I have another suggestion for viewing large and complex timelines.
THE PROBLEM
While you’re currently able to specify the view level based on different timescales (week, day, month, quarter…) it still involves continuous scrolling which makes it difficult to get a sense of the scale of time and relationship between events.
MY CURRENT SOLUTION
I create a number of tabs and set the date range for each tab in years. This allows me to see events year by year. I know the event at the top left of the screen will be the first event of that year and the final event the last of the year.
POSSIBLE SOLUTION
An option to view specific time periods where the first event of that period begins at the top left and the last event at the right hand side.
One option could allow you to step forwards and backwards discretely. Another allowing continuous scroll but with each time period being clearly differentiated and the first event appearing at the top left of that period.
ATTACHMENTS
First image shows all events at the YEARS scale but it’s difficult to see how many years are involved and where each year begins and ends.
Second image also shows events at the YEARS scale however there is a break between each year and the first event of each year begins at the top of the screen. (Small glitch in the attached pic. The first event for the second period - 2022 - isnt at the top of that section, but should be)
Third image is similar to the second however only shows a single period with navigation buttons to step forwards and backwards.
Thanks for the detailed suggestion and for including the examples. I can see the use case you’re describing, particularly the benefit of being able to clearly distinguish individual periods while working within a large Timeline.
I’m going to raise this with our development team and also discuss whether there are any other existing approaches that may help with the workflow you’ve described.
I’ll follow up with you once we’ve had a chance to look at this in more detail and explore some of the available options.
Thanks again for taking the time to explain the idea so clearly.
Thanks for your patience while we discussed this with the team.
For viewing individual years separately, the approach you’re already using - creating a separate Timeline View for each year - is currently the best option.
For your continuous Timeline, you could also use a repeating Calendar Marker to make the beginning of each year more visible.
To set this up:
Click the Calendar Marker icon in the left-hand sidebar
Click New Calendar Marker and enter a name
In the Inspector, set the Color and Icon (optional)
Tick Draw on Timeline
Set the Start date to the beginning of the first year you want to mark.
Tick Repeat and set the marker to repeat every 1 years.
One thing to be aware of is that Calendar Markers are shared across Timeline Views, so the marker lines will appear in all Timeline Views while Draw on Timeline is enabled. If you need a cleaner Timeline for something like printing or exporting, you can temporarily untick Draw on Timeline to hide the marker lines, then enable it again afterwards.
We can see the benefit of the additional options you’ve suggested. We’ve considered different ways of improving how periods of time can be viewed and navigated in Aeon Timeline, although we don’t have anything specific to announce at this stage. Your examples and use case will be useful as we continue those discussions.
That method helps provide more clarity, but my suggestion provides even more.
If you have a multi year timeline you need to scroll up and down as well as left and right to view events. If you could view specific periods at a time, e.g. year by year, and the first event for each new period began at the top of the screen, you could view an entire year without scrolling up or down. And with a FORWARDS/BACKWARDS button you could step forwards and backwards with a single click.
The concept is similar to viewing a multi page document in Microsoft Word using either DRAFT or PAGE LAYOUT modes. Using DRAFT you have continuous text without knowing how many pages the document is. Using PAGE LAYOUT shows you how many pages your document is and allows you to structure your document by starting new/important sections at the top of a new page.
Another example is viewing a yearly calendar using continuous scroll or month by month. The attached image is part of a continuous scroll calendar. It’s much harder to follow that month by month.
It would help printing, especially on A4 printers if you could print specific periods per page.
I would like to demonstrate the benefit of the features I’ve been proposing. It is impossible to view the information in this timeline either on screen or printed, in any meaningful way.
EXAMPLE 01 - A basic export from Aeon with 6 years of information. Not only is it is difficult to interpret onscreen, it is impossible to print.
EXAMPLE 02 - The same 6 years of information but with a specific combination of grouping and filtering in order display how I’d like. Unfortunately I also had to hide some events and was forced to use the waterfall display. So unfortunately this is only good for demonstrating some of the proposed benefits.
THE BENEFITS
Printing
This will print easily using a roll printer, or possibly even by printing each year (or other period) separately on an A3 printer.
Discrete Time Frames Increases Legibility
I found a way to force each new year to begin at the top of the page which makes each period as well as the overall timeframe much easier to comprehend. It is immediately clear is that there are more events in the first 3 years than the last 3 years.
Highlighting Events Allows Greater Insight
I highlighted some of the events outside Aeon using Apple Preview. The series of events in yellow are the reason for the fewer events in the last 3 years. The events in red are the most concerning events. What’s clear is that while there are fewer events overall, the number of concerning events hasn’t changed. I was genuinely surprised when I saw this only today.
Please…
The size of this timeline makes it difficult to understand, even for me.
I would like to buy a roll printer or A3 printer in order to print the timeline at a scale where the text is legible when viewed up close, but patterns can be seen when viewed from a distance.
However the software requires new features in order to do this properly so f anyone from Aeon wants to contact me for further information please do so.
