Importing Tab-Delimited Text Files
Import events from a spreadsheet, 3rd party application, or database
The quickest way to import events from an external data source is in the form of a tab delimited text file. You can create such a file with many programs including text editors and spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel.
The file must contain ten columns labeled “Label”, “Start Time”, “End Time”, “Link”, “Notes”, “Image”, “Movie”, “Tags”, “Color”, and “Custom Date Label”. Each column is separated by tabs. The dates can be in any common United States or international format recognized by Timeline 3D. The “End Time” column label must exist but the End Time value is not required for each event. The image and movie values are specified using the following format: file://localhost/Users/myaccount/Desktop/image.png
Once you have created a tab-delimited text file, save it using the file extension .txt. Then you can open the file directly by dragging the file onto the application icon or using the Open command in the File menu.
A valid file for import might look something like this:
Label Start Time End Time Link Notes Image Movie Tags Color Custom Date Label Chinese invent paper 100 AD http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper Note with a\nline break. Paper spreads to Japan, Arabia, and Europe 125 AD 400 AD Codex book form introduced 400 AD First printed book 868 AD file://localhost/Users/myaccount/book.png Illuminated manuscripts 900 AD 1300 AD Movable type invented in China 1040 AD Gutenberg invents printing press 1450 AD Full-color printing invented 1719 AD First pencils made 1795 AD Melvil Dewey invents vertical file system 1874 AD Typewriter invented 1874 AD Paper clip invented 1900 AD First ballpoint pen 1938 AD Desktop publishing 1984 AD
Tips
Create a few events in Timeline 3D and use “Export Events…” from the File menu to save them as a text document. This file can serve as a template for text imports that you create automatically.
Timeline 3D will attempt to match the date format in your timeline to the date format in your text file. It is simple to change this format after the data is imported.
Event Colors and Event Rows can not be automatically imported using a text file. If you need more flexibility, we recommend writing an Applescript to perform the import.