What this is
A local-first timeline app. Events live in your browser. Google Sheets is an optional sync backend you can edit like a normal spreadsheet. Everything works offline.
Dates
Use YYYY-MM-DD (ISO 8601). BCE years use a leading minus: -0753-04-21. Only the start date is required β leave end date blank for point events.
Built-in timelines
Pick from the dropdown (top left): Western canon, empires, financial crises, human-rights documents. Your edits are saved locally per timeline. οΌ New creates a blank one.
Adding & editing events
Click οΌ (bottom right) to add. Click any marker to open the detail panel β then hit Edit. Hover a marker for the quick-action card. Fields include:
- Parent event β nest this under another event (unlimited depth: Empire β War β Battle). Events with children show a small amber ring under their emoji.
- People β space-separated
@handles linking to People sheet records (e.g. @julius_caesar).
- Location β free text, shown in the detail panel.
- Tags β
#hashtags. Shared tags draw connection lines when Connections is on.
- Importance 1β10 β scales the emoji marker size.
Drill-down
Click π Drill in on any event (detail panel or hover card) to filter the timeline to that event and all its descendants. A breadcrumb bar appears β click any crumb to navigate up, or hit β All events to clear. Clicking βunder ParentNameβ in the detail panel drills into the parent. Escape also clears drill.
Views & layout
- Timeline (default) β horizontal axis, wraps into stacked rows. Use Layout and Rows controls to switch between wrap and single strip, and to fix the row count.
- π Spiral β Archimedean spiral, oldest outermost, newest at centre. Scroll wheel zooms toward the pointer. β resets zoom and pan.
- Slice β pick Decade or Century, then use βΉ βΊ to step through time windows. The chip bar shows all windows; click any chip to jump directly.
- From / To β manual date-range filter in the controls bar.
Slideshow
Click βΆ Slideshow. Events play in date order: the name fades in first, then dates, then description and tags. Space pauses (and fast-forwards to full detail), arrows skip, Esc stops.
Google Sheets
- Sign in with Google.
- Click π Connect Sheet β create a new spreadsheet or paste an existing URL/ID.
- π Events Sheet / π€ People Sheet open those tabs in Google Sheets.
- β¬οΈ Sync pulls rows down; β¬οΈ Push writes the current timeline up.
Import / Export
πΎ Export downloads the current timeline as CSV. π Import loads a CSV β or drag a .csv file onto the page. Columns match the full schema including parent_id, people, and location.