Timeline???

I hope someone just sighs and tell me this feature is already in but…

I’d like to be able to show the indexcards on a timeline (sure, you can arrange them in a long column, not what I’m after) with parallel plots (or different characters) just as I can in Celtx (Scrivener wins by the way, hands down, as far as novel writing is concerned I just miss that awesome timeline, well, half-awesome since you cant rearrange the cards).
And when a higher-level card is opened I’d like to be able to flip through the cards beneath it or lay them out below (stacked perhaps but still, NOT go into another board unless I want to).

Anyone else that has the corkboard background lag behind by the way when you scroll?

//Daniel

The thread for Aeon Timeline is here:

viewforum.php?f=27

I believe they are considering a Windows version.

Martin.

Aaaaah, I’d rather not buy any more software. Since I can’t have scrivener on any pad (yet) and have to import text written on the go I’d like to keep it clean. If Aeon is the intended solution I’d rather manage without :frowning:
It doesn’t have to be a very advanced timeline either, do the corkboard with chapters on one axis and characters/wievpoint/plot on the other. Then just drag and drop to rearrange. Just for that overview
tha I usually do IRL with post-its.

Please find my full explanation for why a timeline has no home in Scrivener - and is unlikely ever to have a home in Scrivener - here:

literatureandlatte.com/blog/?p=104

All the best,
Keith

I have a workaround that does not involve coding in an actual timeline: allow two independent sets of labels. That way, one set could be used for, say, days in a timeline. The colouring of the index cards could be switched between the current labels (the ones already implemented) and the new ones. That would help tremendously.

It’d also be great if the index cards could be sorted according to the time labels - perhaps exporting the list as a pdf of the (sorted) corkboard. Exporting would not mess with the real order of the index cards.

As far as I can see, this would not need to affect the way the documents are arranged in Scrivener.

Rather than having multiple labels, keywords can do (View->Corkboard optoins->Show Keyword Colors). Rearranging index cards without rearranging the files in the binder isn’t possible yet, I don’t think, but if collections gain the ability to be displayed on a cork board like in the Mac version, then you’ll be able to create two (or more) collections that will allow you to arrange things however you like.

Also, the free-form cork board is another feature that will eventually appear in the Windows version, and that feature will also give you the ability to arrange cards without affecting how they are ordered in the binder.

Lest you feel like I’m just teasing you, keep in mind that there were no such solutions on the Mac side of things for many years before version 2 came along; Your platform will catch up.

I’m using keywords for characters, so that’s no help to me, I’m afraid.

“Compiling” the cards according to time labels would not rearrange them - it would create a new file (text, pdf, png) that would have the index cards in the time-label order.

I’m looking forward to the freeform corkboard! And, of course, to the time when the Win version of Scrivener will need a 500-page manual. :slight_smile:

Timeline programs are something I’ve looked at from time to time, but none of them really fit my bill. At this point I should say that I haven’t looked at Aeon for a long time, and I’ve just d/l’d the 20 day test copy for a new evaluation. But my favourite timeline software is a combination of a) my Mac Calendar and b) LibreOffice’s Calc program (no doubt MS Office Excel is just as good, but costs more).

On sheet 1 of my spreadsheet I have a table of the principal characteristics of my various important characters (and some of the minor ones). These include forename and surname, date of birth, colour of hair and eyes, height, weight and BMI (height and BMI are usually the deciding factors, and weight the dependant factor), job, where they live, and relations, that is father, mother, siblings, partner and in some cases other relationships.

On sheet 2 of my spreadsheet I have a column for the dates of important events in the first column, the day of the week in the second column and the event in the third column. An event can be merely someone’s birthday. In subsequent columns I have the principal characters and their age at the time of the event - this can often be an important factor, especially as one of my novels included a number of teenagers, and I needed to know when they could legally learn to drive, buy alcohol, drink alcohol (not the same here in Sweden!) and various other things, including where in their education they were at any particular time. At the top of a character’s column I copy from sheet 1 their name and date of birth, and then have a simple formula to show their age in years and months in the rest of the column, beside each event. It’s easy to add a row or rows wherever I need, and relatively easy to move a block of events to a new location and merely change the date column.

In Calendar I make a special calendar with a distinctive colour - I’m usually working a few years in the future so normal calendar events don’t tend to get in the way - and make entries in the normal way for my various characters. I find a calendar is a better way of picturing time spans so that, for example, a woman who gets pregnant in January does not give birth in April and not in December either, and it helps one to provide a reasonable period of time for different events to take place, for example if someone sends a packet abroad, when can they reasonably expect a reply by a) email, b) snail mail, and c) by someone sending a packet back.

It works for me, and may well continue to do so until the perfect timeline software comes along.

//James