series of events. Entities can be associated with any number of events, allowing you to examine a person's history, or track an object through a series of events to ensure continuity.
Special events can represent an entity's creation (birth, construction,etc.) and destruction (death, etc.), which allows Aeon Timeline to display the entity's age alongside every associated event.
Relationships
Relationships mark the correspondence between an event and an entity. On the timeline interface, relationships are marked at the intersection between events and entities, and can indicate that a person observed an event take place, or actually participated in the event, or that an event occurred at a particular building.
An event can have relationships with any number of entities, and an entity relationships with any number of events, but There are two special relationships used to mark the creation and destruction of entities. These take on a suitable name depending on the type of entity (Birth/Death for a Person, etc). Each entity is limited to at most one creation event and one destruction event.
Arcs
An arc represents a parallel sequence of events, physically or logically separated from other events in the timeline, but taking place at the same time.
Using arcs, users can separate events into different logical threads to tell parallel stories, to plot alternative timelines for the same set of characters, or even to ensure consistency when dealing with time travel.
Every timeline has a Global Arc, which is intended to represent global events that would have an effect across all other Arcs. This might represent significant historic events, such as a war or the fall of the Berlin
Wall, or weather events, such as a storm or flood, among others.
The Global Arc serves as the default arc if the user does not setup other Story Arcs.
Tags and Filters
As previously noted, events in Aeon Timeline can be assigned any number of additional tags (keywords).
You can use tags to group them with similar events, but as each event has multiple tags, an event can belong
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
4
to multiple groups, and you can use combinations of tags to narrow groups down further. Tags can also be used to mark Important events, which allows you to filter out background or trivial events.
Aeon Timeline allows the user to filter the displayed events according to not only tags, but also arcs, labels and relationships with entities. By applying these filters, you can quickly narrow down the number of events that are visible and focus only on events that interest you. Filtering events makes a large number of tasks easier, including planning, checking consistency, and eliminating distraction.
The filtering system is extremely flexible: if multiple tags or entities are selected, the user can also decide whether events need to match any or all of the selected items to be displayed.
If you have a set of filters you use regularly, you can save these as part of your timeline, and quickly switch from one to another.
And all within easy reach from a header bar at the top of the timeline.
Meta-data, Notes and Exporting
Aeon Timeline allows you to record other information, such as notes about particular events, entities or arcs.
Aeon Timeline comes with a number of exporters to move your timeline data from Aeon Timeline to another format or application, including exporting as images and HTML tables, or exporting your data in a format that can be read by other applications.
Aeon Timeline for Windows will soon include a Scrivener Synchronization option to link events in Aeon
Timeline with documents in Scrivener. This functionality already exists in the Mac version, but requires
Scrivener 2.0, which has not yet been released on Windows.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
5
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Getting Started
This section provides instructions for downloading and installing Aeon Timeline, and creating your very first timeline. Once the application is installed and you have created a timeline, it is strongly recommended that you read the section on Major Concepts and the section on the User Interface so that you have a good grounding on your use of the application.
Installation
Via Scribble Code Website
Aeon Timeline is available as an executable file (.exe) from the Scribble Code website. Double-click the executable file once it has finished downloading to run the installer. Follow the instructions to install Aeon
Timeline onto your computer.
Application Updates
Aeon Timeline will be updated from time to time with new features or bug fixes. To ensure the best possible user experience, you should ensure that you keep your application up to date.
The easiest way to do this is via Automatic Updates, which are automatically enabled when you first run the application. If you do not wish to use automatic updates, you can disable them via the Options window found under the Tools menu. If you turn automatic updates off, you should check for updates yourself periodically by selecting “Check for Updates” from the Help menu.
Launching Aeon Timeline
Launch Aeon Timeline by double clicking on its icon on the Desktop or in the Start Menu.
The first time the application is run, you will be presented with the Welcome Screen. The Welcome Screen allows you to create a timeline using an existing calendar, manage and create custom calendars, or open an existing or example timeline to view.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
6
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
The Welcome screen, allowing the user to create and manage custom calendars, create a new timeline from a selected calendar, or open existing and example timelines.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
7
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Open an Example Timeline
A good way to get started using Aeon Timeline is to open one of the provided Example Timelines.
Selecting and opening an Example Timeline from the Welcome Screen.
When you select an example timeline, you will be asked to save a copy of it to your hard drive. This allows you to play around with the example timeline as much as much as you like, without risking corrupting the original file. Any time you wish to revert to the original file again, you can simply return to the Welcome
Screen and re-select the Example Timeline to save a new copy.
You can access a video screencast which uses the example timeline to demonstrate features of Aeon Timeline via our website at http://www.scribblecode.com
Creating a New Timeline
You can bring up the Welcome Screen at any time by selecting “New” from the File menu. To create a new timeline, select either Standard Calendars or Custom Calendars from the source list, and then select which calendar you wish to use for your timeline (initially, there will be no custom calendars available for you to select).
To create a timeline with your selected calendar, either select the calendar and click Choose, or double-click on the calendar you wish to use.
By default, the start and end dates for your timeline will span a single year in the modern era. You can change the start and end dates for your timeline by clicking on the "Timeline Settings" button in the toolbar.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
8
User Interface
Aeon Timeline is designed to be intuitive and unobtrusive, assisting with your workflow where possible, while presenting simple and intuitive options and staying out of your way. Each interface element has been integrated to work seamlessly with the other elements, and to respond intuitively to user actions.
Interface Overview
The Aeon Timeline interface is composed of 6 main user interface elements, although they may not all be visible at any given time.
A screenshot of the Aeon Timeline interface, with each of the six main interface elements labelled.
1. Toolbar: Provides access to frequently used tools to add, delete and edit timeline elements, and show and hide user interface elements.
2. Filter Bar: Allows the user to filter the displayed events according to Tags, Entities, Arcs, and Labels.
The gear menu provides access to actions such as clearing, saving, and loading the filter, and changing the logic applied by the filter. The Filter Bar can be shown or hidden using a toolbar or menu option.
The filter is inactive when the Filter Bar is hidden.
3. Timeline View: The main view in the timeline, composed of a timeline margin across the top, an optional list of Arcs down the side, and the events that have been added to the timeline. Events can either be grouped according to their Arc, or displayed in strict chronological order. When the Relationship
View is visible, events are arranged with horizontal space between each event. When the Relationship
View is hidden, events are shown in their exact position.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
9
4. Relationship View: Shows the user the correlation between Entities and Events. This can be configured to display the age of entities alongside the events. The Relationship View can be shown or hidden using a toolbar or menu option. When Relationship View is visible, events in the Timeline View are arranged with horizontal space between each event to provide space for the relationship intersections.
