Theological Timeline

An app to create and manage chronologies
User manual

The current version of the app is 1.1.8 • For information about privacy, see below.

Introduction

Theological Timeline (or thTimeline for short) is a free app for iPhone, iPad and macOS to create and manage chronologies, that is, lists of people, documents and events that are relevant to a given discipline. This app was designed as a teaching tool for students of theological courses, but it can be used to support study and research in any field, especially historical.

Each entry in the chronology, whether it relates to a person, a document or an event, consists of a name / title, a date of birth / initial and a date of death / final, with the possibility of indicating whether they are uncertain, a places of birth and death or where an event took place, some notes (an unformatted text) and various tags, which place the item within one or more historical periods or research fields. Items can be filtered by name / title field, place field and tags. The app shows the list of tags already used, so that the user can enter in the filter those that are actually present.

The items are automatically synchronized on iCloud between the various devices associated with the same Apple account. However, the app allows to export items to a text file, as well as import items contained in an exported file. In this way it's possible to create and share chronologies with other people. For example, a professor may produce a timeline and share it with his or her students. They will be able to make any possible changes, integrating it with personal notes, and share it in turn with other students.

The need to be able to import and export items to foster mutual collaboration requires that each of these entries cannot be linked to others. In the case of a partial data export, in fact, the link between different items might be broken, because some of them could not be present in the exported file. It is therefore necessary to use appropriately the tags to gather the items within various research areas, whether they are chronological (Middle Ages, Modern Ages, etc.) or thematic.

The app allows to manage chronological indications from 1 C.E. onward. It's not possible to track previous years.

Screenshots from iPhone

Note that the text colors can be changed by the user.

Interface

The items are displayed in a list, and by tapping on one of them the related details are displayed, i.e. the type of item (person, document or event), the name / title, the date of birth / initial and that of death / final, with the possibility of indicating if they are uncertain, the places of birth and death or where an event took place or a document has been published, notes and tags. The notes may contain some hints about the person, document or event to which the item refers, but they can also contain a full-bodied text. At the bottom, there is a button to enlarge the notes and make them better readable.

The square icon at the left of the text of an item (a square with a pen) is a button that on macOS opens all the possible web link inside the text, and on iPhone and iPad just the first link. The icon with the magnifier opens the search and replace function on the text of the current item. It may be activated also with the shortcut Cmd + F.

In the list of items, to the left of the name / title there is an indication as to whether the item relates to a person, a document or an event. The years and places, if any, are listed under the title of the item.

Under the list of items, there is their number (only of those filtered, if the filter is active). At the right of this number there is the export button, effective only on filtered items (icon of a square with an arrow pointing upwards), the one for importing a file obtained with the previous procedure (icon of a square with an arrow pointing downwards), the one to close the keyboard (on iPhone), that of the app options (icon with cursors) and that of the copyright (an "i" icon inside a circle). In the copyright there is a link to this manual.

To update the data in order to view immediately in the list the items coming from another device and already synchronized in the background, swipe down the list of the items.

Filters and tags

Above the list of items there is the filter field. When the user types some characters in this field, the items in which the title, the place or tags contain these characters are automatically filtered. It is possible to type two or more words so that they must all be present in the filtered entries; to do this, just separate the words with " && " (without quotes, before and after two & there is a space). For example, by inserting in the filter "Augustine && Hippo" (without quotation marks), the entries that contain both Augustine and Hippo in the title or in the tags or in the place will be filtered. By tapping on the magnifying glass symbol, to the left of the filter field, the " && " code is automatically inserted. With a long tap, the " || " symbol is inserted.

It is possible also to type two or more words so that at least one of them must be present in the filtered items; to do this, just separate them with " || " (without quotes, there's a space before and after the two |). For instance, typing in the filter "Augustine || Hippo" (without quotes), the entries that contain Augustine or Hippo in the title or in the tags or in the place will be filtered. The " || " code may be used only if the code " && " is not present. The circle icon containing an "x" allows to cancel the filter and show all entries.

The icon with the label symbol opens the list of the tags already used. To insert the desired ones in the filter field separated by ||, tap on them. Then close the list with the button at the top left.

In order for the app to recognize properly the tags used and insert them in the list, they must be typed in the tag field preceded and followed by a # and a single space. For example, the tag field could be composed like this:

# Augustine # Western Fathers # Pelagianism # Donatism #

Changes

To create a new item, tap the button at the top right (icon with the "+"). This item will be placed at the top of the list. To change the type of item (person, document or event), tap on the indication at the top. The details of a note are saved when returning to the note list.

An entry can be deleted from the list by scrolling it to the left.

By repeatedly tapping the icon at the top left, the items are sorted by name / title and year of birth / initial (icon of the rectangle with an "A" inside it), by year of birth / initial and year of death /final (icon of a calendar) , and by kind of item (person, document, event) and name / title and year of birth / initial (icon with a person in squares).

Options and tools

The app options, accessed with the button at the bottom right with the icon representing cursors, allow to customize the color of the text and the secondary one both when the dark and light theme is in use. Tap the circular arrows to the right of the "Colors for dark theme" and "Colors for light theme" labels to restore the default colors.

The button "Delete all tiems" remove all the items from the device. This may take few seconds. Then go back to the list of items and swipe it down to show the result.

Finally, in the Copyright, tapping the app icon will make it move to the background by rotating. By tapping on it again, it will return to its place. It is also possible to tap on it while it's moving backwards or forwards.

Support

thTimeline is a free app, but no usage support is available. Moreover, its simplicity does not make this strictly necessary. To contact the author - not for technical assistance - send an email to ms.nardello at the gmail.com domain.