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What is a template and why use one?
As we know our timeline software has been designed to help structure the larger and more complex timeline.
Templates allow you to create the structure of the timeline before adding any of the timeline events.
When events are added to the timeline, they will automatically populate the correct ‘View’, this aids editing by adding structure to the process. Your project maybe large and complex, but as you will never be working with all the events at the same time the topic won't overload you.
Templates are also very useful when importing events from Excel or other timelines.
Creating a template
General steps
Open Timeline app and create a New timeline
Select the correct time units for your timeline.
Create the Groups you require for this timeline.
With the general steps complete, it’s time to consider the structure of the timeline.
How many Views do you want to split the topic into, how should these Views be titled?
It’s not vial to get this 100% correct as it is easy to re-structure the timeline, however getting in right first time is obviously quicker.
Your timeline Views
Generally the Home View is used as a summary of the whole topic, an over-view. The events which appear in this View should be either individually important or a summary of a number of closely related events.
Your other Views should now be a detailed breakdown of the Home View.
Effectively, the other Views are a collection of detailed sub-timelines, explaining the summary.
Creating a View.
There are a number of ways to set the criteria of a View, in this tutorial we will explain the 3 most commonly used methods:
The search tag View.
The Group View.
The Time Range View.
Home View using Search tag
By default the Home View is set to show all events.
To change the Home View criteria select Views tab and click " Edit / Inspect View..."
The View dialogue box is now shown, in the search tag field enter the word – home and click OK to save and close the dialogue box.
Now only events with the search tag ‘home’ will appear in the Home View.
Your second View
Again from the Views tab select the Organise Views… button.
The Views organiser dialogue box is shown, select New to create a New View.
The Edit / Inspect View box is shown, add the name for this View is the Name field.
For this tutorial we’ll name this View – View 1.
Again we’ll use the search tag criteria for this View, add the search tag – view1 and click OK.
We now have two Views, the Home View and View 1.
Only events with the search tag – home will appear in the Home View.
Only events with the search tag – view1 will appear in the View 1.
If you want an event to appear in both the Home View and View 1, add the search tags home and view1 to the event i.e. search tag = home, view1.
The third View
For the 3rd View we’ll use another popular technique, and create a Group View.
Again from the Views tab select the Organise Views… button
The Views organiser dialogue box is shown, select New to create a New View.
The Edit / Inspect View box is shown, add the name for this View is the Name field.
We’ll follow the pattern set above and name this View – View 2.
Now from the Groups section, select the Group or Groups to populate this View and click OK.
Now only members of selected Group or Groups will appear in View 2.
The fourth View
For the 4th View we’ll use the Time Range View creation option.
Again from the Views tab select the Organise Views… button
The Views organiser dialogue box is shown, select New to create a New View.
The Edit / Inspect View box is shown, add the name for this View is the Name field.
Name the View – View 3.
From the Time Range section, firstly check the Date / time range box to switch on the time range feature, then select the time period you wish to be displayed in View 3.
For example, your full-scale timeline might span 1600 to 2000, but you may wish for a close-up of the late 1600’s, so set the time range 1650 – 1700.
Now only events, which are with the time range 1650 – 1700, will appear in View 3.
Template summary
We have now made a simple template, consisting of a number of Groups and 4 Views.
The template is now ready for event data to be added.
This can be done manually be creating New Events or by importing event data via import timeline or import from Excel.
Whichever method is used, the following will happen:
Events, which contain the search tag "home”, will be shown in the Home View.
Events, which contain the search tag "view1", will be shown in View 1.
Events, within the selected Groups will be shown in View 2.
Events within the selected time range will be shown in View 3.
Events not meeting any of the above criteria will not be shown in any View.
These events will be in the application's database, but at present not being ‘called’.
There are normally 2 reason why events are in the database but do not appear in a View.
A) A View has been deleted or edited and the events kept in the database for future use.
B) There has been an editing ‘typo’ with an event, and isn’t being ‘called’ because of this ‘typo’.
To find events not in any View use:
‘Show all’ (Views tab) to show all events
Search (Views tab) feature to search for the event via a keyword or Group etc.
Editing the Views now events are added.
When events are added to the timeline the layout and presentation of the events becomes important.
Events are positioned by drag ‘n’ drop, it is important that any layout changes made are saved to the View using ‘Update View’ (Views tab).
Each View will need to be treated separately and saved separately with the ‘Update View’.
In simple terms just follow this process, select a View, adjust the View, save the change using ‘Update View’.
Select the next View and repeat the process. All Views, including the Home View need to be managed in this way.
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