I'd appreciate some suggestions for software to do following. I've conducted several years' worth of research, where I collected different types of data about different events over time. Now, I'd like to summarise all the data associated with specific events and lay them out along a timeline, also for presentation purposes, to communicate what specific data I have about particular events.

One way to do this is to create a long, long table, where the row is the event, and the column is the type of data collected (or the other way round). Excel or Word could do this. However, the table visually is not the most successful for presentation purposes, as one event might just have one type of data (perhaps in cell 5), while other events may have 9 events.

Ideally, I'd like to present it almost as a 2-D tree that would have some branches or nodes that are thicker, while others are thinner. Any fancy solutions out there for something like this?

I was wondering if Treesheets could be an alternative to Word/Excel? Or some mindmapping software? I do like Cmap Tools but I'm not sure it can really handle a massive tree (4 years of data, of about 50-70 events, possible up to 1 to 20 different types of data / event ). Thanks!

Would a Gantt-type chart suit your needs ?

Also check out this timeline mode of the Calendar

http://www.public.sqlnotes.net/download/infoqube/samples/timeline2.png

InfoQube can display both of these.

Pierre

I've been using TreeSheets quite a lot recently. I find it incredible that such excellent software is free. Nevertheless, in my view it provides a specific perspective which probably wouldn't fair well with long timelines.

I suggest you put 'timeline' in the search box at the left; it will bring several programs that we have discussed here in the past.

Much of this software is aimed at presentations, so its information management features are often unimpressive. The ideal for me would be the combination of a strong data management infrastructure with appealing presentation features.

Apart for InfoQube, already suggested, I believe you should take a look at MindView http://www.matchware.com/en/ It is probably the more powerful of the major mindmapping applications, and the only one in my recollection to include a timeline view. It is also the most appealing visually; not surprising since the company also makes a multimedia authoring tool.

TimelineMaker is a very good soultion for timelines (http://www.timelinemaker.com/ however, I do not know if it would suit your needs. It is a bit pricey, but it was offered a 'bitsdujour' some time ago, and may come back at a special price.

Peter.

I would try to master InfoQube, but if you cannot you may want to check out casemap and timemap both available from www.casesoft.com. But clearly InfoQube is the all in one solution providing you can master it. Btw: the help you can get from Pierre and the expert users of InfoQube is breathtakingly good. So mastery may not be problematic especially if you are highly motivated

Mitch Kastner

I don't think this matches your requirements, but I'll throw it out there anyway.

There's Dipity: http://www.dipity.com/

Many thanks for all the suggestions. Some of these timelining and mindmapping applications are not cheap! I guess they're targeting the corporate buyer.

In the meantime I also came across a lowbrow solution for presenting simple timelines in SmartDraw: http://www.smartdraw.com/product/features/#/product/features/Timeline-Examples (which I already have).

The cost-conscious solution might be to separate the two tasks, i.e. creating an all-inclusive complex table in one software, and creating a simplified timeline of it in another.

How about Mindsystems Amode V2 http://www.mindsystems.com.au/products/amode/index.php
It has a chart view that works in concert with other views.

Z

You might want to look at Inspiration ( www.inspiration.com ). It is an outliner and diagram creator and you can create an outline and then automatically change it into a diagram and vice versa. (IF the diagram isn't too complex with multiple links between multiple nodes.)

It was designed for high school students. I've used it to create flow charts with side branches.

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

> ......
Apart for InfoQube, already suggested, I believe you
should take a look at MindView http://www.matchware.com/en/ It is probably the more
powerful of the major mindmapping applications, and the only one in my recollection
to include a timeline view. It is also the most appealing visually; not surprising
since the company also makes a multimedia authoring tool.

There are a lot of mindmappers out there, including heavy hitters like MindManager and iMindMap.

Alex, what makes MindView stand out for you?

Thanks

Jack

You could try xMind. It's free and allows you to create quazi spreadsheets as part of the mind map. Check it out here:

http://www.xmind.net/pro/features/#link2

Steve

Are you working on a Mac or PC?

