Timeline in Evernote?

[GiacomoLaw 133]

I'd like to make a timeline for history, with events occurring in dates. I could just do it in bullet points, but is there a tool that allows me to make timelines on Evernote?

Thanks

[gazumped 9,563]

Hi.  Interestingly,  I was looking into timelines recently.  There are quite a few specific (mainly web-based) tools out there if you do a generic web search,  but I'm too lazy to learn and get comfortable with another UI.  Besides for my purpose I wanted a timeline with events that could be 'categorized' so (in historical terms) I could see everything,  or just highlight all the battles,  all the coronations,  the wars,  the presidents...

MSOffice has some timeline templates,  but they work on more or less the same basis as the web sites and don't have any huge degree of flexibility.  Airtable is a definite possibility because it's a customizable spreadsheet/ database to which you can add tags - and this is what I went with initially.  My starter columns are:  Date (of the event) / Event (brief description) / Tags (multi-select column so I can control what I categorize the item as) / Notes (for anything else I think of).

As data builds up I expect to make lots more changes to this initial setup,  and split the tags so I can sort on any one or combination... and in fact just writing this prompted me to add a Where (location) column for the next item(s)

Evernote came in a very close second here,  because I could set up a simple template for each item,  add 'real' tags - including one for the location - and search and sort to my heart's content.  The only problem being that if I use EN I'm going to dump another 1,000 or so notes into my database (one per event) which might complicate future searches. 

I can hide the History notebook away in its own stack though,  and maybe banish it to a separate Basic account in future when/ if that's an issue.  (I already use separate accounts for different things and find it mildly disruptive to have to switch accounts back and forth.  It's not a major problem,  but a minute or two several times a day starts to add up...)

If I used notes I'd put the event date in the title - as in "14850822 - Battle of Bosworth Field" and then sort searches by title to get things in date order.

Hope that helps - anyone with other suggestions please chime in here - I could use more input too!  I'll try to update this thread with updates as and when (and if) they occur...

[GiacomoLaw 133]

Awesome, thank you! Do you know if Airtable works on iOS? It's the tool I use at school, so the one I would need to.

Thank you!

[gazumped 9,563]

What are the technical requirements for using Airtable?

Hardware and software requirements for the Airtable app

Web

• Internet access
• Web browser:
  • Firefox 29 or higher
  • Chrome 32 or higher
  • Safari 9 or higher
  • Edge 25 or higher
• JavaScript enabled
• Cookies enabled

Mobile 

• Internet access
• For iPhone and iPad: iOS 8+
• For Android: 4.4+

Mac App

• Internet access
• OS X 10.9
• Intel Mac (not PowerPC)

Windows App

• Internet access
• Windows 7 or newer
• 64-bit

[GiacomoLaw 133]

4 minutes ago, gazumped said:

What are the technical requirements for using Airtable?

Hardware and software requirements for the Airtable app

Web

• Internet access
• Web browser:
  • Firefox 29 or higher
  • Chrome 32 or higher
  • Safari 9 or higher
  • Edge 25 or higher
• JavaScript enabled
• Cookies enabled

Mobile 

• Internet access
• For iPhone and iPad: iOS 8+
• For Android: 4.4+

Mac App

• Internet access
• OS X 10.9
• Intel Mac (not PowerPC)

Windows App

• Internet access
• Windows 7 or newer
• 64-bit

Thanks! I'm a little confused on how to use it to make a standard timeline. I just have events with the date, and some info.

Thank you

[gazumped 9,563]

I'm just adding each event as a new line.  I can just add 'em in in any order,  because the spreadsheet will sort entries for me later.  So lliterally

Quote

1789 - George Washington
1797 - John Adams
1801 - Thomas Jefferson
1809 - James Madison
1817 - James Monroe
1825 - John Quincy Adams
1829 - Andrew Jackson
1837 - Martin Van Buren

With (in my use case) a 'president' tag.

 

[gazumped 9,563]

If you're looking for " a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates alongside itself and usually events" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline) then you're back to the web-based stuff.

