SUGGESTION: improve underutilized Timeline

I am of the impression that the Timeline feature is underutilized by others besides myself. I would like to see an additional option - to select from a list of common timeline requests that are optimized to be clear and show off the Timeline's capabilities. Suggested presets include:

broad bible history
lives of the patriarches
lives of the judges
the Exodus
the reign of David
kings of Israel and Judea
the prophets
the inter-testament period
the life of Christ
the life of Paul
the writing of scripture
the Early Church Fathers
the Popes
the Patriarchs of Orthodoxy
the Reformers of the Reformation
etc. etc. think those timelines one sees in Bible Handbooks and one volume church histories from major denominations

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Comments

DMB

I am of the impression that the Timeline feature is underutilized by others besides myself....

Definitely for me. Everything's kind of mixed up, so a need to squint to find order. So, I hadn't looked at it for a while. A long while.

I now have BW, the old Libby, and Logos.

Logos has the most depth. Your ideas, even better. I tried out Protestant Studies but I guess mainly 1500s. Catholic more. Your increased detail would be great.

I'm new on BW (1 hour!). So, far, the timelines are organized, and lets me save my own timelines. I'm thinking to use it for a loose mindmap and outline-ish (fake dates to position items).

But overall, Logos detail, if organized, is the real value.

Simon’s Brother

I am of the impression that the Timeline feature is underutilized by others besides myself.

[Y]

A good suggestion MJ.

Rick Ausdahl

I love your suggestion, MJ.

I rarely find the timeline helpful as it is now. I can't recall how long it's been since I tried to use it, but do know I quit/gave up without satisfaction.

JRPK

The Timeline tool has much potential...

but it is most often frustratingly unforgiving in searching and narrowing the display of results. I have been studying St. Maximus the Confessor and his 'intellectual ancestry' and context, so I filter in Timeline for: "Gregory of Nyssa", "Life of Origen", Plotinus, "Life of St Maximus the confessor", Pseudo-Areopagite, "Life of Aristotle."

So often though, dates/data do not show up! i.e. Evagrius Ponticus (346–99), does not appear even though it is present in: F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 581. !!!

I wish I could create a Personal Book to add specific dates/data that would appear in Timeline. Maybe I already can, I just do not know how.

I find Timeline to be a most powerful visual aid to understanding context and relations...

Richard Villanueva

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/989033#Comment_989033

Agreed. The current tool is much like a firehose of information when the power of a timeline is how it curates just the necessary information in an easily readable way. It juxtaposes the right information to give perspective and a picture of how different people and moments interact through a time period. (IMO)

For example, seeing how all the prophets line up with their contemporary Kings in the Unified and Divided Kingdoms - it gives perspective. It's a small but specific amount of information.

What would be helpful is if I could gather all the information from that fire hose, select maybe 5-10 of those items and copy-paste them onto a "blank" timeline for a presentation, exporting as an image, etc. Some events have numerous early/late dates, some entries are duplicated, and it gets cluttered and confusing as it stands now. The search box in the timeline tool is not always as helpful and selective as I would want (but maybe I'm just doing it wrong.)

I love timelines, but only when they show information in a helpful and concise manner. I do believe the Timeline tool is chock full of potential.

JRPK

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/989038#Comment_989038

Imagine being able to simply click (or search) and isolate 'events/persons/things' at the top and still see all the contextual data!

Mike Savant

https://community.logos.com/discussion/comment/982632#Comment_982632

That has been my experience which is how I came to this thread. I would like to see a curated list of people.events/periods as suggested by MJ. Then I might find something rather than guessing as I do now.

Ken Shawver

MJ. - Been off the forum for awhile, but glad you and the other long time posters are out there thinking of continued enhancements. I use the timeline to some extent - under-utilized is a good word for it - because their aren't more general options. The one you have suggested would be a real nice to have. Hope someone is listening.

[Y][Y][Y][Y][Y]

Greg Rose

I underutilize the timeline. I was initially very excited about it. However it seems to me that there are not as many books tied to the timeline as I would have hoped. In the Reformation Era there is mainly the "Complete Book of Where and When in the Bible", "History of the Catholic Church: From the Apostolic Age to the Third Millennium" and "131 Christians Everyone Should Know". There are a few outliers such as "The Gunpowder Plot" and "Anne Boleyn: One Short Life". There are a number of Histories that you can get through Logos, e.g. "The Lion History Series" and "The Oxford History of the Christian Church".

I wonder if there is some criteria that if sales of a particular history book or history series reaches a certain number then there would be links set up from the Timeline to events in those history books. If there isn't then I think that would be a great idea - it would certainly make the Timeline much more robust.

How is the decision made to add future links to the Timeline I wonder.