If I have tagged a whole bunch of events with the same tag, can I later change the name of that tag and have it update in all the events? Or do I have to remove the tags manually from each event and add the new tag name? I haven’t been able to find anything in the help section about this.
Have you tried exporting your events as a CSV file and renaming the tags via Find and Replace with a text editor?
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I don’t think tag names can be changed, so maybe the suggestion by @Peter_T will work. (FYI, he works with version 2 rather than 3, but still, it’s worth a try.)
As a usage practice, I rarely use tags, preferring to create Item Types and populate them with Items. These can be renamed easily via Settings > Item Types:
Frankly, it doesn’t work for me with version 2. However, the csv export/import may have been improved significantly in version 3. With version 2, I would change the tags in the JSON data if necessary.
Tags are a handy tool for quickly creating filter criteria without having to set up the timeline beyond the template. But in the long run, it is definitely worthwhile to define and assign the relevant items for better organization, as suggested by Steve.
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I haven’t tried CSV export, though I do want to explore filtered CSV exporting for AI analysis of my story events (if possible). I’m actually VERY interested in that.
So with your solution, that would require being able to export an entire project to a file, edit it in a text editor, and then re-importing the entire project back into AT3 from the CSV? Is that something the software allows? If so that’s pretty cool.
@Steve,
If you don’t use tags, what do you do when you have a large number of characters that you need to hide from the display so you can see only the aspects of the timeline you want to focus on? I’ve been struggling to find a really good system for doing something like “Show all characters except these types…” AND “only show certain types of events” simultaneously.
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Theoretically, that should be possible. It doesn’t have to be all the data at once. It’s particularly convenient that CSV files can be edited directly with spreadsheet programs such as Excel or LibreOffice Calc.
I’m doing this by grouping events by arcs.
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I suppose it’s a matter of thinking through and creating the Item Types and Items you need relative to what you want to display on the timeline, assigning them to the characters and events, then using the Filter to display exactly what you want.
Sorry to be so vague. Perhaps @AeonRob can dive in to help.
Hi @Recon We have plans to include a tag manager in the future, which will make it possible to edit existing tags. But for now, the best way to change the tags on multiple items at once would be to:
- Filter a view by the tag.
- Select all visible items.
- Use the inspector to add the new tag.
- Removing any unwanted tags.
As others have mentioned, tags are quick and easy to use at first, but item types and relationships can provide a lot more versatility once you get them set up.
If you wanted some help with it and are comfortable with sharing your work, send an email to support@aeontimeline.com with a copy of your file, or some screenshots to give us an idea of the item types and tags you’re currently working with.
We’ll have a look and see if we can make a few suggestions.
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Thanks Rob,
The way I’ve been using tags isn’t as a type identification though. I have a fair number of events with multiple tags, indicating they are relevant to multiple contexts. I’m not sure relying only on custom item types can achieve this. Let me know if I’m approaching this incorrectly.
I use Scrivener and use Keywords as tag function. I use this to push information to Aeon. For example I have keywords for all characters, locations, sensory information, backstory, etc (could be story beats as well) I use the tags to fill in information in Aeon about characters, locations, etc and can use tag info from scrivener to decide need for item types and what I include with that. I also created text fields for starting and ending dates which imports well and a Story note multiline text field to include notes back and forth from Scrivener to Aeon and back from Aeon to Scrivener as I write and sync the products.
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Some extra info that might explain how item types and relationships can be used in a similar way to tags, while providing a lot more versatility:
With item types, you can have multiple lists of items of different types. For example:
EVENTS
- Bob goes to the store
- Bob has a coffee with Sue
- Bob goes to work
CHARACTERS
- Bob
- Mary
- Sue
LOCATIONS
- The store
- The coffee shop
- Workplace
When you add relationships to items of different types, you can add multiple relationships, for multiple types. For example:
- Bob has a coffee with Sue
- Characters: Bob, Sue
- Location: The coffee shop
This allows for better categorization than just tags, where it might look like:
- Bob has a coffee with Sue
- Tags: Bob, Sue, The coffee shop
It also allows for better targeting with filters, because you could combine different relationship or item types into a single filter like:
Characters: Bob AND Sue
AND
Location: The coffee shop OR Workplace
These are just very generic examples, but they might get you thinking about how you could use item types for things like distinguishing between mortal, immortal, and ‘core’ characters, etc.
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I do this. I find that keywords allow me to see the information to create the items I need and identify the information per scene. I use tags as the informational database from Scrivener to then input the item types, like locations, characters, themes, plot points, backstory, foreshadowing etc. into Aeon. Having the tags visible in the event card allow me to add item types as I go thru events.