Feature Guide to Chronicles

 

With Chronicles, you can visually display the history of your world by connecting all of your events to an interactive map. As you scroll through the chronicle and select each event, the map will zoom into the area where that event happened. And by using multiple maps throughout history, you can easily show how the landscape of your world has changed throughout the centuries.

   

1. Create a chronicle

To create a chronicle:

   

1. On the left sidebar, click on Advanced Tools and then on Chronicles.
2. Click the "+ Chronicle" button at the bottom of the side panel.
3. On the bottom right corner of the screen, give the Chronicle a title and press Shift+Enter.

 

Then, you will be redirected to the set-up wizard for Chronicles. Feel free to leave everything at its default value for now; you can always change it later.

 

2. Quick interface overview

Here's a quick overview of the interface:

   

• Most of the interface is used by the map, which is interactive and can hold pins (just like interactive maps). By default it shows a static image of a fantasy desert landscape.
• At the bottom there's the timeline in a horizontal format. You'll notice that it has four different lanes, so it can display parallel events.
• On the right, you have all of your edit tools. We'll take a look at all of them in this guide.
• At the top left, you can use the search bar to search in your chronicle.

 

If you're not interested in having an interactive map integrated with your timeline, you can use standard timelines instead.

 

3. Add a map to the chronicle

Maps set chronicles apart from timelines, so let's start by uploading one!

 

1. On the left, click the Maps Manager and click the + New Map button in the pop-up.
2. Give the map a name and upload it. Note that Chronicles can't pull maps from your world's image gallery, so you'll need to upload it here.
3. Click Create at the bottom of the new map screen.

 

Your map will appear as an interactive image in the background. To create map markers, right-click on the map to get started. We'll talk about about markers later in this guide.

 

4. Create your first event

Events are just as important as maps. To create one:

 

1. Right-click on the timeline and select "Create New Event". The new event will be pre-filled with the year you clicked on.
2. Events need a title, a long description, and a start date. Fill in these three fields and ignore the rest for now.
3. Click Create Event to confirm the creation of the event.

 

5. Connect the event with a map marker

The connection between time and space is the focus of any chronicle. This connection happens mainly by linking events and map markers.

 

1. Right-click anywhere on the map and select "Create Marker" to add a marker in that location. Give it a title and ignore all other fields for now.
2. Click the event you created. In the quick event card, click on the edit button.
3. In the event editor, find the "Map Marker" field and search the name of the marker you just created.
4. Click Update Event to confirm the connection.

   

The connection between a marker and an event is two-way:

 

• If you click on the event, the map will zoom into the marker.
• If you click on the marker, a side panel will slide open to reveal all events linked to it.

 

This is also how you can make your map change through history! Simply select a marker that belongs to a different map, and the map will activate when clicking on the event.

 

Beyond the basics

The sections above are enough to get you started with a pretty solid chronicle for your world. But you can do so much more with this feature! In this section, we'll take a look at every single option you have at your disposal.

 

Map manager

Click the Maps Manager button on the right to see all maps added to your Chronicle. For each map, click the crosshair icon to activate it or the pencil to edit it.

 

These are all the available options when editing a map:

 

• Title (mandatory): the name of the map.
• Description: use this field to write a brief description of the map.
• Map image (mandatory): either upload a new image or select an image that you already uploaded to the chronicle.
• Attribution name and link: use these fields to credit the author of the map.

 

In the settings tab, you can control the behavior of the map:

 

• Zoom Settings: use the slider to tweak how far or close you can zoom in the map, as well as the zoom level when the map loads.
• Coordinates: if you don't like the position where the map loads by default, use these fields to tweak it.
• Custom CSS class name: you can give the map a custom CSS class to customize it to your liking using this advanced feature.
• Zoom Controls: disable this if you don't want the zoom buttons to be visible. You'll still be able to zoom in or out with the mouse wheel.

 

Timelines and calendars

Your chronicle's timelines appear at the bottom of the screen, and they hold the events you create. A chronicle's calendar, on the other hand, is simply a configuration system you can use to define how long your time units are.

 

Setting up your chronicle calendar

To set up your calendar, open the Calendar Manager from the right. The calendar manager has two tabs:

   

• Months: use this tab to define the names of the months, as well as how many days they have. You can also add leap days that happen every certain amount of years.
• Time: in this tab, you can set up how long different time units are, including hours, days, centuries, and more.

 

Setting up your timelines

Just like maps, opening the timeline manager will give you a list of all timelines in the chronicle. Click the eye icon to hide it (or reveal it back), and the pencil icon to edit it.

   

The edit page is very simple: you can change the timeline's name and make it public or private

 

All timelines have four lanes that can show events in parallel. To scroll through a timeline, drag horizontally or scroll with your mouse while pressing the Shift key. Timelines can't show all years at once; when you get to the end or beginning, simply click the arrow button to go the next segment.

 

Under the timelines there are options to navigate straight to a specific year, as well as a granularity setting. Use the granularity setting to choose how "zoomed in" you want to timeline to appear.

 

Events

Clicking on an event in the timeline will open an event summary card, which includes an edit button. You can also access the event manager on the right. Here are all the options when editing events:

 

General tab

• Title (mandatory): the name of the event.
• Excerpt: a brief summary of the event.
• Long Description (mandatory): the full explanation of the event.
• Start (mandatory) and end: select when the event started and ended. The end date is optional.
• Event type and significance: the event significance will change the shape of the event pin, while event type will change the icon displayed in the event's summary card.
• Timeline and timeline lane: use this to move the event to a different timeline (if you have more) or lane.
• Map marker: select a map marker in this field. When clicking on the event, the map will focus on that marker. If the marker is in a different map, that map will also be activated.
• Tags: tags make the event easier to find when using the search field.

 

Display

• Cover image: this image will be displayed in the event summary card, as well as the full details side panel.
• Timeline display color: by default events have a dark grey color. Use this field to give it any color you want.
• Timeline display icon: to replace the default event pin shape with a more representative icon, use this field to set any icon from FontAwesome or RPG-Awesome. Check this guide to learn how to use icons.

 

Privacy

• Private toggle: make the event private or public here. If it's private, you can give access to your subscriber groups.

 

Links

• Linked articles: link the event to as many articles are you want. When viewing the details of the event, there will be link blocks to each article.

 

Chronicle settings

To access the chronicle settings modal, click the double gear button on the right. This is a quick run-down of every option:

 

• General tab: write the chronicle's title and description here.
• Display tab: this tab controls how the chronicle looks. Set the default cover, map, and a custom CSS class.
• Privacy tab: use this tab to make the chronicle public or private, and give access to subscribers.
• Time & Date tab: set the overall time setting here: the default unit of time (set to "years" by default), the timeline length, and where the chronicle starts.

 

Deleting a Chronicle

 

To permanently delete your entire chronicle:

 

1. Exit the chronicle and open the Chronicles list side menu.
2. Find the chronicle you want to delete there (double-check it's the right one!).
3. Click the trash button next to it. After confirming the deletion with the check button, it will be permanently deleted.