5. Context Bar: Shows the wider context of the area currently visible in the Timeline View. The position of the Timeline View is indicated by the lens at the centre of the view. The zoom level of the Context Bar adjusts with the Timeline View, so that it always displays the Timeline View’s position in context without zooming out so far that the indicated area is meaningless. Events are indicated by dots along the top row of the Context Bar. The user can change the position of the Timeline View by dragging or doubleclicking on the Context Bar, and modify the zoom by dragging the lens.
6. Inspector: Provides additional information about the currently selected Event or Entity, and provides a convenient means to modify information about the selected element. The Inspector can be shown or hidden using a toolbar or menu option.
The Inspector and Relationships View are contained within split planes that allow the user to increase or decrease the space allocated for those elements by dragging the border between the element and the Timeline
View.
Timeline Navigation
One of the challenges when using timeline software is the ability to navigate the timeline easily, so that you can zoom in and view an area in detail, without losing the ability to understand the wider context and quickly access other sections of the timeline.
Aeon Timeline provides many options for the user to quickly navigate their way around the timeline.
Controlling Zoom
By zooming in and out of the timeline, you can change the visible time span in the main Timeline View. If you have a lot of events in a small area, you will want to zoom in so that the events are more spaced out and you can understand them in a linear context. At other times, you may wish to zoom out so you can look at events across a much wider area of your timeline.
The zoom level can be modified in Aeon Timeline in several different ways:
1. Toolbar and Menu options: Zoom In and Zoom Out menu and toolbar options will decrease or increase the time span shown in the Timeline View respectively.
2. Scroll Wheel: Normally, the scroll wheel is used to scroll the Timeline View to a new position in the timeline. However, when holding down the Ctrl key, the scroll wheel instead affects the zoom of the timeline. When using Ctrl-scrolling for zooming, the location of the mouse position will remain at a fixed location in the timeline.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
10
3. Context Bar Lens: Finally, you can modify the current zoom level by clicking and dragging on the edge of the lens in the Context Bar. This allows you to set the scroll to an exact level of your preference.
Typically, the second option of using Ctrl-scrolling will provide the most efficient means of zooming in and out on a specific point in the timeline, and provide the easiest means to navigate around the timeline.
Search
The Search toolbar or menu option allows the user to search for events with specific text in their titles. If you wish to quickly locate or jump to a particular event, and you know some of the text of the title, the search option will allow you to quickly navigate to that event. The Find Previous and Find Next menu options will allow you to jump between several events that contain the search text.
Jump to Date
If you wish to navigate to a specific date, you can use the Jump to Date menu option or keyboard shortcut to quickly specify the date you wish to navigate to.
Next / Previous Event
You can quickly jump from one event to the next or previous event (chronologically) by using the Previous
Event and Next Event menu option or keyboard shortcut.
Context Bar
You can navigate to surrounding areas of the timeline by dragging the area of the timeline under the lens of the Context Bar, or by double clicking on a location in the Context Bar.
Filtering
If there are too many events visible on the screen, and you are unable to focus on the events that you are interested in, you can apply a filter to limit the events visible on the screen. Filtering allows you to view only events for a given combination of Label, Tag, Entity, or Arc, including several different options such as Match
Any/Match All.
Filters that you expect to use regularly can be saved, and then quickly re-enabled via the Action (Gear) menu in the Filter Bar.
Manipulating Data
The Timeline View and Relationship View allow the user to manipulate data elements directly within the views via a mouse.
Adding Events
Events can be added using toolbar and menu commands, and then specifying the date and arc in the Add
Event sheet. Alternatively, you can add an event by double clicking anywhere within the Timeline View, in which case the Add Event sheet will be pre-populated with the date and Arc based on the location of the click.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
11
Adding Entities and Arcs
Entities and Arcs can be added via toolbar and menu commands.
Selecting Elements
You can select an interface item by clicking on it in either the Timeline View or the Relationship View. Only one entity can be selected at a time, but you can select multiple events at once by clicking and dragging a rectangle around the events you wish to select, or by holding Shift or Ctrl as you click to add or remove events from the current selection.
Once an event or entity has been selected, you can modify information about that element in the Inspector.
Moving, Editing and Deleting Elements
There are a number of ways the user can directly manipulate elements from within the Aeon Timeline interface:
• You can change the date of selected events by dragging them to a new location in the timeline. The granularity affected by the drag changes with the current zoom level, such that you can change the hour or minute when zoomed in to view a single day, but those values will remain fixed if you are viewing an entire year.
• By holding the Alt key as you drag, you can change the end date of the selected events.
• You can change the position of selected event by using the left and right arrow keys.
• You can change which arc an event belongs to by dragging it vertically to a different arc.
• Dragging arcs or entities allows you to change their display order.
• Double-clicking on either an event title or entity name allows you to edit the name of the element in its current location instead of navigating to the Inspector.
• Right-clicking on a selected event brings up a menu that allows you to change the Label (colour) of the selected events, or to add or remove a tag from selected events.
• You can delete a selected element (event or entity) by using the toolbar or menu options, or with the
Ctrl-Delete keyboard shortcut.
Modifying Relationships
The relationship between events and entities is indicated at the intersection between the two elements. Clicking on an intersection brings up a menu that allows you to set the relationship between the two elements.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
12
Changing a relationship between an event and entity by clicking at the intersection point between the two.
Managing Arcs and Entities
You can manage the arcs you have created by using the Arcs toolbar button, or the Manage Arcs menu option
(under the Timeline menu). The Manage Arcs sheet allows you to add, delete, or rename arcs, and add additional information in a notes section.
Along with the direct manipulation options listed above, you can also manage the entities you have created using the Manage Entities sheet, similarly accessible from the Entities toolbar button or the Manage Entities menu option.
Show/Hide Arcs and Entities
There may be times where you want to reduce the amount of visual clutter on the screen, and only focus on a smaller number of arcs or entities. You can do this using the Toggle Items toolbar and menu option.
Using the Toggle Items Panel the user can:
• Select whether entities and arcs are hidden or displayed
• Change the order of entities and arcs in the interface
For convenience, buttons are included to select None or All of the items in the list. You can also choose to
Match Events, which will select only those arcs/entities that are associated with the currently displayed events.