I'd still argue though that it is a good idea to collect your data in Airtable or Evernote first so you don't have to wrestle with a new UI every time you enter data. 

Once you have your baseline information you can jump straight to inputting all the details in one session and formatting your output in an attractive format.  (You might want to check whether a timeline site will accept data inmports from HTML or CSV/ XLS which would be pretty easy to arrange...)

[GiacomoLaw 133]

41 minutes ago, gazumped said:

If you're looking for " a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates alongside itself and usually events" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline) then you're back to the web-based stuff.

I'd still argue though that it is a good idea to collect your data in Airtable or Evernote first so you don't have to wrestle with a new UI every time you enter data. 

Once you have your baseline information you can jump straight to inputting all the details in one session and formatting your output in an attractive format.  (You might want to check whether a timeline site will accept data inmports from HTML or CSV/ XLS which would be pretty easy to arrange...)

Okay, thanks. Wouldn't it just be easier to bullet point in EN?

I've looked around exporting Airtable to EN, but I can't seem to be able to find if I can.

Thank you!

[gazumped 9,563]

No problem.  My thought was Airtable > CSV,  then (if necessary) Excel > XLS(X) and/ or (again if necessary) Evernote > HTML

Exporting records in a view to CSV

You export all of the records in a given grid view to CSV by clicking the view menu button (...) and then selecting the "Download CSV" menu option.

You can use this export to CSV function as a way to backup your data outside of Airtable.

[DTLow 5,680]

3 hours ago, GiacomoLaw said:

I'd like to make a timeline for history, with events occurring in dates. I could just do it in bullet points, but is there a tool that allows me to make timelines on Evernote?

No tools

I just use individual notes tagged with .Event_Personal or .Event_Historical
Using the tags, I produce a list of events

[DTLow 5,680]

On 2017-02-27 at 4:43 AM, gazumped said:

My starter columns are:  Date (of the event)

I'm using Creation Date in EN for the event date.  
I had to work-around specifying the date for historical events

Dates in the current time frame are handled ok 
- no problem with events like  2001/9/11 Terrorist Attacks in New York

The earliest date that can be stored is 1000/01/06 (it's a database thing)
- a problem with events like: 406 * Romans are expelled from Britain

And I have other events like
- 2200BC  * Completion of Stonehenge
- 4600 millions of years ago * The planet Earth forms from the accretion disc...

My solution was to have the date in the note title,
and monkey with the time value so the events are sorted correctly

[DTLow 5,680]

On 2017-02-27 at 5:10 AM, gazumped said:

If you're looking for " a graphic design showing a long bar labelled with dates alongside itself and usually events" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline) then you're back to the web-based stuff.

I'm playing with this software https://www.beedocs.com/timeline3D/mac/

I can script an integration with my Evernote data; up to now, I just copy/pasted and maintained a duplicate set of entries

[gazumped 9,563]

Hmmn.  My subconscious just kicked up Workflowy too - depends on what sort of layout you're looking for,  but you can hide hundreds (or thousands) of years of dates in the collapsed outline -

• 1700
• 1800
• 1900
• 2000
• 2100

- and add events with tags;  1789 George Washington #Presidents
So the next time to tap on the #Presidents tag you get a list of all of the presidents up to date,  plus as many (or as few) notes as you might want to make on each one.

Any irrelevant dates would stay closed down,  so it's a fairly compact listing

Before:

After clicking #president

Interesting,  anyway...

[cubewalker 0]

Hey guys, I am working on a simple project to organize my tasks on a timeline. Are you guys interested in knowing more?

I used to create many to-do lists on Evernote. Each list will be arranged by a date. The list will contain the tasks for the coming few days. But it's getting messy and I am thinking about a new way to fix the problem. 

[DTLow 5,680]

11 hours ago, cubewalker said:

Hey guys, I am working on a simple project to organize my tasks on a timeline. Are you guys interested in knowing more?