On the Mac there are several dedicated timeline applications that could probably do what you want, of which the best may be BeeDocs: http://www.beedocs.com/index.php

If it wasn't a one-off, it would be worth looking at Flying Logic Pro (on the Mac or PC). It's not a timeline application: it's designed to create visualisations of logic relationships, but I and others have found it useful for expressing complicated timelines, especially where cause-and-effect play a role, as in fictional plots: http://flyinglogic.com/index.html

Hugh wrote:

Are you working on a Mac or PC?

I'm on PC (Win 7). Thanks for all the great suggestions once more.

Dr Andrus,

I'm very interested in the solution you come up with. When you've got it worked out, will you share it with us, with perhaps a screen shot or two? Thank you.

Steve

Folks:

I have used this: http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/ . It is a bit of work, but it is very tailorable and can produce some terrific results. An additional benefit is that you can publish your work on the web with links, pictures, etc.

Here is a good example: http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/examples/jfk/jfk.html

Charles

Stephen Zeoli wrote:

Dr Andrus,

I'm very interested in the solution you come up with. When you've got it
worked out, will you share it with us, with perhaps a screen shot or two? Thank
you.

Steve

Steve, it'll take me a few weeks before a get to this, but I'll try to remember to post it here (though there is an additional step involved, where I need to duplicate the output and anonymise it for public consumption, so software that can make such duplication easy will be the winner).

What is interesting with most of the timelining software is that time is always conceived of as linear, represented by the horizontal axis. However, for my current purposes a vertical line makes more sense, where I would have the first event on top, and then scroll downwards. For some purposes reverse chronological order could also work, starting with latest first, then scroll down.

While it's not my case, I could even imagine a cyclical or circular timeline, namely where events recur, and so Jan 2010 and Jan 2011 would be displayed side-by-side, for instance.

Let me outline my process, in case anyone is interested:

1. Create a database with all events in rows in chronological order, with associated data in columns. This step is done. I have this in a colour-coded Excel spreadsheet with 162 rows and 18 columns.

2. Represent the above data visually more intuitively (as some kind of a table, tree or timeline), so it can be more easily seen how many different types of data are associated with each historical event. This is an interim step for my own analysis, not for communicating with other people. Although if it turns out easily digestible and reproducible, it could be used to communicate.

3. Anonymise and output the above analysis results for purposes of communicating with others, as a pretty timeline, tree, table etc., possibly to fit a PowerPoint slide or A4 document, or be able to break it down into a series of slides or A4 pages.

Here's something with a different flavor - but interesting given your question.

Recorded Future
https://www.recordedfuture.com/how-media-analytics-works.html

Zman

Jack Crawford wrote:

There are a lot of mindmappers out there, including heavy hitters like
MindManager and iMindMap.

Alex, what makes MindView stand out for
you?

Jack,

True; all mindmapping applications I've tried have their own particular strengths:

- Mind Manager is close to an industry standard so benefits from several plug-ins; interestingly, the Gannt chart plug-in has now been integrated into the main program.

- Mind Genius can create expandable/collapsible excel spreadsheets which are very useful for financial overviews.

- Concept Mindmap can read OPML directly and is very flexible design-wise (thanks to its integration with Concept Draw).

- Xmind is cross-platform, and Linux is fast becoming a very productive OS for me.

- FreeMind (and now its spin-off Freeplane) is, well, free, cross-platform and can exchange maps in Mind Manager format...

... etc

- Re Mindview, 2-3 things mainly make it stand out for me:

(a) it's much more business looking* than most of the others,

(b) it can export AND re-import from MS Office applications;

(c) most importantly, the ease with which one can attach numerical values to branches and perform aggregate calculations is brilliant. With most other programs I need to create my project plan as a mind map, and organise my resources in Excel. Why? Because not all resources can be expressed as person-days as most mind mappers would have one believe.

