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Create Your Life Timeline – Tutorial
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A great way to understand something is to just do it.
So, a great way to explain how Timeline Studio’s software works is to use it in a controlled way.
In this tutorial we will create a multi-layered ‘Views’ timeline.
As the timeline topic is your life it will be simple and quick to make and the structure will be logical.
Step 1 – Opening Example
With the Timeline Studio's trial software installed on your PC
Open the Timeline application from your desktop.
Use the Open button to open ‘MyLife_Blank_Template.tml’ from with Examples folder.
My documents / My Timelines / Examples / MyLife_Blank_Template.tml
Step 2 – Understanding the Structure
This example contains only the "Starting Event" this event is the only event entered into the database; it is basically a blank template.
The timeline has however been structured into a number of ‘Views’ or layers.
From the View drop down list click the down arrow to display Views.
The timeline has been structured into 6 Views, Home, Family, Career etc
If you click on a view name so that View is displayed (note the View title change).
As no events have been entered there is no data to display.
Step 3 – Entering data
Ok we can now add some data to the timeline and see how it is absorbed into the Views structure.
Return to the Home View
Create a New Event – Click the New Event button from the Edit tab on the toolbar.
Change the Name from “New Event” to “My Birth Date”
Edit the Start value to your birth date – use the arrow to display the date picker, scroll calendar to your date of birth.
Leave the End date blank.
Check the ‘In a Group’ check box and enter this Event into the Group ‘Family’.
Click the OK button at the bottom of the box.
The event is now displayed on the timeline.
* Note: All Events are positioned at the bottom of the screen – use Drag & Drop to re-position all Events.
* Note: This Event maybe positioned underneath the text box.
* Note: The timeline axis has now expanded to incorporate the New Event.
* Note: The Event has taken the characteristics of the Group ‘Family’.
Toggle through the all the Views.
The New Event ‘My Birth Date’ appears in both the Home View and the View Family – we will return to study why this has happen later in the tutorial.
Enter approximately 10 more events.
Use the New Event button to create Events.
Add all new Events into a Group – use all the Groups, as this will populate all Views.
All Events must have a Start value and a Name.
To edit or delete an Event use the cursor and RH mouse click.
Step 4 – Understanding the Views and Event positioning.
Now the database contains some Events you can see the timeline structure taking shape.
* You may have also noticed that the Home View contains all Events whereas the other Views contain only selected Events.
* Also you may have found that the Event positions aren’t stable – as you move an Event in one View it repositions elsewhere.
Understanding the Views
Ignoring the Home View for now, select any one of the other Views – one, which contains a number of Events.
With this View showing, select Edit / Inspect View... from the Views tab on the toolbar.
The Views Editor dialogue box is now displayed.
From here the characteristics of the Views are set. A View is a database search based on saved search criteria.
These search criteria can be a complicated i.e. within a defined time period, using Keyword and within selected Groups or it can be as simple as showing all members of a Group.
All the Views in this example are Group based Views i.e. Events in the selected Group or Groups will be shown in that View.
With the View Editor dialogue box still display click the ‘Title & Text Box’ tab.
This section is where title and text box are controlled – if you unclick the Text box check box the Text box will not be shown on the View.
Return to the Main Features tab – note the ‘Blownaway events’ (top right)
Here details of Events which have been 'Blownaway' are shown. At present no Events have been 'Blownaway' so no Events are listed here.
Home View
The Home View is slightly different to other Views as it has defaults set by the software application.
The Home default is to Show All Events – it is a time search from 1/1/1900 to 1/1/2100 so any event entered into the database between 1900 and 2100 will be shown in the Home View.
As your timeline becomes populated with Events the Home View will need to be edited.
The Home View can be edited in 2 ways:
A) Set rigid search criteria in the View Editor – maybe the search tag ‘Home’ in the Search tags field.
Ensure all Events to be shown in the Home View have the search tag 'Home' in the search tag area of the description text.
RH Click Event / Edit / Add 'Home' to search tag field within Description tab. Note:Search tags are case and space sensitive.
Now all Events with the search tab 'Home' will appear in the Home View.
B) Keep the Home View set as it is and remove unwanted Events as required.
This is flexible, all New Events appear in the Home View and removed as required.
This technique is user friendly, but on large timelines this approach can slow the loading of Views (Events are being called even if not displayed).
Use 'Blowaway' to remove unwanted Events and 'Update View' to save the change.
Event positioning
Events can be displayed in more than one View, i.e. maybe in the Home View and a secondary View.
To ensure Events are stable in each View and that editing one View does not adjust the layout in a secondary View each View must be saved independently.
This is done via the ‘Update View’ button.
As changes are made (Event position, title position etc) simply click the ‘Update View’ button to save the latest layout.
Saving a View layout
Select any View from the Views drop down list.
Adjust the layout.
Click the ‘Update View’ button – the exact layout of the View is now saved.
All changes to Views are done in this way – Position of Event, title position and font etc.
As New Events are created and populate the View use the Update button to update the View.
Step 5 – Blowaway and Update From Display.
As your timeline becomes more complicated simple Views structure can become too basic and unwanted Events can be called into the Views.
There are 2 ways to deal with this:
A) Re-define the View search criteria.
B) Remove unwanted Events as and when they appear.
If your timeline is mainly OK but a few Views needs cleaning up the 'Blowaway' feature is the easiest option.
Blowaway temporarily removes an Event from the display – if the 'Update View' is used in conjunction with the 'Blowaway' then the removed Event or Events are saved to the View.
The 'Blowaway' control can be found from the Views tab on the toolbar.
Events which have been Blownaway can be restored using the Restore Events ( Views tab / Restore Events)
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