Locking and Unlocking Events
If you have an event with a fixed date that you don’t want moved by an accidental mouse click, you can lock the event by clicking on the lock symbol displayed in the date area of the inspector. Clicking on the lock symbol again will unlock the event.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
13
Alternatively, you can lock all selected events by choosing the Lock and Unlock menu item, toolbar item, or keyboard shortcut.
When an event is locked, you will be able to edit its date in the Inspector, but you will not be able to move the event using the mouse or keyboard to manipulate the event directly in the Timeline View.
Measuring Distances Between Events
Aeon Timeline allows you to measure the distance between two events by holding down Alt-Shift while click-dragging between two events.
Measuring the distance between events by pressing Alt-Shift while dragging from one event to another
To do this, first hold the Alt and Shift keys while clicking on the event you want to measure from, and continue to hold the mouse button down as you move the mouse on top of other events. Aeon Timeline will draw a blue line anchored to your original click position, and each time you move the mouse over an event it will report the amount of time that has elapsed between the two events.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
14
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Event Durations and End Dates
Events in Aeon Timeline can vary from single points in time (where the start and end date for the event are the same) to events that occur over a long time period. This is represented in Aeon Timeline by two separate but intrinsically linked event properties: the span (duration) and the end date.
As shown in the Inspector screenshot below, the end date and the span are linked together, such that changing one value will change the other one automatically to match. The start date is considered independent, so changing the duration will always affect the end date rather than the start date.
The Dates section of the inspector, showing the ability to set either an End Date or a Span (duration).
Note: to avoid any confusion, the dates represented above use the Australian date format, which places the day before the month. This is user configurable, but will default to automatically using your localization settings to determine the date order.
Partial Date Information
In many cases it is undesirable to provide complete date information down to the second for every event added to the timeline. In the best of cases it may be simply irrelevant, but in other cases, the information may be unknown: thus requiring the user to insert incorrect information into the timeline.
To avoid this problem, Aeon Timeline allows the user to configure how specific the provided date information should be for every event in the timeline. For some events, supplying the complete time down to the second may be important, while for others, specifying a year is sufficient.
Resolving Ambiguity of Partial Dates
As Aeon Timeline is displaying events along a continuous line, a decision still needs to be made regarding where an event with partial date information should be displayed. Specifying only partial date information can lead to ambiguity relating to whether the specified end date is considered to be inclusive or exclusive.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
15
Aeon Timeline considers the specified partial information for an end date as inclusive. Where information is omitted, Aeon Timeline displays events on the timeline according to the following rules:
Start Dates
• If time is not specified, default to the beginning of the specified day (represented as 00:00:00).
• If the day of the month is not specified, default to the beginning of the month.
• If the month is not specified, default to the beginning of the year.
End Dates
• If the time is not specified, default to the end of the day (represented as 24:00:00)
• If the day of the month is not specified, default to the end of the month.
• If the month is not specified, default to the end of the year.
The following four screenshots illustrate how this works. All four examples use the same start and end dates
(and therefore, the same duration), and would be displayed at exactly the same location on the timeline. As with the previous screenshots, note that this is using the Australian date format of day/month.
Year-only precision for an event.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
16
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Month+Year display using the same dates as the screenshot above.
Day+Month+Year display using the same dates as the screenshot above.
Day+Month+Year + Time display using the same dates as the screenshot above.
Representing Midnight
The last screenshot shows that midnight is represented differently for the start and end dates of an event.
Under most mathematical interpretations, midnight is considered to belong to the following morning rather than the night before. As a result, it is typical for most 24 hour clocks to start at 00:00:00 (midnight) and end at 23:59:59.
Aeon Timeline follows this approach for the start date of a timeline.
If midnight occurs as an end date, however, we instead represent it as the end of the previous day. The end date above, for instance, is represented as “31-12-1802 24:00:00”. This is mathematically identical to the date
“01-01-1803 00:00:00”, as you would expect to see if you add 2 years to 01-01-1801, and in fact, Aeon Timeline internally stores the date in this way.
Who do we choose this different presentation of midnight for end dates then?
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
17
It comes back to user’s expectations around partially specified dates, the decision to represent partial dates as inclusive, and the need for Aeon Timeline to remain consistent throughout.
To provide a brief explanation, consider the case of a two-day event where the time is specified precisely.
Using the more typical representation, this would be displayed as follows and remain unquestioned by most users.
A potential representation of a date with two days duration, where midnight is always treated as 00:00:00
However, if the user chose not to show the time as above, using this standard format the exact same dates would then be represented as follows:
The consequence of representing the end date as above is that most users will perceive an error when the time component is removed.
To many people, this would now appear to be an error: an event starting on Monday and lasting two days should end on Tuesday, not Wednesday. To take the point further, if a project was starting in January and lasting for three months, most users would expect to say it runs from January until March.
This is why Aeon Timeline treats partially specified end dates as inclusive, so that the event above can be represented with the more intuitive:
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
The correct representation of the end date, where the end date is considered inclusive.
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
18
When time display is subsequently enabled, using a 24:00:00 representation of the end date is necessary so that switching time display on and off doesn’t cause the end date to suddenly jump to 00:00:00 on a different day:
In order to maintain the inclusive end date shown above, the midnight end date is shown as 24:00:00 of the night before rather than suddenly jumping to 00:00:00 on a different day.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
19
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Filtering
As timelines grow in size and complexity, there may reach a point where the timeline contains more information than can be displayed on screen in a user-friendly and understandable manner. Hiding particular arcs or entities, and increasing the zoom to view a smaller timespan may help, but there will be times where it is preferable to reduce the number of events displayed on the timeline as well.
Aeon Timeline contains a flexible filtering system to allow users to concentrate on just the events they want to deal with at the present time.
Filter Bar
The Filter Bar provides access to a number of tools and options to filter events.
The Filter Bar and Filter Action (Gear) Menu.
Show/Hide Filter Bar
The user can show or hide the Filter Bar using the Filter toolbar button. Filtering is only applied when the
Filter Bar is visible. As soon as the Filter Bar is hidden, the filtering will be removed and all events will be displayed.
The Filter Bar remembers its settings from the last time it was hidden, and will automatically apply the lastused filter when visible.
Filter Criteria
Events can be filtered based on four criteria displayed in drop-down menus across the filter bar:
1. Tag: Tags are assigned to events in the Inspector. You can choose to show only those events with the tags you select. As events can have multiple tags, you can use the Filter Action (Gear) menu to specify whether events need to match all selected tags, or any of the selected tags, in order to be displayed.
