Events in a story happen over time. To keep track of what happens when, you can mark each scene, document and chapter with a tag marking the period of time it’s related to.
Context menu: select what chapters to work with
As in the outline-view, you need to select what chapters to work with.
Right-click on any wanted chapter. Then click on “Show in overviews” in the context menu.
Once selected, it and all its children will have green icons, as you can see in the screenshot. To remove it from the overviews, simply right click and choose “Remove from overviews”.
Manage your time line in the Timeline view
In this view, you can set the date (and time) for each item directly. Simply click on the date / period field underneath the title of an item and insert your value.
Values inherited from parents
All sub-elements in your project structure will automatically inherit the time period set on the parent. (And if that parent has no value, we simply move up in the family tree.) In the screenshot above, the period is set in “Zeven” and all sub-elements (“Aankomst bij..” etc.) have the same (inherited) period in light-grey.
Focus on chapters first
As we inherit values, set specific date / periods on chapters first. Start from the highest relevant level and work your way down to more specific parts and don’t repeat yourself unless you think it is absolutely necessary.
As seen in the screenshot above, only the date on the chapter is colored black. The dates on the scenes are grey, meaning that none of these documents / scenes have an explicit period set.
Rules for sort order and formatting
Change the value to change its position on the time line.
Sorting might lead to confusing results at first as it is based on string-comparison, not on date-comparison. Below you find examples.
Sorting logic
02-09-2019 will be shown before 03-01-2011, because 02 is a lower value than 03. The same goes for the following examples:
- 03 will be shown before 1 as 03 is a lower number than 1
- 009 will be shown before 03 as 009 is a lower value than 03.
Recommended format
If you use date (and time), it is recommended to use the following format: YYYY-MM-DD. As this is not always as readable as you might wish, you can add a “readable date” to it, using the > sign, like this: 2019-09-02 > My readable date. For instance: 2019-09-02 > September 2, 2019
Other formats
Anything that can be sorted properly can be used to build your time line. For instance: “0100 > Before the war“, “A > Before the war“, “Part 001-001> Before the war” wil all work (and sort) as well. Make sure, while numbering your periods, to be consistant and keep room for later insertions in between periods. 0100, 0200 will give room for 99 elements between each other.
But adding extra markers, like “001-010 > Before war: Family meeting” allows you to refine and expand your time line as well.
Using ‘Outline modus’ on the tree view
Switch to ‘outline modus’ on the project tree to insert and edit the periods of time for chapters and scenes.
Result in the outline
The time line is part of the “Outline” report. This report can be exported to Word.
Each document / scene will (based on your settings) be included with the summary, “to do” items and all related characters, plot points, locations, etc.
It will use the formatted value is available. So: “2019-01-01 > January 1st 2019” will show as “January 1st 2019”.
Expanding the items
Click on the name of a period to expand the items. This will expose related elements to each item and grant more space to the summary.
Opening an item
Click on the title of any item, to open the content. It will be presented in a popup.
Presenting the time line next to your document
Using the Outline-report
By clicking the “split screen” icon next to the “Visuals” tab, you can combine your writing area with the “Timeline” view. As in the “Timeline” view itself, and in the “Chapters” view, you can expand each period, to see per document / chapter / scene what is related to that document.
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