Hi there,
Let’s say the parent event’s start date is Jan 1 and it contains a child event whose start date is set to Jan 20.
In the timeline, it will show that the parent event’s start date is Jan 20 instead of Jan 1. Is there a way to set AT so that the parent event will always show its own start date in the timeline?
Thanks in advance!
Hi James,
Could you please share a screenshot of what you’re seeing?
I haven’t been able to recreate it on my end.
Thanks 
Hi Rob,
Here’s a screenshot:
You can see that the parent event’s start date in the inspector is set to Feb 1, 2010; it contains a child event whose start date is set to Jan 20, 2010.
In the timeline, the date range for the parent event shows “Wed 20 Jan - Sat 20 Feb 2010,” reflecting the start date of the child event instead of that of the parent event.
I’m not sure if this is a feature, but I would like to see the start date of the parent event in the timeline even if it contains a child event that starts before it.
Hope that makes sense and let me know if there’s anything I can further clarify.
Thanks!
P.S. In reading my original post, I realized I mixed up the dates. I meant to write:
“Let’s say the parent event’s start date is Jan 20 and it contains a child event whose start date is set to Jan 1.
In the timeline, it will show that the parent event’s start date is Jan 1 instead of Jan 20. Is there a way to set AT so that the parent event will always show its own start date in the timeline?”
Sorry for the confusion!
Thanks for clarifying that for me!
Parent events are intended to encapsulate all of their children date-wise, so the displayed date will always update to show the extreme ranges of its nested children. The thin extended part of the timeline marker lets you know when a child’s date extends past the dates set on the parent.
Is there a particular reason you want to see the dates presented that way? There might be something else we can suggest.
Hi Rob,
Here’s the reason:
Let’s say I’m trying to map out a war and all the major events that are associated with it on the timeline.
The parent event is the war itself, with the official start date of Jan 1, 2120, and the official end date of Dec 31, 2120.
On Nov 20, 2119—the year before 2120—there is an assassination that started a chain of events in the following weeks that eventually lead to the war.
Obviously, I would nest this assassination event under the war parent event.
The problem is, once I do that, when I look at the war parent event on the timeline, the start date will no longer reflect the official start date of the war; instead, it now shows the date of the assassination event. For cases like this, I would now always have to click on the parent event, and then look at the inspector tab to see the actual start and end date. This also makes the duration display for the parent event wrong, as instead of reflecting the actual duration of the war, it now calculates based on the earliest and most recent child events.
I’m open to other suggestions, but I would also like to submit this here as my feature request to add an option in AT where the parent event will always show the start and end dates and the duration based on the parent event itself, and not the extreme ranges of its nested children.
Thanks for engaging with me here!
Interesting discussion.
When I think of WWII, there is (arguably) a specific agreed-upon start date, September 1, 1939 when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. However, a series of events led to it (WWI, for example, followed by war reparations, etc.).
Conceptually, would it be useful for you to think of events leading up to the war, starting with the assassination, as distinct from the war itself? (I’m guessing it’s not very useful, given the discussion. But still, it makes a certain sense to me here in the cheap seats.) In that case, you might have a parent for the war’s causal events and another parent for the war itself.
Conceptually, would it be useful for you to think of events leading up to the war, starting with the assassination, as distinct from the war itself?
This depends (on the user, the use case, the goal etc).
For example, if I was using the AT to study history, I would want to see the official start and end dates of the war on the timeline just so I can access the basic facts at a glance.
AT’s timeline already distinguishes when a parent event contains child event that has an earlier start date with the thinner line (which I really like):
This will help clue the user that, conceptually, there were relevant events happening before the official start date of the war.
Another example: I’m using AT to keep track of my employment history. I create an event for each position I’ve held, and I’m currently using the first day on the job as the start date, and the last day on the job as the end date. However, nested within that event are events like, when I applied for the job, when I got interviewed, when I got the job offer etc, which all happened prior to the first day of the job.
When I look at the timeline, I want to see the date range and/or duration of when I was actually on the job first and foremost (especially if I have the child events collapsed), and if I want to see more details pertaining to that job, I will expand the event.
I’m sure some prefer otherwise, and this might even depend on an event-to-event basis on the same timeline, but that’s why I mentioned I would like to have the option to always see the start and end dates of the parent event. It could simply be a checkbox in the “Date options” button in the inspector tab once you select a parent event.
I should confess that I’ve spent almost no time using the Timeline view. For my novel, I find the other views, especially Narrative and Outline, are where I spend my time.
You make perfect sense, and make me want to explore the Timeline view more to become better acquainted with it (especially before spouting off on using it!).
Good discussion.
Very cool to see how differently people use AT!
I found AT specifically because I was looking for an app that allows me to map out and visualize my life on a timeline format, so I pretty much exclusively use the Timeline view.
So far, aside from some pain points (like the one I mentioned in this thread), AT has been incredible. I’m so thankful that such an application exists!
