Timeline maker
Events in order, with dates that can be as vague as the record allows. "2019", "March 2020" and "12 June 2021" all sit on the same axis without one pretending to be more precise than it is.
No account. Saved in this browser until you export it.
The pieces
What goes on the canvas
- Event
- Something that happened, with a date
- Milestone
- A moment that mattered more than the rest
- Note
- Context that is not an event
Building one
From blank canvas to finished diagram
- 1Add events with whatever date precision you actually have. A year alone is fine.
- 2Mark the ones that changed things as milestones so they read differently.
- 3Choose even spacing for a clean list of moments, or proportional to show real elapsed time.
- 4Undated events sit at the end rather than being guessed into place.
Where it helps
Good uses
Project retrospectives
What happened when, before memory rewrites it.
Company history
Founding, funding, launches, the awkward pivot.
Research chronology
Sources with imprecise dates are the normal case.
Launch planning
The run-up, as a picture rather than a spreadsheet.
Questions
Asked often
- Can I use partial dates?
- Yes. Year only, month and year, or a full date. Each is stored with its precision and displayed at that precision — nothing is widened to 1 January behind your back.
- What is the difference between even and proportional spacing?
- Even ignores the gaps, which reads better for a list of milestones. Proportional maps real elapsed time, which is honest when the gaps mean something.
- What happens to events with no date?
- They sort to the end, keeping their relative order. They are not guessed into a position.
- Horizontal or vertical?
- Both. Vertical suits long lists; horizontal suits presentations.
Put the events in order
Nothing to sign up for. The diagram stays on this device.