Edit Timeline Section

The Edit Timeline section is the actual tool for constructing your Timeline! This section will certainly be where you work the most. It contains the following 5 tabs:

1. Presentation text
2. Range and time periods
3. Thematic layers
4. Event categories
5. Edit your events

1. Presentation text tab

As the name suggests, the Text presentation tab permits you to describe your timeline. For example, it is possible to present the subject in question, the targeted historical period or the general theme of the timeline. Formatting tools are available in the built-in word processor to help you make your text presentable.

By clicking Add a media element, you can search images in different image banks that you can then insert links to them into your presentation text:

• The image bank My documents contains images that you yourself have uploaded into your personal account. To upload an image simply click the Add media button on the right side of the screen. You can then indicate the image source and give the image a description. A limit of 10 megabytes is allowed for each user. Try to resize your images to an appropriate size before uploading.

• The image bank of the RECIT offers thousands of copyright-free images you can also use, and it is possible to browse them according to historical period, by societies or even by social reality (social phenomenon). By clicking on the tab Search our public image bank, you will also notice a Search option where you can find images according to keywords.

The images you find in your search appear on the right side. A link tag contains the title of the image (hover over to view it). And by clicking on the image a larger version and its description will appear. You can add as many links to images as is necessary to help improve your presentation text.

 

2. Range and time periods tab

In the Range and time periods tab the real construction of your timeline finally begins.

You must first determine the start and end dates for your timeline. You can specifiy the date, either just a year, or the year, month and even the day as in this example: 2007/10/21. A window will popup warning you if the form of the date is not correct.

Then, in the section called Time periods, you are able to indicate the desired number of historical periods in order to subdivide your timeline. Each period can have its own name, its duration (start and end dates) and it will be identified by a colour you can select yourself.

• The Time periods serve to subdivide history (and therefore time) according to a particular thematic emphasis. In general historical periods are determined by special events that provoque important political, economic or social change. So often an event will mark the end of one period and the beginning of another. For example, if you construct a timeline on the modernization of Quebec, you could choose to divide your timeline into three periods: Depression and War (1929-1945), The Duplessis period (1945-1960, and the Quiet Revolution (1960 to 1980)

To add a time period, click on the button Add at left bottom of the area. Then click right on the line for your new period and edit the text and colour accordingly.

 

3. Thematic layers tab

Still in the Edit timeline section, the following tab is called Thematic layers.

To create a thematic later in this are, again you click first on the button Add, at bottom left of the screen. Then click on the new line that appears to edit it and give it an appropriate title. Each layer can also have a different colour.

To modify the order in which they appar in your timeline, click and hold the line and you will be able to drag it (hold the mouse button down while dragging!) Watch for a black line to appear that indicates where to let go to reorder your layers.

• The Thematic layers permit you to classify events across the whole timeline by different themes. These themes allow you to classify events in a more refined manner. For example, on a timeline on Modernization we could set up layers to arrange events according to Society (blue), Politics (orange) and Economy (green).

Do not forget to SAVE regularly!

 

4. Event categories tab

The Event categories tab area permits you or your students to classify events even further!

The procedure is the same as above. To create a new event category, click Add then click on it to edit the category to give it a better title. You can then even give each category an appropriate icon. This icon will appear next to the even when viewing the timeline, thus permitting you to more easily distinguish differences between types of events. (Actually, you can also add a specific icon to each specific event when you edit that event itself!)

Again, all new events are automatically associated with the category Unclassified. For technical reasons this cannot be renamed or removed.

• The category function allows you to give events another level of classification, in order to specify their character, nature or kind. Events labled under a specific category can be placed in any Thematic layer. Imagine again the timeline on Modernization of Quebec. The layers are Society, Politics and Economy. We could use categories such as Education, Workers, Rights of Women, etc. in order to refine the classification of events. Or in other timelines or contexts an event category could even be as simple as Positive or Negative!

 

So, to summarize all the above, you can set up your timeline to be able to associate events with historical periods, with a thematic layer, and you can even assign each event a category. All these options are not obligatory, and you can edit the ones you use at any time. It is up to you to decide which features or necessary for you to be able to effectively classify your events.

Now all that's left is to get started, and to create the events themselves!!