2. Entity: You can choose to shown only those events that have relationships with the entities you select.
As events can have relationships with multiple entities, you can use the Filter Action (Gear) menu to
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
20
specify whether events need to match all selected entities, or any of the selected entities, in order to be displayed.
3. Arc: You can choose to show only those events that match the arcs you select. As each event can only have a single arc, an event will be displayed if it is in any of the arcs you specify.
4. Label: You can choose to show only those events that match the labels you select. As each event can only have a single label, an event will be displayed if it is has any of the labels you specify.
5. Completed: You can choose to show only events that have been marked (or not marked) as completed.
Criteria with no selections will have (None) displayed in the drop-down, and will not be included in any filtering activity.
Filter Logic
The Filter Action (Gear) menu allows you to specify the logic that the filter applies, including options to:
1. Filter Logic - Match All/Any Criteria: When Match Any Criteria is selected, an event will be displayed if it matches any active criteria. When Match All Criteria is selected, an event must match all active criteria before it is displayed.
2. Tags - Match Any/All: When Match Any is selected, an event must contain at least one of the selected tags to meet the Tag criteria. When Match All is selected, an event must contain all selected tags to meet the Tag criteria.
3. Entities - Match Any/All: When Match Any is selected, an event must have a relationship with at least one of the selected entities to meet the Entity criteria. When Match All is selected, an event have a relationship with all selected entities to meet the Entity criteria.
Clearing Filters
You can clear all selected filter options by choosing the Clear Filter item from the Filter Action (Gear) menu.
Toggle Items to Match
When you apply a filter, you reduce the number of events that are visible on the screen. Often, it is also appropriate to adjust the displayed arcs and entities to match the applied filter, eliminating further clutter from the screen.
If you select Toggle Items to Match from the Filter Action (Gear) menu, Aeon Timeline will only display arcs and entities that are relevant to events matching that filter.
Note that this action applies only at the time you select the menu item, and will not continue to adjust the displayed arcs and entities as you modify the filter. You will need to select the option again if you wish to apply the action again.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
21
Saving/Loading Filters
Filters may involve complex criteria with many combinations of tags, entities, labels and arcs, which would make it tedious to set the same filtering criteria over and over again.
To make the use of filters more efficient, Aeon Timeline includes the ability to Save and Load filters using the
Filter Action (Gear) menu in the Filter Bar.
When saving a filter, Aeon Timeline prompts the user to specify a unique name for the filter. Filters are saved with all of the selected criteria, as well as the logic that was applied at the time the filter was saved.
Once a filter has been saved, its name will be added to the Load menu item in the Filter Action (Gear) menu.
You can quickly apply a saved filter by selecting its name from the Load menu. The selected filter will be applied with the saved criteria and logic.
You can rename or delete existing filters by choosing the Manage... item in the Filter Action (Gear) menu.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
22
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
External Links and Images
Aeon Timeline allows the user to link events with images, websites, and other documents stored externally to the Aeon Timeline file. Externally linked images can be displayed directly on the timeline, and all externally linked files can be opened using their default application from directly within Aeon Timeline.
This allows users to piece together timelines comprised of externally linked documents, such as historic documents, court decisions, email correspondence, or background evidence and supporting information related to a particular event.
In addition to providing a way to access supporting documents, external links can be used to add images to your timeline, as per the screenshot below.
Externally linked images displayed on the timeline and in the Inspector.
External Links in the Inspector
Regardless of display settings, all external links for a document are listed in the External Links table in the
Inspector, as shown in the screenshots below:
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
23
The External Links table in the Inspector.
External Links can be edited directly within this table, allowing the user to modify the Link description and the link’s URL (most suitable for website links).
In addition to this, a series of buttons under the table allow the user to perform the following actions (listed in order from the left-most button to the right):
Browse To Add: Bring up an Open Panel to add an additional link.
Add: Insert a new link directly into the table which can be subsequently edited by hand (recommended for website URLs only).
Remove: Remove the selected external link from the event.
Open in Default Application: Opens the selected linked file using the default application for that file type
(eg. website URLs will open in a browser).
Open Containing Folder: Opens Windows Explorer to the location for the selected linked file.
Adding External Links to an Event
External Links are added to an event using any of the following techniques:
• Drag a file from Windows Explorer (file system), or the website icon from a browser, directly on top of the target event.
• Select the target event, and drag a file from Windows Explorer into the External Links table in the Inspector (see above).
• Under the External Links table in the Inspector, click on the Browse button (the icon with a folder and a plus symbol) and select the appropriate file using the Open Panel.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
24
• Click on the Add button immediately next to the Browse button, and directly edit the link path (recommended for websites only).
Displaying Images or Icons on the Timeline
If you wish to display linked images or the icons for linked documents on the timeline, you can do so using the External Links tab in Timeline Settings:
The External Links Settings tab
Opening External Links
You can open an External Link in one of two ways:
1. Selecting the link you want to open in the External Links table in the Inspector, and clicking on the
“Open in Default Application” button immediately below the table.
2. By double clicking on an image or icon in the main timeline view.
Both of these options will open the linked file in the default application set for that file type on your computer.
How External Links are Maintained
The way Aeon Timeline manages external links is designed to cater for a variety of potential users and use cases.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
25
Most users working on a single computer will not need any awareness or understanding of how these links are maintained, but this information is highly relevant for users who wish to maintain their timeline and external links across multiple computers.
Unlike some file package formats including Scrivener Projects and Microsoft Word, Aeon Timeline does not make a copy of linked resources inside the Aeon Timeline file. Instead, it maintains a link to the document’s external location on the file system.
There are several benefits to this approach, the most critical of which being the following:
• Aeon Timeline can retain a light and portable XML file format
• As documents are not copied, Aeon Timeline will always be able to link to the most recent version of the file where an internally copied document would “go stale”.
The downside to this approach is that the user may move or delete events in their file system, which may in turn lead to broken links (documents that cannot be found by Aeon Timeline).
To counteract this, Aeon Timeline keeps track of linked files using two separate means:
Relative Path: Aeon Timeline records the relative path from where the timeline file is stored to where the externally linked file is stored, and looks for a document with the same name at the same relative path. This allows Aeon Timeline to find the correct file if an entire folder system is moved or copied (if copied onto a
USB key or synced to another computer using Dropbox, for example).
