Yet another script for OmniGraffle. This one generates a rough skeleton of a timeline, getting the items spaced out properly, but does not really do much else at the moment. With a little further modification, something like what is shown here can be made.
timeline.zip (12 KB).
> Timeline.
In the fantastic dialog that appears, enter some numerical data, such as: 1975 1979 1985 2001 2010. (There are further notes on this below.) Press OK.
Behold, the majesty.When entering data, there's no need to keep it in order. 1979 1990 1985 will produce the same results as 1979 1985 1990.
If entering a lot of data it is a good idea to 'save' it for a while by copying it to the clipboard, then if you make a small error in entering it, which you notice when the timeline is created, you only have to paste and correct the error rather than typing it all in again. If you have lots and lots of data, using a text editor for it might be a bright idea.
The tick marks always start from the lowest data item that you enter. So, if you have (as above) 1975, the first tick is 1975. It often makes sense to enter a nice round number to start your line, then delete it. Same goes for the end.
Often the numbers on the ticks crash into each other. In this case, select the whole lot, lines, labels, events and all, and make it bigger. Alternatively, laboriously go through the whole timeline and delete every second label or something. This was done in the example timeline at the top of the page. (Additionally, the labels were rotated, for added drama.)
If your events are very close together, then they will also crash into each other. Move the label text up or down (using the arrow keys here makes it easier to keep it all aligned), then select the event lines for all the labels you've moved, and scale them all at once. This is easier than moving an event, then its line, then another event etc., and trying to keep it all aligned.
The spacing of the tick labels isn't ideal. When you edit them, they tend to not be aligned properly. If you edit the text, chances are they'll be mis-aligned. Seems to be that ticking and un-ticking "Wrap to Shape" in the text inspector wakes them up a bit. After doing this, manually positioning the first and last tick-labels, (left) then pressing the "Spread evenly between left and right objects" button in the alignment inspector often sorts things out (left, below, note the difference in the 1980 label). 
© 2024 — 83957jgtyd@liamekaens.com