I'm interested

>>I used to create many to-do lists on Evernote. Each list will be arranged by a date. The list will contain the tasks for the coming few days. But it's getting messy and I am thinking about a new way to fix the problem. 

I create separate notes for my tasks with the start date specified using the Reminder Date.
This allows me to access and order my tasks by date.

[gazumped 9,563]

11 hours ago, cubewalker said:

Hey guys, I am working on a simple project to organize my tasks on a timeline. Are you guys interested in knowing more?

I used to create many to-do lists on Evernote. Each list will be arranged by a date. The list will contain the tasks for the coming few days. But it's getting messy and I am thinking about a new way to fix the problem. 

By all means,  let's see the idea - you might have something new 

[cubewalker 0]

I've created a landing page to illustrate the idea. You can visit it here: https://www.timelistapp.com/

The user interface may not be very attractive at this moment. I just rendered the interface with interactions. The UI designers are not good at interaction design. I am looking for user interest in the concept. Are you guys interested in something like this?

Personally, I just want it to solve my work task management. Feel free to let me know what you want. 

 

[gazumped 9,563]

Hi again - I totally agree with the sentiment (on the website) that the less time spent planning,  the better.  I currently use TickTick (which has a calendar and repeating reminders) and its task lists (which I can set up for both dated and undated entries like Project 1,  Home,  Project 2 etc) to link to the Evernote notes which contain the details of everything with which I'm involved.  I subscribe to TickTick,  as I do to Evernote.

TickTick can also link to external calendars like Google so I can sync dates when necessary.  I also use cronofy to sync Evernote reminders.

Sadly, I also maintain a hand-scrawled hard copy cross between a calendar and a work sheet which boils down to "where am I this week" with scheduled locations and activities marked down - it's what I look at if I'm home based when someone says 'when are you free?'  (This gets scanned into Evernote at the end of each month)

I'm not interested in whether I cleared more theoretical 'items' this week/month over last -  I'm my own boss (after the wife, the tax man, the bank...) so I don't need to prove my worth;  and I'd consider any time spent comparing bar charts just wasted.  I'd rather kill another task.

I'm pretty invested in the whole system,  so on the basis of "If it ain't broke" - I'm sorry,  but I'm not likely to be one of your early adopters.

 

 

[cubewalker 0]

It's ok. Thanks for letting me know how you manage your tasks. 

It's definitely helpful. I'm also my own boss (solo bootstrapping). Currently, I just formulate it to fit in my work behavior and try to see if there are like-minded people. 

[DTLow 5,680]

On 10/29/2018 at 9:47 PM, cubewalker said:

I am working on a simple project to organize my tasks on a timeline.

I'm not clear on the integration with Evernote

edit - I managed to organize my tasks in a gantt time line view by exporting to a spreadsheet

[Abram 0]

I guess all the timeline trouble and discussion should show Evernote that they need to develop a feature for one to create timelines. I'd also like to make maps and such, but I know that's asking a lot, and I can use third-parties for that.

 

Does anyone know if Workflowy can be integrated into Evernote? I know I can clip the page, and it looks very good once I do so, but in order to edit, I'd have to find the page again (link it in evernote) and then re-clip when I was done.

[gazumped 9,563]

1 hour ago, Abram said:

I guess all the timeline trouble and discussion should show Evernote that they need to develop a feature for one to create timelines. 

"All the trouble and discussion" was 2 years ago, with no action (that I'm aware of) since. Timelines don't seem to be something for which users are exactly desperate... though I'll confess that I recently looked for a timeline app and found a KanBan app (kanbantool.com) which can be used that way for a very basic list of dates and tasks. 

Apart from comments to date above,  I believe it's a lot more common for timeline options to exist in a variety of apps, depending on the degree of sophistication that you need. 

Workflowy works fine,  though 'integration' is limited to copying and pasting from the app direct into Evernote,  or grabbing the URL of the parent bullet to a list (in the format workflowy.com/#/xxxxxxxxxxxx) and pasting that to a link in an Evernote note for quick access to that sub-listing.