Absolute Path: Finally, Aeon Timeline also records the absolute path of a linked document. This means that timeline documents can be moved around a computer independently of linked files and the links will still be retained.
Each time a timeline file is opened, Aeon Timeline attempts to locate all of the externally linked documents using the above techniques in the above order. Once a document has been found using one of the methods, the information for the other methods is then updated to reflect the position of the newly found file.
Moving Timelines and Links Between Computers
If you anticipate the need to use your timeline file on multiple computers, the best approach is to keep your timeline file and externally linked documents in a single, consistent folder structure across all machines.
As an example, if you save both the timeline and linked images into a single folder, you can copy that folder onto a USB stick, and then onto another computer, and Aeon Timeline will be able to maintain the link to the external file using the same relative path regardless of where you copy the folder.
More complex folder structures will work equally well, provided the entire folder structure is duplicated across all machines.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
26
Warning: If you are not copying the entire folder structure at once, be careful about opening the timeline file while it is copied onto a USB stick. It will first attempt to resolve the links using the relative path, but if it cannot find them, it will revert to using the absolute path to find the files in their original location on the computer. Once the external links are resolved using this method, the relative path would be updated to match that absolute path, and the links will be broken when the USB device is connected to a new computer.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
27
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Timeline Styles and Precision
Although most users are unlikely to require anything other than a standard absolute date/time format, Aeon
Timeline provides the ability to create several different timeline styles.
When creating a new calendar, pre-configured Standard Calendar formats are provided for each of these timeline styles, but the user is able to switch between different timeline styles any time after creating the initial timeline.
In addition to being able to choose the style (and change it an any time), the user can also select the maximum precision allowed by the timeline, reducing the need to think about or specify unnecessary information
(e.g. a historian dealing with centuries is unlikely to care about the time of day).
Available Timeline Styles
Standard date/time format:
Events occur at a specified absolute date (containing at least a year, and optionally months, days, and time).
Example: Event A occurs on “December 15, 2004”.
Floating Weeks: Events occur in a relative week number counting from zero (optionally specifying the day of the week and time). The timeline counts forwards or backwards from Week 0.
Potential uses include project planning where the start date is undecided (the timeline and its contents can subsequently be converted to a date/time format when a start date is determined).
Example: Event A occurs on “Wednesday, Week 5”.
Floating Days: Events occur on a relative day number counting from zero (optionally specifying the event time). The timeline counts forwards or backwards from Day 0.
Potential uses include novel planning where internal event consistency and order is important but the user does not want to place the story at a particular specific time.
Example: Event A occurs at “Day 5, 11:00:00”).
Floating Hour (Zero Hour): Events occur a given relative time before or after a nominal zero hour. The timeline counts forwards or backwards in time.
Potential uses include Event Response scenarios and writing screenplays.
Example: Event A occurs at “+1:33:00”, Event B occurs at “-2:00:00”).
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
28
Changing Timeline Style
The timeline type can be changed on the General tab of Timeline Settings, as per the screenshot below:
The General Settings tab
When changing from an absolute to a relative timeline style, you will need to specify the absolute date to act as the “zero date” for the conversion. Floating week calendars must have a zero date that occurs at midnight
(00:00:00) on a Sunday. Floating day calendars must have a zero date that occurs at midnight (00:00:00) on any day.
Changing Timeline Precision
The maximum precision for the timeline can also be changed via Timeline Settings. Be default for most standard calendar formats, the maximum precision for a timeline is set to seconds, allowing the user to specify event dates and durations down to individual seconds.
Even though the maximum precision may be set to seconds, the precision of events can be individually set up to this maximum, allowing for some events to have only a year specified, while other events are specified down to the day, and others have time as well.
For certain timeline data, however, it may make more sense to limit the allowed granularity further. If a timeline is set to only allow precision in days, for instance, the user will no longer be distracted by the option of providing further detail than necessary.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
29
Due to some fundamental limits to how much information can be stored by computers, reducing the granularity of the timeline can be used to significantly increase the available range a timeline can cover. Although this limit is well beyond the requirements of most users, users wishing to represent millions or billions of years of history will benefit from the ability to reduce the maximum precision to years, as per the “Geological Calendar” provided under Standard Calendars on the welcome screen.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
30
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Custom (Fantasy) Calendars
By default, Aeon Timeline ships with an implementation of the standard BC-AD system, plus an alternative calendar using BCE and CE in place of those era labels.
Aeon Timeline allows users to create their own custom calendars, and to develop timelines using those calendar systems as well.
The same custom calendar can be used on multiple timeline projects, but the calendar must be created prior to the creation of a timeline. Saved calendars can be edited for future projects, but those changes will not affect timelines that have already been created with that calendar. A timeline’s calendar cannot be edited once the timeline is created.
Components of a Calendar
When designing a custom calendar, it is composed of the same elements that are used in a standard calendar.
As such, a calendar has the following components:
C O M P O N E N T
Era
Years
D E S C R I P T I O N
An era represents a block of years numbering from 1 to a maximum value. Eras can count forwards or backwards (starting from 1), and usually last for a specific number of years.
E X A M P L E
BC, AD
In all calendar systems, there must be one backwards era of infinite length, and one forwards era of infinite length (equivalent to our BC and AD) , so that any point in time can be correctly labelled. In some calendar systems these may represent pre-historic times and unknown future times.
When creating a timeline, you can set its start date and end date so that it never enters these eras.
To allow the standard calendar to be created, eras can be set to include “leap years” following the standard Western pattern.
Normally, this is used to represent the number of days for a planet to orbit the sun. However, in more general terms, this represents a number of days that are grouped together.
A year is composed of a number of months.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
31
C O M P O N E N T
Months
Days
Hours, Minutes,
Seconds
D E S C R I P T I O N
A month is given a name (such as January), an abbreviated name
(such as Jan), and a length in days.
To allow the creation of the standard calendar, you can set a month to have a different number of days for a leap year.
In the standard calendar, months approximate the length of a lunar cycle, but in a custom calendar they could be used for other purposes, such as setting up a different month for each “season”.
E X A M P L E
January -
December
Although all calendars must contain at least one month, you can setup a single month that lasts the duration of a year and effectively ignore the value, if desired.
In the standard calendar, a day represents the amount of time it takes for the Earth to rotate on its Axis (approximating the length of time between sunsets).
Sunday -
Saturday
In creating a custom calendar, you can specify the number of hours in a day.
