How to filter on parents, but only show children? Brainstorming hack needed

[mmarceau]

Dear Community,

I’ve recently downloaded Aeon Timeline to help me organise my worldbuilding and historical timelines.

I’ve figured out that the Spreadsheet view is probably the one suiting my brainstorming needs best. However, after struggling for some time with filters, I haven’t come across a way to display information in a convenient way.

What I’d like to achieve: filtering on a parent item and showing only its children (not the parent). The reason for this is that it is not possible (or I haven’t found the way to do so) to add a series of nested items one after the other directly within a parent item. When pressing “Enter”, the cursor is brought back to the end of the Spreadsheet. While this is no problem when adding elements after the last one in the table, it quickly becomes confusing and tedious when trying to add elements between existing rows or within a parent item.

The only “workaround” I have found is to create the elements, select them and drag them all in the right spot after their creation.

I find this quite inconvenient as it adds superfluous manipulations, which really hinder my workflow by constantly having to stop/select/drag-and-drop to reorder my items. It also makes it more prone to mistakes when editing/adding elements at a later date on a filtered view.

Is there a way to only display a parent’s children OR to add sibling items directly nested in their parent?

I recorded an illustrative video but apparently new users can’t upload… I’ll add it later if I can.

Thank you for your help!

[Riaan]

Hi @mmarceau ,

Welcome to Aeon Timeline, and thank you for your question.

From what you’re describing, I don’t think filtering the parent item out of the Spreadsheet will give you the workflow you’re looking for. There are, however, a few ways you can add or organise nested items without having to create each item at the bottom of the Spreadsheet and then drag it into position.

Adding a single item in the Spreadsheet

If you want to insert a new item at a particular point in the Spreadsheet, hover over the item where you want to add it and click the pencil icon. You can then select Create item before or Create item after.

Alternatively, select the row where you want to add the new item and press Ctrl + N (Cmd + N on Mac). This will create a new item directly after the selected row, where you can enter its details.

Adding several sibling items at the same nested level

If you’re brainstorming a series of items that should all be nested at the same level, another option is to use the Sidebar.

In the example below, there are New Event options at two different levels:

The New Event beneath 2.5 is at the nested level. Start there and pressing Enter after each new item will continue adding siblings at that level.

The New Event beneath 3.4 is at the top level. If you start there instead, pressing Enter will continue creating new items at the top level.

The same principle applies if you have additional levels of nesting. Start with the New Event at the level where you want to add your items, and pressing Enter will continue creating sibling items at that level.

The label will also match the Item Type you’re creating, so if your Item Type is called Cars, for example, this will appear as New Car rather than New Event.

Creating several items first and nesting them together

If you prefer to brainstorm directly in the Spreadsheet, you can also enter all of your new items there first and then nest them together in one step.

Select the first item you want to nest, hold Shift, and select the last item to select the range. With those items selected, use the Nested Under dropdown in the Inspector on the right and select the parent item.

All of the selected items will then be nested beneath that item at once.

Hopefully these four options, along with the drag-and-drop approach you’re already using, will help you find a workflow that works well for you. If you have any more questions, please feel free to get back in contact!

Best,
Riaan
Aeon Timeline Support

[mmarceau]

Hi @Riaan

With a little delay, thank you for your comprehensive answer to my question.

I’m glad to see that Aeon offers a way to do what I want. I’d say that it’s a shame this feature isn’t explained in any guide (at least I didn’t find it) or that it isn’t very obvious or intuitive — despite looking for an answer in and out of the software for hours before posting here, I hadn’t found anything.

Which leads me to suggest that this feature could be added directly in the spreadsheet and list views: I suspect this is where most of us might work on top of being more visible than hidden in the sidebar. (Maybe the new guides lack an article about the sidebar and what it can achieve/be used for? It might seem trivial but the interface can take a bit of time to be navigated easily.)

…which leads me to another question: if any Aeon confirmed users read this, would you actually advise on using the software to brainstorm or rather to aggregate information that has already been listed and organised (even a minimum)? Which do you find more efficient?

Please tell me if a new thread needs to be created to cover this new topic, I’ll gladly do it

[Riaan]

Hi @mmarceau,

Thank you for taking the time to provide such detailed feedback; I’ll pass it on to the team.

I’m glad the approach I suggested gives you a way to continue with the workflow you were looking for.

Your question about brainstorming is really interesting, and it deserves its own thread so it doesn’t get buried under a filtering question.

Best,
Riaan
Aeon Timeline Support

[Goaliedad]

Thanks again for the excellent and clear example. It brings up an issue. You mention the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + N to add a new item, but this adds the new item before the current one, I went to look for a keyboard shortcut for adding item afterwards and cannot find. It would help me and others if under the help menu (or wherever you think ) would be item listing all current Aeon Timeline Shortcuts, or add the shortcut in the menus seen in dropdowns. Example from Scrivener

[Riaan]

Hi @Goaliedad,

You’re very welcome! I’m glad the example was helpful, and thank you for taking the time to share your feedback and suggestions.

I’d be happy to take a closer look at what’s happening when you use Ctrl + N, so we can understand why the new item is appearing before the selected one. Could you let us know which View you’re using, how it’s sorted, and whether nesting or grouping is enabled? Alternatively, if you could share an example file or a short video showing what happens, that would help us investigate further.

Also, thank you for your suggestion about having all the keyboard shortcuts available in one place. I’ll pass this on to our development team.

In the meantime, you can find the shortcuts for creating new items by clicking the + button in the Sidebar.

You can also find these shortcuts in the top menu under Item > Add > Event.

Best,
Riaan
Aeon Timeline Support

[Goaliedad]

Tried again and cannot repeat the original issue in narrative, narrative spreadsheet , or spreadsheet view. No explanation.

[Riaan]

Hi @Goaliedad,

Thanks for the update!

Interesting that it couldn’t be replicated, but if it does happen again, please let us know so we can investigate it.

Best,
Riaan
Aeon Timeline Support