It’s easy to create a timeline on Timetoast. Learn how to make your first timeline, add events and images and edit timelines.
Creating a new timeline
Whether it's your first timeline or your tenth or more, you can simply create a new timeline from the Timeline dashboard. You can get to the Timeline dashboard by clicking on ‘Dashboard’ at the top right of the Timetoast homepage when signed in. From your Timeline dashboard, click 'Add Timeline +'. This will pop up the timeline editor window.
Timeline editor window will appear when you press 'Add Timeline +'.
In the timeline editor, create a title for your timeline. Remember, there’s a 255 character limit for your title. You can see the number of characters you have left below the text field.
When you create your timeline, you can choose whether to make it public or keep it in draft/unpublished. This is the publish status. When the timeline is in draft, it is only viewable by you or members you choose and is not on the public website. When the timeline is published, it is listed on the public website. Public timelines are ranked in public search engines such as Google and can be viewable by all visitors to the Timetoast website.
Published timelines will be marked with a green published button on your Timeline dashboard.
Can’t choose to make the timeline draft? It may be that you have already reached your draft timeline limit. On the free plan, you can have one draft timeline, but an unlimited number of published timelines. If you want to create more draft or unpublished timelines, you can look at our premium plans.
Timetoast allows you to collaborate on timelines and choose who can edit your timelines. If you have a premium account, you have the option to make it editable by all account members or only editable by you.
If a timeline is editable by other account members, it will also be included in their list of timeline projects. If you set it to just editable by you, then it will only show up for you and they won't be able to edit it.
If you’re on the free plan, there’s just one account member. Only the Editable by Account members option is available in this case.
To make the timeline easier to find or group it in the right place, you can add a Category relevant to your timeline. For example, if you are writing a timeline about space exploration, you might categorize it under Science and Technology. You can also choose to keep it uncategorized.
You can add a photo or image if you’d like. Just press on the box under ‘Photo’ and a photo editor pop up will emerge. Just drag and drop the photo file that you would like to upload, or browse your files to choose an image to upload. The maximum photo size is 10 MB.
To finish creating your timeline, press the ‘Create timeline’ button. The timeline is now created and you will be taken to the Timeline editor page.
You’re all set to add events or timespans to your timeline.
When you first create a timeline, after you press 'Create timeline', the Timeline editor page will appear.
Adding events
First, make sure you’re in the Timeline Editor for your timeline. You can access your timelines on your Timeline dashboard. To edit a timeline, click on the three dots to the right of your timeline in your timeline dashboard and choose ‘Edit’. This will take you to the Timeline Editor for your timeline. If you are already viewing your timeline that you want to edit, you can click on the three dots here and choose 'Edit'.
In the Timeline Editor, click ‘Add event’. An Event Editor window will appear.
When you click 'Add Event', an Event Editor window appears
Add the details for your event. Add a title (remember the 255 character limit) and description. The description box will display up to 500 characters.
To format the description and add links, you can refer to our formatting guide. This will show you how to bold or italicize texts, add lists or bullets, add quotes and links to other websites. The ‘Preview’ tab shows you how it will look once you’ve written your description.
Add a date to your event. This could be when the event happened or a target date, for example, if you are planning a project.
You can input the dates either by inputting in the date boxes or by clicking on the calendar icon and selecting the appropriate date. You can also change the date input format if you prefer to input your dates in a different format.
Timeline dates and timespans
Timetoast timelines support several date formats for your events. You can specify the day, month, year, or alternatively, you can specify just the year. BCE or BC era dates are also supported. You can mix and match between the different date types on a timeline.
Year-only dates
Month and day fields are optional, so you can just fill in the year when editing timeline items.
Dates before 600 CE/AD are year-only.
BCE/BC era
You can create events with BCE/BC era years, just check the checkbox marked 'Is before Common Era (BCE/BC)'.
What is the furthest back date supported?
The furthest back date we currently support is 271820 BCE.
Adding timespans
What’s the difference between event dates and timespans?
Timespans have both a start and end date and no image. You can use it to mark an era, for example, the Middle Ages, with multiple events happening within a timespan.
You can add a timespan from the Timeline editor by clicking 'Add timespan'. The Timespan Editor window will appear. Fill in the details, including the start and end dates for the timespan and click 'Create timespan'.
The Timespan Editor appears when you click 'Add timespan'.
Editing and viewing your timeline
As you work on and finish your timeline, you can make changes and view the timeline.
Editing and deleting timeline events
To edit an event that you’ve already created, just click on the event in the timeline. This will bring up the Event Editor. You can make the changes you’d like, and press ‘Update event’. To delete the event, press ‘Delete event’. This will present a window asking if you are sure. Press ‘OK” and the event will be deleted.
Viewing your timeline
From your Timeline Dashboard, click on the triple dot icon next to your timeline title and choose ‘View’.
You can view your timeline either as a list or as an interactive horizontal timeline. At the top right of the timeline, you can toggle between the two views by pressing ‘Timeline’ or ‘List’.
You can also change the size of the view by toggling between default, wide view and large view. Large view will display the timeline in fullscreen mode if your web browser supports it.
Publishing and printing timelines
Publishing timelines
Published timelines are listed on the site and all site visitors can view them. They can be indexed by search engines.
Draft timelines are not listed on the site.
You can publish timelines directly from your timeline dashboard page or the timeline edit page.
From your dashboard: Tap or click on the triple dot icon next to your timeline title, then move the slider from draft to published.
From the timeline edit page: Tap or click on the triple dot icon and move the slider from draft to published
Printing timelines
To view the print-friendly list version of the timeline, tap or click on the triple dot icon in the timeline header and select "Print". This will open your browser's print dialog.
Sharing your timeline
To share your timeline, tap or click on the triple dot icon in the timeline header and select ‘Share’. This will bring up a window to share or embed. Embedding timelines is available on our premium plans.
If your timeline is published, you can copy the public link and share this.
When you select 'Share', this will bring up a window to share or embed the timeline.
Sharing permissions
If you are in a group, you can share the timeline with the rest of the members of the group. Premium account holders can share their timelines with individual Timetoast users.
You can also see your currently granted permissions in this window.
Timelines limits
You can create as many published timelines as you want. The number of draft/unpublished timelines depends on the type of plan you are on.