You can also specify the number of days in a week, and give a name
(such as Monday) and abbreviated name (such as Mon) to each day.
To link your days with the rest of the calendar system, one day must be specified as the first day of the final era (this is the equivalent of specifying that the 01/01/0001 AD is a Monday).
All custom calendars must have at least one day, but if you do not wish to have separate weekdays, you can create a single weekday
(called ‘Day’), and effectively ignore the value.
As mentioned above, the custom calendar allows you to specify the number of hours in a day.
Aeon Timeline does not allow you to customise units smaller than this. An hour will always be composed of 60 minutes, and a minute will always be composed of 60 seconds.
Creating a Custom Calendar
You can create custom calendars via the Welcome Screen. You can bring up the Welcome Screen by selecting
New from the File menu. It will also display by default at startup if no other timeline will open, or when you close all open timelines.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
32
There are two ways you can create a custom calendar: by starting from scratch, or by duplicating an existing calendar.
To create a new calendar, click on the New button within the Custom Calendars section of the Welcome Screen.
Aeon Timeline will display the Create Custom Calendar window with two default eras, and one default month and weekday. You should modify the existing items, and add to them as appropriate.
To duplicate an existing calendar, select the calendar you wish to duplicate in either Standard Calendars or
Custom Calendars, and click on the Duplicate button. This will bring up the same window, but the eras, months, and weekdays will be pre-filled with the values from the selected timeline.
The Create Custom Calendar sheet that allows the user to specify the settings for the custom calendar, including the era, months, and weekdays used.
Each Custom Calendar is given a Calendar Name, which is used to distinguish calendars in the list. Along with creating new calendars, the Welcome Screen also allows you to edit or delete existing custom calendars.
These actions will not affect timelines that have already been created.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
33
Using a Custom Calendar
Once a custom calendar has been created, you can create a new timeline using that calendar from the Wel-
come Screen. First, select Custom Calendars from the left-hand source list, and then either double clicking on the desired custom calendar, or select it and click the Choose button.
Timeline Styles and Precision for Custom Calendars
The ability to modify the style and maximum precision for a timeline (as discussed in the previous chapter) is also available when using Custom Calendars. After you have created a timeline using your custom calendar, you can change the style and precision to your preferred option via Timeline Settings.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
34
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Import/Export, Printing, and Synchronizing
Aeon Timeline contains a number of options to move your data into or out of Aeon Timeline and into the next tool in your creative workflow.
Importing
Aeon Timeline allows you to import events from a formatted text or CSV file. In order to import data, the document must be formatted as a comma-delimited or tab-delimited document.
Aeon Timeline is able to read data from the fields listed in the table below. Only the bolded Start Date and
Event Title fields are required.
F I E L D
Start Date
End Date
Event Title
Arc
Label
Tags
Participants
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
D E S C R I P T I O N
The start date and time for the event (a default time will be used if you specify only a date).
The date format is robust to numerous date formats, including written month names, and dash (-) or slash(/) delimited dates. The order of date components
(year, month, day) must be specified in the import sheet when importing the data.
The end date and time for the event (a default time will be used if you specify only a date).
The date format is robust to numerous date formats, including written month names, and dash (-) or slash(/) delimited dates. The order of date components
(year, month, day) must be specified in the import sheet when importing the data.
The title of the event that will be displayed on the timeline.
The name of the arc you want the event placed in. If this field is omitted, the event will be placed in the default Global Arc. You will have the option to create new arcs if there is no matching arc with the name.
The name of the label for the event. If this field is omitted, the event will use the default label. You will have the option to create new arcs if there is no matching arc with the name.
A comma-delimited, pipe-delimited, or slash-delimited list of the tags you wish to create for the event. If using a comma delimited file, you should surround this field in double quotes if you intend to delimit the tags with a comma also.
A comma-delimited, pipe-delimited, or slash-delimited list of the entities you wish to associate with the event. If using a comma delimited file, you should surround this field in double quotes if you intend to delimit the entities with a comma also.
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
35
Notes
Links
F I E L D D E S C R I P T I O N
The notes that you wish to import into the document. You should surround this field in double quotes to ensure punctuation marks within the notes do not cause problems.
The entered notes must be contained on a single line. You can use the token \n within this field if you wish to insert a newline character into your notes.
Any external links that you wish to associate with the imported event. Each link should be a complete website URL or file path. The links can be delimited by commas, pipes, or semi-colons (those characters are not valid within the link text).
In order to import data from a CSV file, the file must conform to the following rules:
1. Your file must use a csv or txt extension.
2. Files should be in ASCII or UTF-8 file format to be guaranteed to work. Some other file formats could work correctly.
3. One record is entered per line. There must be no newline characters within a record.
4. The fields within each record must be delimited with either commas (,) or tabs. The import sheet requires you to specify which
5. Each record should contain the same number of fields/delimiters. It is acceptable to leave some fields empty, but their delimiters must remain intact.
6. Any field values that include the value delimiters must be included in straight double quotes ("). Optionally, all fields can be enclosed in these quotes. Curly quotes should not be used.
7. Any double quotes within field values must be escaped by doubling them. For example, the string She
said "It's me!" would need to be written as "She said ""It's me!"""
8. Optionally, the very first line of your file can include the column headings. Column headings must match the exact names given above in order to be recognised. Columns with unrecognised headings can exist within the file, but will be ignored during the import process. The Start Date and Event Title fields are the only required fields.
9. If column headings are not present, then the fields must be presented in the exact order given above and all fields must be present.
To import data into your timeline, choose the Import... menu option in the file menu. This will bring up an
Open File dialog that allows you to select the text or csv file that you wish to import. Once you have selected a file, you will be presented with the Import Events sheet.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
36
A screenshot of the Import Events sheet.
The Import Events sheet allows you to specify the following:
• CSV file’s date format (order of components) and whether you wish to convert two digit dates to the current century (eg. 11 becomes 2011, 95 becomes 2095).
• Whether new arcs and labels should be created for any names that don’t match the existing timeline data. If these are not checked, unmatched names will result in default values being used.
• The separator used to delimit fields within each record.
• Whether a header row is present in the file.
A live preview table will update to show you the results of any changes you make, so that you can see exactly what will be imported prior to doing so. The label below the table will notify you of any issues, and how many records will be imported.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
37
Exporting
You can access Aeon Timeline’s export options via the Export... menu option in the File menu. This brings up the Export Timeline Sheet.
A screenshot of the Export Timeline sheet.
