What's New in Version 3

• Timeline View
• Relationship View

• Timeline View is a linear display of events across time
• Relationship View is a grid structure to quickly view and edit relationships
• Spreadsheet View is a simple table for fast data entry and ordering
• Narrative View is card-based display to order and structure events independently of dates
• Outline View is a tree-like view of your narrative, allowing for quick data entry
• Subway View illustrates how events connect with characters, arcs, and other entities across time
• Mindmap View is a free-form map showing connections between entities and events for brainstorming

• Events can be grouped according to item type, creating multiple parallel timelines.
• Every entity shown, but some can be collapsed.
• With larger timelines with lots of entities, difficult to manage vertical scrolling to view and compare data

• View multiple instances of the same view (e.g. two Timeline Views), with different filters applied to each
• View multiple different view types at the same time (e.g. Spreadsheet on top for fast data entry, and a Timeline underneath for the visual display)
• Each view has independent vertical scrolling, making it easier to bring data into view for comparison
• Horizontal scrolling can be synced or separated, allowing you to compare items across time

• Optional "Today" line drawn on timeline at current date

• Add your own calendar markers to the top of the timeline, with configurable:
  • Start, duration and end
  • Repetition
  • Colors and icons
  • Display just on header, or across entire timeline
• Optional "Today" line drawn on timeline at current date

• Events can be expanded and collapsed inline to show more information about the event

• Configure information to show for every event, without the need to expand and collapse individual items

• Events always required dates so they could be displayed on your timeline
• Entities, such as people and places, which could be associated with events
• Relationships could only be created between events and entities

• If you don't want to think about dates initially, then don't... events can be created without dates, and can be added later when convenient
• Entities such as people can be given birth and death dates and displayed directly on the timeline
• Events, like entities, can be separated into different types (such as events/flashbacks in fiction, or epic/story/task in agile project management)
• Events can have relationships with other events
• Entities can have relationships with other entities (a person can have a birthplace, or two people can be friends or associates)
• Entities can have additional properties as well as events (e.g. a person can have a gender)

A new template wizard makes it easier to get started with a new timeline, by allowing you to customise aspects of a template as the timeline is created.

• All events have a date, and are sorted in chronological order.

• Chronological Order: represents a date-based, sequential order of events as they actually occurred (even for items that have not yet been allocated dates).
• Narrative Order: represents the order in which events (and other items) are introduced within a narrative or presentation of the timeline data

Events can be included in just one or both of these orders, allowing you to map things such as non-linear narratives and backstory beyond what you intend to include in your final storytelling.

• Events can be nested underneath other events
  • Parent event dates calculated directly from children (dummy start and end events needed to mark start and end of the timeline)

• Events can be nested underneath other events
  
  • Parent events have their own dates, removing the need for dummy child events
  • Parent events highlight when child events exceed the start or end dates of their parents
• Other items can also be nested, such as:
  • Smaller locations (e.g. cities) nested within larger locations (e.g. countries)
  • People grouped into departments, or character groups (e.g. Protagonists vs Antagonists)

• Dependencies tie events directly together, forcing an exact time distance between events

• True project management dependencies enforce item order without enforcing strict dates (i.e. Event B must come after Event A, but it doesn't matter if it follows immediately or delays 3 months)
• More flexible constraints offer advanced options, including comparison against dates or other items, offsets, specific time components (e.g. must be on a Sunday), and comparison operators (less than, equals, greater than)
• Violated constraints can be automatically or manually resolved, depending on your preference

• Lock individual events to ensure they cannot move unless explicitly unlocked

• Choose the precision when entering events (e.g. day, month, or year)

• Choose the precision when entering events (e.g. day, month, or year)
• Optionally, specify latest possible start and earliest possible end dates to provide more detail around uncertain events:
  • Used in historic timelines to represent unknown dates
  • Used in project management to represent flexibility or unknown task durations
• Mark items that have not yet ended (e.g. a person's life) as Ongoing

• Events in the timeline manually linked to documents anywhere in the Scrivener or Ulysses project
• All data synced via custom metadata

• Narrative items automatically synced with documents in Scrivener Manuscript or selected Ulysses folder
• Other entity types such as Characters and Places can be synced with matching folders in Scrivener
• Relationships synced via keywords, providing better search and sort within Scrivener/Ulysses, and making renaming easier

• Syncing must be triggered manually by the user, by opening the Scrivener or Ulysses project
  • Events or documents must be manually dragged into or out of the project binder, or linked with an existing item

• Aeon Timeline always keeps track of changes within the writing project (Scrivener or Ulysses) and will notify the user when a change has occurred that should be synced
• Syncing of narrative structure to manuscript folder, and entities to entity folders is automatic

• Scrivener project must be closed to check sync status and to sync across changes, interrupting workflow

• Scrivener project does not need to be closed to view sync status. This is checked automatically.
• Aeon Timeline can automatically close Scrivener project when syncing occurs, and re-open the project as soon as writing is complete

• Entities hidden away into inaccessible modal window

• Entity lists accessed via icons in sidebar
• Selected entity items can be edited in the inspector
• Items can be dragged directly out of entity list into other views such as Mindmap

• Search within event labels only

• Search for any item (events and entities)
• Search within item, summary, tags, and other text properties
• Whole word and case sensitive search options
• Matches listed in side panel, making it easier to find the desired

• Global filter controlled using boolean logic in a bar along the top

• Filter controls shifted into their own side-panel, providing an easier layout to view and navigate
• Apply a global filter, or individual filters for each view
• Fast filter access from entity list to filter by a specific entity 

• Separate display settings modal

• Display settings moved to footer to make them easier to access and immediately view effects of changes
• Footer adapts visible display settings for active view type
• More display settings for each view (e.g. Timeline View allows you to view a marker-only display)

• Underlying printing mechanisms improved to make printing and PDF export faster, more reliable, and with a better preview that shows the exact final result

• More flexibility in types of data that can be handled
• CSV import modal provides a preview of imported data, and how many rows will successfully import

• Hold down Alt when dragging an item in timeline view to shift its end date

• Grab handles on each end of timeline item marker allow resizing an event without adjusting the other date

• Reviewed and improved keyboard accessibility and navigation throughout the app