Writing software with timeline generation?

Posted by Dormouse
Apr 14, 2025 at 09:38 PM

Graham Rhind wrote:
I’m looking for software which would help me with a non-fiction writing
>project. I don’t have any experience with software designed especially
>for writers (Scrivener etc.) though there are many options I am familiar
>with which may also do some of the job (DocxManager, RightNote,
>UltraRecall, Hyperplan, MyInfo, Word etc.).
> >The software would need to be on Windows, pay once (no subscription),
>allow footnoting and referencing (and creation of a bibliography from
>those references) but also ideally be able to create a timeline. I’ve
>not come across writing software that can create a timeline, though I’m
>sure it must be around. If not, if anybody has any suggestions for a
>cheap and easy to use timeline creation package, I would appreciate any
>pointers.

>So I’m not looking for a storyboard feature or a flow diagram feature.
>This is a book about real events, and it needs to accurately portray
>that person A was in place B at time C, so they could not have been in
>place D doing action E at that time. There are a lot of sources which
>tend to contradict each other, so actually plotting them on a time line
>would enable me to see where the clashes occur and where clarification
>is required.
> >Thanks for the suggestions up to now! I’ll check them out!

Lattics is designed for exactly this type of use.

Ticks all your boxes (even with options for storyboard & flow diagram :) )
Integrates with Zotero which would help with managing sources and bibliography.

The timeline feature is very useful, and I haven’t even thought of opening Aeon Timeline since I started to use Lattics. AT is more comprehensive and has far more options for timelines - but is complex and relatively unwieldy. You would need to decide whether that extra power is required for what you want to do.

The one box it doesn’t tick completely is the ‘no subscription’. There is a free version, which you could organise yourself to stay within most of the time. The subscription is $90 for 5 years (more than enough for most projects) or $21 for one year or $4 for one month. The free version is mostly sufficient; I’d miss the statistics and themes most if I didn’t have the subscription, but they’re clearly not essential. The big feature I’m looking forward to is versions, which is on their roadmap, but the multiple backups are enough for comfort in extremis.
Aeon Timeline has an optional subscription - $65 to buy outright with one year of updates, but $35 a year after that if you want future updates.