Platform & OS Version
Platform: Mac
OS Version: 12.6.7 Monterey
OS Language Setting: US English
App Version
Version: 3.2.17
Application Shell: 3.2.17
Problem Description + Screenshots
(I don’t really know what I’m doing in much detail and only started using this tool a few weeks ago. Sorry you have to deal with a fairly naive user here.)
I have a timeline document I created under whatever version of the macOS tool was available on July 22, 2023. That’s when I created the timeline in question. I think it was version 3.1.something of Timeline.
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I’ve got a bunch of events. They displayed just fine in timeline view.
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I’ve got a bunch of characters. They displayed just fine in timeline view, birth and death dates.
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I’ve got a bunch of character groups. Each character was assigned to one of the groups. They displayed just fine in timeline view, both ungrouped and grouped by character group.
I created this timeline doc with the science fiction template.
I updated Timeline today, Aug 17, 2023, to version 3.2.17.
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My events display just fine in timeline view.
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My characters do not. They don’t display at all.
When I group items in the timeline by character group, the character groups show up as subsections on the timeline, as previously, but with no characters in them. No character that is in a group shows up on the timeline at all under version 3.2.17, whereas they all did under whatever 3.1.something version I had yesterday and have been using since Jul 22, 2023.
If I drag a character out of a character group, tada, the character appears on the timeline where I expect. If I drag the character back into the character group, sad face, it vanishes.
Again, if a character is in a character group, the character does not appear on my timeline, whether I have “group items in timeline” set to Character Groups or not. Previously, characters in character groups did appear.
Characters are enabled in the “Show types on timeline” little menu at the bottom of the timeline. In fact, the colors assigned to the various characters do show up in the little preview timeline at the bottom of the window:
If I uncheck Characters in the “Show types on timeline,” those character colors disappear.
(Well, new users can only embed one screenshot I guess, which is frustrating but whatever. Just imagine the above screenshot except only the yellow line is shown.)
So it looks like the tool is still quite aware that I’ve got data that can be displayed, it’s just not displaying the characters when they’re in a Character Group.
Steps to reproduce
I can reproduce this new behavior with a fresh timeline created from the science fiction template.
- Create a new doc with the science fiction template.
- Add an event or two (I added two, with timespans).
- Add a character (Jo Nogroup).
- Enable the “Characters” item on the “Show types on timeline” menu.
- Now drag that character onto the timeline. Drag out a lifespan for it. Hopefully it’s not a sad lifespan. The character shows up just fine.
- Add a character group (The Groupface Family).
- Add another character, not yet in the Groupface Family (Jo Groupface).
- Drag that character onto the timeline. Drag out another short, sad lifespan for it. This character shows up just fine, too.
- Drag that character into the Groupface Family character group.
- That character disappears.
- Drag that character out of the character group.
- It reappears.