This sheet allows the user to select the type of export they wish to complete, including options to create Images, XHTML tables, and various data formats that can be consumed by other applications.
Which events are exported?
When exporting data, the contents of any current filter or arc hiding will be used to determine which events will be included in the exported file. If you wish to export only a selected number of events, you should first configure your timeline display to show only those events you wish to export. If you want all events to be exported, be sure to turn off any filtering and display all arcs before exporting the file.
Image Exporting
Images are exported using the current display options, zoom level, relationship mode, and filters that are currently used in the main display. When exporting an image, configure your timeline view to appear exactly as you want it to appear in the image before exporting.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
38
When exporting to image formats, you can choose between exporting All Filtered Events or only the Current
Window. The latter option will only export the portion of the screen that is visible in the main window at the time of exporting.
Text Exporting
Many of the text-based exporting options contain additional options to allow the user to select which data is included in the export (for instance, whether an HTML table should contain information about arcs and tags).
Printing
As with image exporting, the printing option uses the current display options, zoom level, relationship mode, and filters to determine what should be printed. As such, the first step in printing is to configure the main display to appear exactly as you wish it to be printed.
When printing, Aeon Timeline pages are designed to be connected together in a landscape (left-to-right) fashion. The timeline heading is repeated at the top of every page, but the Arc labels are only printed for leftmost pages, as it is likely when printing that the text of some events will be broken across multiple pages.
Where possible, Aeon Timeline avoids dividing arcs vertically across multiple pages if pushing the arc onto a new page would prevent this from occurring (arcs that require more than a single page of vertical space will still need to be divided).
Important: If this is your first time printing from Aeon Timeline, or you will be doing so from a new printer, it is strongly recommended that you access the Page Setup screen first and configure the printing options for your specific printer to maximize the available printing space.
Once you have done so, select the Print option from the File menu (or use the appropriate shortcut) to bring up the print dialog . With the print dialog open, click on Show Details to view the complete print panel and available options as shown in the screenshot below:
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
39
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
A screenshot of the print dialog with print details showing.
Scrivener Synchronization
The Mac OS X version of Aeon Timeline includes the option to synchronize its timeline data directly with a selected Scrivener project. This relies on features which are only available in Scrivener 2.0 and later, which is yet to be released on Windows.
We are working with the Scrivener Windows team to make Scrivener syncing available in the Windows version of Aeon Timeline once Scrivener 2 is released.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
40
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Settings, Preferences, and Files
Timeline Settings
Timeline settings allows the user to configure settings for individual documents, including calendar types, timeline bounds, display options and more. The Timeline Settings window can be accessed using the Settings toolbar button or menu item.
Available Timeline Settings are broken into tabs that can be accessed using the source list to the left of the timeline window.
All options in Timeline Settings apply to individual documents only, but many of the tabs allow the user to save a default configuration that will be applied to all new timelines (existing timelines are unaffected, but the user can choose to load the default settings and use them for the current timeline).
General Tab
The General Settings tab
The General Tab allows the user to configure the following:
Timeline Style: Choose between a timeline that uses standard dates, or a timeline that counts in relative weeks from Week 0, days from Day 0, or a timeline that counts hours forwards and backwards from 00:00:00.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
41
Max Precision: Select the maximum precision (i.e. finest level of detail) used by the timeline. This allows the user to create a timeline that only counts in months or years, bypassing the ability to enter smaller amounts of detail.
Edit Calendar Names: Edit the names of days, months and eras in the calendar (this will only affect the current timeline).
Timeline Bounds: Select the start and end dates for the timeline. The timeline will automatically extend its start and end dates if the user adds events beyond the bounds of the timeline, but they will fall back to the selected start and end date if those events are shifted or removed.
Dates Tab
The Date Settings tab is used to specify date display formats used throughout the timeline document
The Dates Tab allows the user to specify the following:
• Date Format: The user’s preference for Month/Day or Day/Month ordering in the date picker and timeline header bars.
• Event Labels: The date formats used alongside events on the timeline. Along with the default date format, separate formats can be used for events with date-only, month-only or year-only dates. If none of the pre-specified date formats are acceptable, a custom date format can be used by selecting Other and entering a date format using tokens from the following table:
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
42
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
%M
%p
%S
%y
%H
%I
%j
%m
%Y
%q
%r
%t
%%
%B
%d
%e
%g
TO K E N D E S C R I P T I O N
%a Abbreviated weekday name (eg. Mon)
%A
%b
Full weekday name (eg. Monday)
Abbreviated month name (eg. Feb)
%G
Full month name (eg. February)
Day of the month with leading zeros (01-31)
Day of month without leading zeros (1-31)
Year, with large values expressed in mil or bil (eg. 1.2 mil (BC/
AD), 1994)
Year, with large values expressed in millions or billions (eg. 1.2 million (BC/AD), 1994)
Hour based on a 24 hour clock (00-23)
Hour based on a 12 hour clock (01-12)
Day of the year as a decimal number (001-366)
Month as a decimal number (01-12)
Minute as a decimal number (00-59)
AM/PM designation
Seconds as a decimal number
Year without century (00-99)
Year with century (such as 1994)
Century, followed by ‘s’ (such as 1800s, 1900s)
Decade, followed by ‘s’ (such as 1980s, 1990s)
The name of the era (such as BC, AD)
The percentage (%) character
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
43
Display Tab
The Display Settings tab
The Display Tab allows the user to configure the following display options for the timeline:
Event Order: Whether long events are automatically shifted to the top of their arc.
Event Placement: Select the scheme used to determine where events are placed vertically on the timeline.
Event Lines: Configures whether lines are drawn from each event to the top of the timeline. This option can be configured separately for when Relationships mode is on or off. Also allows the user to choose between a subtle or a bold highlighting for selected events.
Relationships: Determines whether entity lifetimes are indicated with solid lines (the time before an entity is created and after they are destroyed are indicated with dotted lines), or whether the entity line is solid throughout the entire timeline. Also allows the user to select whether entity ages are displayed for each relationship.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
44
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Text Tab
The Text Settings tab
The Text Tab allows the user to configure the following text options:
Display Font: Choose the font and size for the text displayed on the timeline itself.
Word Wrap: Choose whether long event titles should automatically be wrapped in the timeline display, and the maximum width an event title should reach before word wrapping is applied.
