Just a shameless plug for an article I’ve just posted to my Medium site. Article is specifically aimed at writers but I’m also planning on doing some Project Management articles in the future, along with plenty more guides for using Aeon Timeline for writing, if the article garners much interest.
I hope you like. Enjoy!
Nice article, Andrew. I’ve just shared it with a bunch of writers on the forum for folks using the Save the Cat! plotting method. 
Thanks Steve. Glad you enjoyed it. And many thanks for sharing. I’m eager to get as many people as possible excited about using Aeon. I have lots of articles planned but only if there is enough interest in the first few.
Hope your writing is going well.
Andrew
I agree, AT is a great tool and will indeed provide unique assistance to writers.
TL;DR - nice article!
The Summary field is a key feature but it’s not quite what I want for brainstorming notes.
For that, I add one or more Devonthink URLs to the links for an event of interest. Since characters and locations are (brilliantly) just more objects, they have links, too.
When I click the link in AT, Devonthink pops up a separate window with just the document of interest in it.
If I decide a backstory was stupid, which happens, I can just link to a different Devonthink note. Later, if the original was just so stupid it worked, I still have it.
Thanks for your kind words. I am glad you liked the article. I didn’t want to just write a review. And I wanted to ignite the interest of readers by not giving too much away and bombarding them with information. So I hope I hit the right spot with the article.
I also use DEVONthink and use URLs to reference database items a lot in both Aeon and Ulysses. I recall mentioning to @rebecca, way back in the early days of the alpha for version 3, that I saw Aeon 3 as a bridge for a range of different types of information. A container or repository of links in and out of the application. Of course, a repository is really the role of applications like DEVONthink, and it excels at that task. But my point re Aeon was that I could use it to link research articles in DT3, which inform the ideas contained in the narrative outline I have built in Aeon and also link downstream to the final written text in Ulysses (or Scrivener). Hence the idea of a bridge.
Your use of DEVONthink is an interesting one. I like the notion of trialling different ideas and versions by accessing them in DT. Goes to show how flexible a program AT3 is. And how, in some ways, you are also using it as a kind of bridge.
Hi Andrew,
I am intrigued by how you set up different properties (or column titles) in narrative outline such as “turning point” and am trying to figure out how you did this. I have owned this program for a while but am still learning. Thank you for sharing your article.
Hi Missy,
Thanks for checking out my article. I think you must be referring to the detailed scene analysis I showed in the Inspector, where there is, as you say, Turning Point, and Turning Point Type, Value Shift, and some other custom fields. You are quite right. These are custom Properties that I have created inside Aeon Timeline.
It is possibly too much to go into a full blown tutorial here on the forum, but in short, custom Items, Relationships, and Properties can all be created in the Advanced Settings inside Aeon Timeline 3. So I created one for Turning Point and set it as a multi-line text property and then selected which Item types it applied to. For Turning Point and Value Shift, for example, I wanted those properties to show in Scenes, Flashbacks, and Flashforwards. But for Sequels I had to create other properties to show their specific information; Emotion, Thought, Decision, Action, etc.
I was hoping to have published some further articles on setting up custom types and using them to track various story elements, but we lost our beloved cat, Nala, earlier this week, and I’m taking a short break from writing as a result. But I know there are some knowledge base articles on how to set up custom elements on the AT3 website. If you have a look there and are still struggling, drop me a PM here, and when I can, I will send you a copy of my Hansel and Gretel file, if you give me your email address. It has all of the Story Grid custom elements built into it.
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
I was referring to the custom row headers you created where you have “Turning point, Crisis (choice); climax (active choice); resolution .” The story elements and the way it’s mapped out with summaries looks very helpful. I will keep trying to figure Aeon out. I really don’t have a handle on this program. It looks so tantalizing and interesting and potentially helpful but I don’t get it. The app could use an instruction manual. I will keep working with it when I take breaks from my own writing and thank you very much for the offer of the file. Let’s see where I am in about two weeks. Maybe it will get clearer.
My condolence on the death of your pet. I hope Nala had a long life. Our local"Nextdoor" is a sorry stream of missing cat photos. The coyotes are active around here.
Hi Missy,
The row headers are obviously based on the custom properties I mentioned in the prior reply. So once they are all set up as being properties it is easy enough to show them in any of the views with columns in them; the spreadsheet view and outline view. Columns are hidden and shown in these views by scrolling to the right of the table data and hitting the big + button (if you are on the latest beta) or the > in the upper left of the table data, which brings up the list of possible columns to be displayed.
Ultimately though it depends what you want to track and show in AT3. Are you looking to rebuild something similar to my custom properties, or were you only asking about how to show the various columns?
Thanks for your kind words regarding poor Nala. Unfortunately she was quite young, we think about ten (she was a rescue) and she died of an aggressive cancer. Which was of course so sad and a total shock.
It must be very hard for cat owners where you live, with the coyotes taking their animals.
Andrew
Thank you, Andrew. I was asking for both reasons (how to do it technically and also the way you have
the story elements). I just happened to be looking at the case studies page and I was intrigued and
then I saw your post on this forum.
There is a podcast called “Embracing Death” by Julia Sheehan. There are two episodes on pet loss grief. "Beth Bigler-Pet Loss Grief Counselor.-- “Pet Loss Grief is Real-pt 1 11/29/22).”
PS. I deleted the other post because I couldn’t find the edit tab. Since found.
Thanks Missy for the podcast links, that’s very kind of you. I will check it out and I’m sure they will prove beneficial as part of our grieving process. Enjoy learning more about AT3 and if I can help in any way please let me know.
All the best
Andrew