Timeline Tool

[Corey Furman]

Is anyone using something to develop a history timeline?  I don't mean lie the storyboard, which directly relates to the story.  What I mean is like a historical backdrop.  In my mind, I would put in titles and dates and the tool would draw a timeline.  I can write one, but if there's one out there... I don't need to reinvent a wheel.

Thanks.  Have a blessed Thanksgiving, everyone.

[Michelle Norton]

I'm using aeon time line. It supports all kinds of calendars including fantasy ones

On Wednesday, November 27, 2013, Corey Furman wrote:

Is anyone using something to develop a history timeline?  I don't mean lie the storyboard, which directly relates to the story.  What I mean is like a historical backdrop.  In my mind, I would put in titles and dates and the tool would draw a timeline.  I can write one, but if there's one out there... I don't need to reinvent a wheel.

Thanks.  Have a blessed Thanksgiving, everyone.

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Michelle
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http://denverfictionwriters.com

[Dick Keaton]

You might want to check out Timeline. You can get it here (for free):  http://thetimelineproj.sourceforge.net/

I use Scapple from the developers of Scrivener (LiteratureandLatte.com. It's not specifically a 'timeline' tool but it has the flexibility and functionality that works for me.

Good luck.

Dick

[Todd Carnes]

On 11/27/2013 10:53 AM, Michelle Norton wrote:
> I'm using aeon time line.

That looks really neat! For those who might want to check it out, I
found it at http://www.scribblecode.com/.

Todd

[Jennie Dorny]

This is interesting, thanks.

I've been looking for a software to create a chronology for some time.

Does anyone of you know of an (easy) way (some people mention an excel spreadsheet...) to synchronize the ages of different characters other than by hand?

My novel is very long and I'm dealing with over forty characters. It's difficult to keep track of how old a character is at any given time. Here is an example:  is there a quick way of finding out how old were John's parents, his older sister, younger cousin and three uncles, when he fell off a horse on his tenth birthday, besides counting on my fingers for each character?

I'm not familiar enough with excel to know if I can use it to organize something with it. Maybe something else exists that I don't know about (I've searched but haven't found anything so far).

I'd be happy to know how you handle this type of problem.

Thank you in advance.

Jennie

 

----- Original Message -----

--

[Corey Furman]

That timeline looks perfect - thanks, mate.

[Trevor Prinn]

Very easy to do in Excel. I just wrote a sheet to do it and uploaded it
to http://www.mediafire.com/view/mwncnlcn03bc6vm/AgeCalculator.xls

On 27/11/2013 22:09, Jennie Dorny wrote:
> This is interesting, thanks.
> I've been looking for a software to create a chronology for some time.
> Does anyone of you know of an (easy) way (some people mention an excel
> spreadsheet...) to synchronize the ages of different characters other
> than by hand?
> My novel is very long and I'm dealing with over forty characters. It's
> difficult to keep track of how old a character is at any given time.
> Here is an example: is there a quick way of finding out how old were
> John's parents, his older sister, younger cousin and three uncles, when
> he fell off a horse on his tenth birthday, besides counting on my
> fingers for each character?
> I'm not familiar enough with excel to know if I can use it to organize
> something with it. Maybe something else exists that I don't know about
> (I've searched but haven't found anything so far).
> I'd be happy to know how you handle this type of problem.
> Thank you in advance.
> Jennie
>
> ----- Original Message -----
>

> *From:* Dick Keaton <mailto:dick....@writeosophy.com>
> *To:* ywr...@googlegroups.com <mailto:ywr...@googlegroups.com>
> *Sent:* Wednesday, November 27, 2013 5:09 PM
> *Subject:* [yWriter] Re: Timeline Tool

[Jennie Dorny]

Thank you very much!

Jennie
----- Original Message -----

From: "Trevor Prinn" <tr...@tprinn.co.uk>
To: <ywr...@googlegroups.com>

[Henry Boleszny]

Hi, Jennie,

 

I know exactly what you mean.  I rely on an Excel spreadsheet for that very reason.  If you plug in the following formula for each character, you’ll get the comparative information you need:

 

                =DATEDIF($D$80,A86,"y") & " yr " & DATEDIF($D$80,A86,"m")-12*DATEDIF($D$80,A86,"y") & " mth"

                =DATEDIF($A$129,$A161,"m") & " m " & DATEDIF($A$129,$A161,"d")-30*DATEDIF($A$129,$A161,"m") & " d"

 

So, what does all that garbage mean? 

 

The first cell reference is the ‘from’ date—like your character’s birthday.  The second cell reference is another date—for example, the date Johnny rips the head off Molly’s possessed dolly.  

 

The first formula tells Excel to calculate a date range and display the result in years and months.  The second one does the same thing for months and days.  The “$” symbol locks the cell reference to a specific row-column location when you drag the cell contents down columns or across rows. 

 

The DATEDIF has no documentation within Excel’s Help files.  I found it by doing a search online for working out birthdays.  I’ve tried many times to get a year, month and day calculation in the one formula, but it’s never worked properly. 

 

I’ve attached a screenshot to show you how it looks in use within a timeline.  Sorry about the poor quality, but it’s a big spreadsheet and Word is hopeless in creating PDFs. 

 

I’ve put the character names in one row with their birthdate above their name.   Column A has all the event dates, with Column B containing a scene title and Column C containing a brief note or outline of key events.  Everything from Column D to Column BZ contains the characters. 

 

The easiest way to propagate the worksheet is to put the formula into the first character’s “event” cell (the one where you want the age to appear).  Use the “$” symbol before the second reference date—for example, $A$129,$A161—so that the reference is consistent when you drag it across the row for all forty characters.  The tedious bit is that you then need to change the origin cell reference—$A$129 , in this example—for every Character so it points to the right birthdate.  The good news is that once you’ve got it across the row, you can drag down the columns without having to change the formula again. 

 

I may not have explained this very well.  It’s easier to do than to explain, fortunately.  You’re welcome to contact me again if you’ve any further questions about this trick.

 

Hope this helps you out. 

 

Henry

 

From: ywr...@googlegroups.com [mailto:ywr...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Jennie Dorny
Sent: Thursday, 28 November 2013 8:10 AM
To: ywr...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [yWriter] Re: Timeline Tool

 

This is interesting, thanks.

[DarthNewton]

I tend to use Freeplane
(http://freeplane.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) as of late.

While not a time line tool per se, it is very flexible and works well.

[Douglas Wilson]

Hi,

I found a couple of time line applications online http://www.dipity.com/ and http://www.simile-widgets.org/timeline/

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[Todd Carnes]

On 11/27/2013 7:55 AM, Corey Furman wrote:

I found http://timeglider.com/ and there are several listed at
http://genealogy.about.com/od/timeline_software/.

[Michelle Norton]

Aeon time line lets you do this. You and a character and put in age at introduction and when ever you mark them on the timeline it gives their age. Also it lets you track characters on the timeline and mark them on events. Frankly I've been waiting for this tool forever. 

[Jennie Dorny]

Hi, Trevor, Henry and Michelle,

Thank you for this invaluable info. I'm going to look both into the excel spreadsheets and aeon timeline. Indeed, my sf story takes place in a standard time based on 365 days and in another time scale (with a year of 324 days), so I need to keep a double timeline and see how events overlap.

All the best and good writing,