Customizing Item Types and Relationships in Timeline View

[romebot2]

Hello!

When I’m in the Timeline view and use Groups → Place to select a specific place, such as Arabian Peninsula, I like that I can see other item types associated with that place. For example, under the Arabian Peninsula group, I can see the Rashidi Dynasty (my “Empires/Dynasties/Reigns” item type) as well as the Battle of Mulayda (Event), because they are associated with that place.

First question: Is there a way to hide certain item types from this view when I don’t want to see them, in order to reduce visual clutter? For example, I might want to see Events under Places but temporarily hide Empires/Dynasties/Reigns.

Second question: Is there a way to get similar behavior with other item types? For example, when viewing States/Political Entities, I’d like to see associated Empires/Dynasties/Reigns in the same section. So if I have Kingdom of Macedon (State/Political Entity) and Reign of Alexander the Great (Empire/Dynasty/Reign) associated with it, I’d like Alexander’s reign to appear when I’m viewing the Macedon section, similar to how associated Events appear under a Place. Otherwise, I have to look in two different sections and try to visually line it up which isn’t convenient.

Separately, under Groups, I have selected Places under Type, but in my timeline I only see the category heading and no places underneath it, even though I have multiple Places in my timeline. If I select the individual Places under Groups → Place, they appear correctly, but they do not appear when I select Places by Type.

Thanks!

[Riaan]

Hi romebot2,

Welcome to the Aeon Timeline forum!

Yes, you can set up the different views you’ve described. I’ve also attached a small demo file below with Views marked Question 1, Question 2, and Question 3.

romebot2 demo.aeon (109.0 KB)

I’d recommend having a play with the demo file first - you can tick and untick options and experiment with the different Views without changing anything in your current project.

If you find a setup you’d like to use in your own project, I’d recommend creating a new View rather than changing your existing Timeline View. This lets you try the setup without disrupting the View you’ve already created.

Adding a new View

1. Click + Add tab next to the last View displayed.

2. Select the type of View you want to add.

3. Click the down arrow on the new View and select Rename.

4. Enter a name for the View.

5. Use Content, Groups, and the other View options to configure what you want to see.

You can then switch between your existing Timeline and the new Views using the View tabs.

1. Hiding certain Item Types when viewing Places

Yes, you can choose which Item Types are displayed:

1. Open Content in the View header.

2. Under Cards, tick:

   • Events

   • States/Political Entities

3. Under Cards, untick:

   • Empires/Dynasties/Reigns

You can tick or untick the different Item Types under Cards to quickly change what is displayed within your Place groups.

You’ll find this setup in the Question 1 View in the demo file.

2. Viewing associated items under States/Political Entities

Yes, you can use the same approach with your States/Political Entities:

1. Select the State/Political Entity you want under Groups.

2. Open Content in the View header.

3. Under Cards, tick:

   • Events

   • Empires/Dynasties/Reigns

4. Under Cards, untick:

   • States/Political Entities

.

This lets associated items such as the Reign of Alexander the Great appear within the Kingdom of Macedon group, rather than having to look between separate sections of the Timeline.

You’ll find this setup in the Question 2 View in the demo file.

3. Places not appearing under Groups → Type

Items need a date to be displayed on the Timeline View.

You can add dates to your Places using the Inspector. If the date options aren’t available for your Places, you can enable them:

1. Click the cog in the top-right.

2. Select Item Types.

3. Select Places.

4. Locate Allow Dates and tick it.

5. Click OK.

You can then add dates to your Places in the Inspector, allowing them to be displayed on the Timeline.

Viewing Places without dates

Places can also be viewed without adding dates, depending on how you want to work with the information.

List View

Use a List View if you simply want a list of your Places.

Spreadsheet View

If you want to see your Places alongside other information, a Spreadsheet View gives you more flexibility.

You can display Places together with properties and relationships to Events, States/Political Entities, Empires/Dynasties/Reigns, and other information in your project.

Relationship View

If you want to see how your Places are connected to other items, a Relationship View can be particularly useful for the setup you’ve described.

For example, you could have:

• Rows: Places

• Columns: Events, States/Political Entities, and Empires/Dynasties/Reigns

You’ll find examples of these options under the Question 3 Views in the demo file.

I hope this helps! Play with the different Views in the demo file and see which combinations work best for your project. There are quite a few ways you can use Content and Groups to look at the same historical information from different angles. If you have any questions while setting things up, please let us know.

Best,
Riaan

[Goaliedad]

Fantastic explanation, which really helps to understand Aeon Timeline, Thanks.

[romebot2]

Wow, thanks for such a thorough answer! That’s a lot to mull over, but I’ve downloaded the file and will play around with this. Cheers!

[romebot2]

Hello again, been playing around and just wanted to clarify something.

It seems when I deselect all groups in timeline view, then selecting the items I want to see on the cards is exactly what I was looking for. This way I can see for example, historical background events in the same timeline as personal events.

However, when I group a different content item I also want to see below, let’s say, places or any other choice, the historical events disappear from my personal events.

Is this the intended behavior or am I not getting how to do it?

Thanks!

[Riaan]

Hi romebot2,

Glad you’ve had a chance to play around with it!

What you’re seeing when you add a group is expected, but you can also keep the items that aren’t associated with that group.

For this example, I’ve used two Events:

Event 1 personal
Place — Brisbane

Event 1 Historical
Place — No Place assigned

This gives us one Event associated with a Place and one without a Place, so we can see what happens to both when the Timeline is grouped by Place.

If I group by Place and only select Brisbane, Event 1 Personal is displayed, but Event 1 Historical isn’t because it has no Place assigned.

To show both:

1. Open Groups in the View header.

2. Under Place, select the Places you want to display.

3. Also select No Place.

The Timeline will then have two sections:

• Brisbane — containing Event 1 personal

• No Place Assigned — containing Event 1 Historical

One thing to keep in mind is that No Place isn’t included when you select all Places, so you’ll need to tick it separately if you want those items included.

This works in the same way with other grouping options, so selecting the No… option can be useful whenever you want to keep items that don’t have that particular relationship or value assigned.

I hope that gets the Timeline displaying the combination you were looking for! If you have any more questions while you’re experimenting with the different options, or need a hand setting something up, please let us know.

Best,
Riaan

[romebot2]

Hello again… Maybe I’m not understanding, or could be I didn’t explain well.

When I clear all grouping, I get a single timeline that includes everything selected in content. This is very helpful to see everything in one place.

But if I add a group to this view, it separates out each group as it’s own timeline and I lose the ability to see multiple content items as described above.

E.g. I have personal and historical events. When I have these selected in content, and clear all grouping, I see them both in one timeline, which is great.

Now, if I want to add another timeline below this, let’s say people or a location, I check these item in grouping. But then I only see these groups as individual timelines w/ no ability to add another content type to those grouped timelines. Does that that make sense?