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Writing software with timeline generation?
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Posted by MadaboutDana
Apr 14, 2025 at 02:20 PM
Oh, and of course I’m forgetting an obvious candidate: TextMaker by Softmaker. It doesn’t have timelines (although I believe you could create one using the built-in tools), but it has excellent reference/bibliographical support (footnotes/endnotes, multiple bibliographical options, Zotero integration).
Posted by Graham Rhind
Apr 14, 2025 at 02:22 PM
>I am not sure what you need the timeline feature for.
Ah, right - I see I need to be more specific.
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!
Posted by MadaboutDana
Apr 14, 2025 at 02:23 PM
You might want to add Manuskript to the list, too: http://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/
Posted by Alexander Deliyannis
Apr 14, 2025 at 04:26 PM
I believe that Aeon Timeline would fit the bill:
https://www.aeontimeline.com/
It is a versatile stand-alone programme offering several powerful timeline formats.
It is pay-once software, available for Windows, macOS and iOS.
While stand-alone, it can also be integrated with Scrivener and Ulysses.
Last but not least, Aeon recently launched a so-called Narrative view which complements the timeline; I’m still checking it out, but it seems quite powerful:
https://www.aeontimeline.com/guides/narrative
Graham Rhind wrote:
>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.
Posted by Amontillado
Apr 14, 2025 at 05:26 PM
I believe Tinderbox has a timeline view. Very strong community support, but also has a certain learning curve.
On the other hand, I don’t think it takes any knowledge of Tinderbox’s scripting language to create timelines, at least if you don’t need to base your timeline on an automated query.
There are a couple of timeline plugins in the Obsidian community. Obsidian is somewhat outside my experience. The Chronos plugin looks intriguing.
Google Sheets has a timeline feature. Or so I’ve heard. That’s another environment not on my palette.
I use Aeon Timeline. If it supported a generous edit window for event notes, I would use it more.
Please post updates on your software search. It would be great to hear what you find.