Tutorial: How to Make a Timeline

You can make a timeline with ease using Bee Docs Timeline for Mac OS X. This tutorial will take you step–by–step through the creation of a historical timeline starting with a blank timeline and adding three poets from the 19th century.

First, find and launch the timeline software. By default, “Timeline” is installed in your Applications folder. Double–click the application icon to launch the software. If you make timelines frequently, consider dragging the software icon to the Mac OS X Dock so that it is always easy to find.

After launching, Bee Docs Timeline will display a blank timeline and an introduction page. From the page, you can select a “Look” for your timeline and you can choose to import historical events from software such as iCal and Address Book.

For this example, select Bluesy for your Look and select “Blank Timeline” from the bottom row. Click “Create Timeline” and Bee Docs Timeline will display a blank timeline with the blue color scheme.

Exploring the Software Interface

Before adding historical events to your timeline, take a look at the software interface. In the toolbar at the top of your Timeline document, you will see icons for adding, removing, and editing historical events.

On the right side of the screen, you’ll see icons labeled “Settings” and “Photos”. The Settings icon toggles the Settings pane. You use these settings to manipulate your timeline. For this timeline, you’ll use only the year for your dates, so click on the Dates tab and change the date setting to 2008.

Adding Historical Events

You can add historical events to your timeline by using one of three methods:

  1. Clicking the “Add” button in the toolbar
  2. Selecting “Add Event” from the Edit menu
  3. Pressing the Command-E keyboard shortcut

After adding an event, Bee Docs Timeline opens an edit box for you to enter your event information.

Bee Docs Timeline sets a default event label to “New Event” and sets the default start date to today’s date. You will need to change these defaults to display the label and date of your own historical event.

Because this is a timeline of major world events, change the event label from “New Event” to “Edgar Allen Poe”. Then press the tab key to move your cursor to the start date field and type “1809” to set the start date of your event.

The field to the right of the start date represents the end date of your event, which is optional. For our first event, type “1849” for the end date.

You can also enter notes for your event. Be careful; adding long notes to an event can dramatically change the display of your timeline. Instead of adding a long note, you may want to link to a multimedia document or Web site that describes the event in detail.

To link to a document on your computer, drag the document from Finder to the link field and Bee Docs Timeline will include a link to that file when a user selects that event in your timeline.

Finally, you can add an photo to be displayed with your historical event. To add an photo, drag an image on top of the event.

Let’s add a second event. Click the Add button in the toolbar or the keyboard shortcut. Then edit your event label and date just like you did with the first event. Set the label to “Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin” and the start date to “1799” and the end date to “1837”.

Let’s add our final event. Add a new event, then set the label to “Walt Whitman” and the start date to “1819” and the end date to “1892”.

You now have added three 19th century poets to your timeline. Feel free to add more events if you would like, then let’s have some fun with the colors and fonts in your timeline.

Changing Timeline Colors and Fonts

The software takes care of the layout of your timeline events. However, sometimes you want to modify the look of your timeline.

If your Timeline window does not show the Settings pane, click the “Settings” button in the toolbar to reveal it. Click the “Visual Design” tab to reveal the settings that control the font and colors in your timeline.

Let’s change the font used in our timeline. Click the “Choose Font” button in the Settings panel. The familiar Mac OS X Font Panel appears for you to select a new font for your events. Pick your favorite font from the Font Panel. Notice that the timeline software automatically adjusts the layout to fit the new font.

The Visual Design tab also lets you change the color of the Event Text, Date Line, and Row Shading. Click any of the colored boxes and the Mac OS X Color Picker will appear. Experiment with different color combinations to find a look that is suitable for the content of your timeline.

You can also set the background from the Visual Design tab. Timeline gives you five options to choose from when setting the background from your timeline: None, Color Fill, Gradient Fill, Image Fill, and Tinted Image Fill. If you select Image Fill or Tinted Image Fill, Timeline will ask you for an image file to fill the background of your timeline.

You’ve create a timeline, added three events, changed the font and colors of your timeline, and changed the background to suit your needs. Now you can make your own historical timelines!