 

5. Edit your events tab

It is here that you will create, describe and classify all the events that make up your timeline!!!

To create an event, click first on the button Create an event at bottom left of the screen. A new window will pop up with another three tabs.

First tab: File
The file tab permits you to describe the event in a detailed fashion. Indicate the title, and the start and end dates. If the event doesn't have a precise duration, just indicate the start date. For example, in the Modernization of Quebec timeline an event like the Baby Boom lasts from 1945 to 1960, but an event like Health Insurance starts around 1970 but is ongoing.

• How to write dates? The year only (1982), the year and month (1982/10) or the year, month and date (1982/10/24), according to how precise you wish. One can even be as precise as to indicate hours, minutes and seconds (1982/10/24 09:34:56). A window will open to alert you if your date form is incorrect.

If you check the Approximatively checkbox, a graphic sign e (~) will appear in the description to indicate an imprecise start or end date for the event.

Now (or even later if that is part of an activity!) you can classify the event according to a thematic layer and/or a category. And finally, you can even Personalize your icon.

• An icon can be added for any event, even it is not associated with a category. Also, even events already with category icons can be altered to include a personalized icon. For example, an event like Family Allowances classified already under Rights of Women could still use its own separate icon representing, let's say, childhood.

When clicking on the OK button, you return to the section Edit your events.
(Use the Save button to save your work often!)

 

Second tab: Images
If you remain in or return to the window Create an event, you can also select the tab Images. Then, by clicking on Add an image you can access the same image banks mentioned earlier when working on your original timeline Presentation text . You can find:

• The image bank My documents contains images that you yourself have uploaded into your personal account. To upload an image simply click the Add media button on the right side of the screen. You can then indicate the image source and give the image a description. A limit of 10 megabytes is allowed for each user. Try to resize your images to an appropriate size before uploading.

• The image bank of the RECIT offers thousands of copyright-free images you can also use, and it is possible to browse them according to historical period, by societies or even by social reality (social phenomenon). By clicking on the tab Search our public image bank, you will also notice a Search option where you can find images according to keywords.

Clicking on the OK button brings you back to the Create an event window. You can add as many images as you like for each event.

 

Third tab: Linked events

This last tab allows you to link two events together and to specify the nature of the link. (Either now while constructing the timeline, or as part of an activity later.) Simply choose an event in order to link it to another event already in your timeline. First click on Add, and then Choose an event among the list of events already via a convenient drop-down menu. Indicate the Type of link and write a brief description or explanation. Finally, in order for the link information to appear in the event file for the other linked event as well, check Reciprical. This procedure is also explained in this tab section.

• A link describe a way two events can be connected or associated with each other. The Timeline application suggests the link types of cause, of consequence, of diversity, of similarity, of continuity and of change. For example, in the timeline on Modernization of Quebec an event such as the Nationalization of electricity might have a link of consequence with the event on the Creation of Hydro-Quebec. However, this link is not reciprical. Another example: consider Welfare and Unemployment Insurance with a link type such as similarity. For these you would click reciprical becasue they are similar one to the other.
  
  Keep in mind, though in the same timeline, all the events are not necessarily linked with the other events.
  
  Note that this linking feature is not visible in the Timeline view itself. Only by clicking to view the actual event file will you be able to access the Linked events tab to see how it was linked to other events.

(Click OK and save your work!)

Return to the beginning: at any time you can return to the section Edit your events to add, modify or delete events. Other options:

• You can actually Import an event from another timeline! A window will open with a list of all the timelines accessible to you (yours and other shared timelines), and there you can choose one or many events that have already been constructed to add to your timeline. Once selected, click OK and you will find that event in your own timeline where you can edit it as you wish.
   
• While still in the main Edit your events tab you can modify certain things without actually opening the event file. You can modify the title. You can even modify the start, end, theme layer, and category of the event in that same window.
   
• By clicking on the various drop-down menus you can also order the events so they list themselves according to date, theme layer or category.
• En cliquant sur les menus déroulants situés juste au-dessus du tableau, il vous est également possible de trier les événements que vous souhaitez faire apparaître par bande, par catégorie ou par date. This function could be useful to quickly find an event or to better analyze your timeline. The sort order here is for your convenience when editing and doesn't affect the order or arrangement of events when "viewing" the full timeline later.