In fact, prior to MindView I used a now redundant program called B-liner (http://www.varatek.com/ as a hierarchical spreadsheet. I guess my mind simply can't think in tables...


*Here's a similar statement from another contributor in this forum in the past:
http://www.outlinersoftware.com/messages/viewm/5490

Dr Andus wrote:

What is interesting with most of the timelining software is that time is
always conceived of as linear, represented by the horizontal axis. However, for my
current purposes a vertical line makes more sense, where I would have the first event
on top, and then scroll downwards. For some purposes reverse chronological order
could also work, starting with latest first, then scroll down.

My own idea of the perfect depiction of time is a spiral, but I have yet to find a PIM that can display this easily.

Re the vertical approach, here's a minimalistic depiction that I find very effective: http://37signals.com/about

You should be able to do something like this quite easily with Excel or Smart Draw (if you want to make it look better)

One more thing to throw in the mix -- TimeFlow:

https://github.com/FlowingMedia/TimeFlow/wiki/

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions for my timelining problem. I tried to summarise and categorise all the suggestions, here they are, in case someone else might find this useful:

Full PIM:
InfoQube: http://www.public.sqlnotes.net/download/infoqube/samples/timeline2.png
Mindsystems Amode V2: http://www.mindsystems.com.au/products/amode/index.php

Spreadsheet-like solutions:
TreeSheets: http://treesheets.com/
XMind: http://www.xmind.net/pro/features/#link3

Mind Mapping Software with timelining:
MindView: http://www.matchware.com/en/products/mindview/default.htm
Inspiration: http://www.inspiration.com/Inspiration

Timelining specialists:
TimelineMaker: http://www.timelinemaker.com/
TimeMap: http://www.casesoft.com/timemap/download.asp
BeeDocs: http://www.beedocs.com/timeline-feature-comparison/
TimeFlow Analytical Timeline: https://github.com/FlowingMedia/TimeFlow/wiki/

Web-based:
Dipity: http://www.dipity.com/
SIMILE Widgets Timeline: http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/
Recorded Future: https://www.recordedfuture.com/how-media-analytics-works.html

Graphics:
SmartDraw: http://www.smartdraw.com/product/features/timeline-examples/

I need some time to evaluate these, but one that immediately caught my eye was TimeFlow Analytical Timeline. I like it that time-based data can be viewed in 5 different ways. That would be very helpful in analysing data.

Dr Andus,

I'm not sure where your quest got you, but I'm posting here for reference an (apparently) new Windows entrant, Outline4D http://www.screenplay.com/p-77-outline-4d.aspx

It seems to be aimed at script writers and features vertical-outline / horizontal-timeline and other views.

Outline4D does not seem to provide a trial version, but there are plenty of screenshots in the above website, as well as several videos here http://www.learnoutline4d.com/

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Dr Andus,

I'm not sure where your quest got you, but I'm posting here for reference an
(apparently) new Windows entrant, Outline4D
http://www.screenplay.com/p-77-outline-4d.aspx

I still haven't got to this stage in my research (hopefully I'll get there by the end of October), so this is very good timing and a great suggestion!

Alexander Deliyannis wrote:

Dr Andus,

I'm not sure where your quest got you, but I'm posting here for reference an
(apparently) new Windows entrant, Outline4D
http://www.screenplay.com/p-77-outline-4d.aspx

It seems to be aimed at script
writers and features vertical-outline / horizontal-timeline and other views.


Outline4D does not seem to provide a trial version, but there are plenty of
screenshots in the above website, as well as several videos here
http://www.learnoutline4d.com/

For the record, regarding Outline 4D:

It was released in early 2010 as a rebranding of the earlier Storyview. See:

http://www.prlog.org/10507104-write-brothers-inc-announces-the-launch-of-outline-4d-exclusively-through-amazon.html

A 5-day trial version is available here:

http://www.screenplay.com/t-O4Ddemo.aspx

Whoops, I now see that what I just posted is redundant as Alexander already posted further info in another thread. Sorry for that --- I've not been following closely enough.