Inspector Text: Choose whether the inspector uses a regular or large font size.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
45
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
External Links Tab
The External Links Settings tab
The External Links Tab allows the user to configure the following:
Draw External Links: Choose whether external links that have been associated with events are represented on the timeline by images/document icons (if this option is not selected, external links will only be accessible via the Inspector).
Icon Size: Select the maximum size for an image can be drawn on the timeline. Images larger than the selected size will be reduced to the selected size (smaller images will remain as they are and will not be expanded to the maximum size).
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
46
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Tags Tab
The Tags tab allows the user to edit event tags in the timeline
The Tags Tab contains a table listing all of the tags that have been added to events in the timeline. Using this table you can:
• Remove a tag, and have it removed from all events
• Edit a tag’s text, and have it updated in all events
• Add a tag so that it is available in the auto-complete menu for tags in the Inspector
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
47
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Labels Tab
The Labels tab allows the user to configure the labels used in the timeline.
The Labels Tab contains a table listing all of the labels specified for the timeline. Using this table you can:
• Add a new label
• Delete a label (all events with this label will be assigned the default label)
• Modify a label name
• Change a label colour
• Specify a new default label
General Preferences
The General Preference window is available from the Aeon Timeline menu, and contains settings applicable to the whole application, and all Aeon Timeline documents.
General Preferences contains the following options:
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
48
P R E F E R E N C E N A M E
Re-open files that were open on quit
AVA I L A B L E O P T I O N S
Select this option if you want Aeon Timeline to automatically re-open any files that were open when you last quit Aeon Timeline.
Suggest auto-completion for Tags When this option is selected, token fields will present a list of existing tags matching the starting text you have already typed, allowing you to auto-complete the tag from the selected list.
When this option is off, no auto-complete list will be provided.
File Format
Aeon Timeline uses an XML file format that can be transferred and read by a range of devices. Using an XML file format means that your data will always be available to you in some form, regardless of operating system or future development. This allows timeline files to be transferred between Mac and Windows computers.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
49
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
Contact and Support
About Scribble Code
Scribble Code is currently the work of a single developer based in Melbourne, Australia.
As discussed in the introduction, everything has its roots in an online discussion about the type of timeline tool that was missing from the market. The idea sounded interesting, I was interested in learning how to develop on the Mac platform, and Aeon Timeline began. The entire Scribble Code business is based around this single idea.
A Windows version of Aeon Timeline has subsequently been released, and further versions such as for the iPad, are under consideration.
But as long as Apple keeps putting out Mac operating systems that are preferable to the alternatives, the Mac will remain the home platform for our software.
Technical Support
If you require technical support, this is available via a number of different channels.
The best place to get technical support is via the forum on our website at http://www.scribblecode.com
. If you search for an answer there first, you may find that your question has already being asked and answered, which will be your quickest path to finding a solution. Posting a question on the forum is the next best option, as other users may be able to offer a quick response, and once you have a satisfactory response, the answer will be available to anyone else who has the same question.
Finally, email technical support is available on occasions where the support forum is inappropriate. Please note that as a sole developer, there may be occasions where it takes several days to respond to an email enquiry.
Technical support emails can be sent to: [email protected]
Suggestions for Improvement
If you have a feature you would like to see in Aeon Timeline, or a feature that you would like to see improved, we welcome your suggestions. As discussed in our Mission Statement, we have a number of clear goals that guide the development of Aeon Timeline, and if your suggestion both enhances those existing suggestions, and will work seamlessly with the rest of the application, it will be strongly considered.
As Aeon Timeline is the work of a single developer, there may be times where good ideas cannot be pursued for some time because they would require significant development effort. You should always purchase the software based on what it does now, as we cannot guarantee a timeline for improvements.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
50
You can send feedback to the developers directly from within the application, by choosing Send Feedback from the Help menu. Alternatively, suggestions can be posted on the forum on our website at http://www.scribblecode.com
, or emailed to [email protected]
Email Contact
For sales- and licence-related enquiries:
Email: [email protected]
For technical support and suggestions enquiries:
Email: [email protected]
For general enquiries:
Email: [email protected]
Acknowledgments
Many users have contributed to Aeon Timeline in the form of ideas, suggestions, bug reports and beta testing, and I am thankful to every person who has taken time to get in touch with me and let me know what they think of Aeon Timeline, the good and the bad.
But special thanks needs to be extended to two people:
Mark Russell: Mark contacted me late in the development process and offered to help guide me to take the
existing application towards a slicker and more current design. Apparently, what this meant was Mark would apply his user interface design experience to completely re-design the interface, send me mockup after mockup of ways to improve the look and feel of the timeline, and create all of the toolbar icons for me.
Needless to say, without Mark’s intervention, Aeon Timeline would not be half the application it has turned into in the last few months.
Keith Blount: For those who don’t know, Keith is the developer of Scrivener, the software I consider to be the best writing software on the Mac. Keith maintains a very active community of writers on his support forums, and it was there that the initial idea for Aeon Timeline began.
Once the project began, Keith very kindly created a sub-forum on his own website to act as the temporary home of Aeon Timeline while it was going through the beta development phases. Without this very gracious support, Aeon Timeline would not have received the exposure it needed to move beyond its very primitive early development.
On top of that, Keith has provided many helpful suggestions, code snippets, and complete UI elements any time I have asked about how he implemented a particular aspect of Scrivener.
Please purchase Aeon Timeline. And then buy Scrivener, too.
S c r i b b l e C o d e!
A e o n Ti m e l i n e U s e r M a n u a l
51
Download
Public link updated
The public link to your chat has been updated. You may view and manage your chat links after registration here.
Document public link
Advertisement
Key features
Create timelines for stories, projects, or any other purpose
Create multiple arcs to show parallel sequences of events
Add events and entities, and track relationships between them
Filter events by tags, entities, arcs, and labels
Save and load filters for quick access
Link events to external files, such as images, websites, and documents
Import and export timelines in various formats
Use custom calendars to create timelines for fantasy or science fiction worlds
Frequently asked questions
Aeon Timeline is a timeline tool that allows you to create timelines for stories, projects, or any other purpose.
Some key features of Aeon Timeline include the ability to create multiple arcs, add events and entities, and track relationships between them.
To create a timeline for a story, you can add events such as character births, deaths, and important events.
You can link events to external files such as images, websites, and documents by clicking the '+' icon in the External Links section of the Inspector.
You can export your timeline in various formats, such as images, HTML tables, or a format that can be read by other applications.
Aeon Timeline allows you to create custom calendars to create timelines for fantasy or science fiction worlds.
