Re: Visio should support dates earlier than 1899 in timeline

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

I can assure you that there are plenty of business scenarios for dates
earlier than 1899. This is something that we get a lot of requests for and
are considering how to address. The challenge is that we would need to
reinvent a lot of the wheel to accomplish this.

--
Mark Nelson
Office Graphics - Visio
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"LumpJohnny" <LumpJ...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:98D4DCE7-E643-4914...@microsoft.com...
> In typical fashion, they weren't; It's hard for a company driven solely
> by
> profit and extraction of surplus to imagine non-business applications,
> much
> less waste time with them.
>
> I find it ridiculous, but again typical, as well.
>
> "Kathleen Crouch" wrote:
>
>> Please don't send me a workaround suggestion, I'm not looking for one. It
>> would defeat the purpose of the timeline function. Simply put, Visio
>> should
>> support dates earlier than 1899. That it does not, is ridiculous. Trying
>> to
>> plot out the progression of important dates in U.S. Supreme Court history
>> is
>> quickly frustrated by the date limitation. I know for a fact that others
>> have
>> the same complaint. I really don't understand what Microsoft was thinking
>> here.
>>
>> Please create a patch for Visio 2003, or be sure to add it to the next
>> full
>> version. thanks.
>>
>> ----------------
>> This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
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>> Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
>> this
>> link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
>> then
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>>
>> http://www.microsoft.com/office/community/en-us/default.mspx?mid=c000c834-d57a-4a1e-a915-3ba58e027bf1&dg=microsoft.public.visio.general

[John Marshall, MVP]

Actually it is not as drastic as that (unless of course you are considering
some of the extensions I mentioned in a previous conversation. ;-) )

The "simple" solution would be to add a few new formatting options.
Internally, the date is just a number and the date format prescribed by MS
interprets the number in a specific way. So if the MS date format is removed
you can have a timeline of the form 1,2,3,4... or if you redefine how the
number is interpreted, the whole part of the number can represent the year
and the decimal part the month-day rather than the whole part representing
the number of days since 1900 and the decimal part representing the time of
day.

John... Visio MVP

Need stencils or ideas? http://www.mvps.org/visio/3rdparty.htm
Need VBA examples? http://www.mvps.org/visio/VBA.htm
Common Visio Questions http://www.mvps.org/visio/common_questions.htm
Visio Wishlist http://www.mvps.org/visio/wish_list.htm

"Mark Nelson [MS]" <mar...@online.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:%23Hjp15z...@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Ah, there's the rub. Yes we could go with that system. But I bet there are
several other systems users would want us to go with. Once we have to treat
values as some form of date, things get complicated. We may be better off
just allowing more flexibility for generic timelines and custom labels.

--
Mark Nelson
Office Graphics - Visio
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"John Marshall, MVP" <lanc...@stonehenge.ca> wrote in message
news:e5sCDjER...@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

[Scholz@discussions.microsoft.com Christian Scholz]

Kathleen--

Did you ever get a response from Microsoft that was useful? I am using
Visio 2007, and it still has the ridiculous 1899 limit on timelines. In a
stunning display of brilliance, Visio is set up to allow the user to make
timelines forecasting events occuring all the way until 12/31/4095. Because
people are always making timelines forecasting events two millenia in the
future, as opposed to a mere 200 years in the past.

Oddly enough, my reason for wanting to have pre-1899 timeline dates was
identical--I wanted to timeline Supreme Court jurisprudence as well.

Microsoft--the claim that "you would have to re-invent the wheel" is
ridiculous. Just shift the timeline range down by a millenia or so--users
would at least be able to capture American history that way.

[Al Edlund]

Visio uses the internal operating system clock for the timeline add-in,
which has the 1899 dependency. You always have the opportunity to draw your
own and apply whatever dates you want.
Al

"Christian Scholz" <Christian Sch...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:327BED5C-D451-4F4E...@microsoft.com...

[Christian Scholz]

That would be fine...except that I don't think that custom-drawn timeline
blocks would inherit the scaling and placement abilities of the default
timeline blocks. If I draw my own and put a timeline marker on it, how does
the marker know where to place itself on the timeline?

And wouldn't it be a relatively simple task for Microsoft to write a routine
that can generate dates beyond what the system clock can (and why is the
system clock limited to 1899...? Sounds pretty arbitrary.)

Christian

[Al Edlund]

You're correct in that you would have to move the markers manually. Re: the
time information AFAIK the timing is a technical thing in that under the
covers it is a count of days from 0 (in this case in 1899). The limitation
is how many days can be held using the definition (I believe type Long). It
would be a lot easier if everyone in the world would use x64 so different
(extended) data types could be used universally. Until then we are stuck
with it.
Al

"Christian Scholz" <Christi...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:FFC249C4-F614-4461...@microsoft.com...

[Matthew]

Along this line, I am working on three separate projects which require dating
systems that support BC and AD timelines. I want to use Visio to create them,
but I can't figure a way to make it work. Trying to enter a simple linear
string variable sends the program into a fit and it has crashed or hanged as
a result of this. Does anyone know where to get a patch or a plug-in,
preferably an “OFFICIAL” one, that will allow me to use a simple linear scale
using the timeline charts to plot events in ancient times through modern???
This is maddening :-)

Thanks
Matthew

[Mark Nelson [MS]]

Visio's timeline diagram is tied to dates supported by the Windows operating
system. Generally to represent dates outside that range, you need to add
your own labels on top of the timeline which would cover up the timeline
shape's. Of course at that point, you may decide that drawing you own
timeline is easier.

--
Mark Nelson
Office Graphics - Visio
Microsoft Corporation

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Matthew" <Mat...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
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