With Timeline Maker Pro, you have the ability to assign global preference options and customize the way you interact with the program using the Options dialog. For your convenience, these options remain in effect for all timeline files, until you change them.
To access user preferences:
- Select the File > Options
Tip: At any time you can restore the default settings which came with the program by clicking the Reset button in each tab.
The Options dialog contains six tabs: General, File Locations, Timeline, Date, Presentation, and Spelling.
In this article
General Tab
Open last used file
If this option is activated, the program will automatically open the last file used when the program is restarted. Otherwise, if the option is not checked, the program will automatically create a new file on start-up.
Auto-launch PDF Viewer
Whenever you publish a timeline the program will open the newly created *.pdf file in your default PDF viewer (e.g. Adobe Acrobat) when this option is checked. If Auto-launch PDF Viewer is not activated, the program will create the *.pdf file, but you will need to browse to and open the file yourself.
Optimize for Planning or Documenting Events
With Timeline Maker Pro, you can choose how you would like your program optimized: for planning or for documenting events. If you are using the program for planning, you may wish to label the information you enter in your timelines as Tasks. Otherwise, if you use the program to document events, you may choose to use the default Events label. Your choice will show in your entry tab, as well as in menus and dialog boxes.
File Locations Tab
In this tab you can choose the default location where Timeline Maker Pro will look for the following files:
- Timeline Files
- Pictures
- Published Documents (HTML, graphic files, etc.)
To change the default, type the new location in the desired text box, or click the Browse button and select the new location.
Timeline Tab
Create timeline with
You can choose to create timelines with all events in your file, or only those that you have selected for inclusion. To set your preference, select the down arrow beside Create timeline with and click on all events to show all events in your timeline, or currently shown events to show only those marked for inclusion. For more information on including events in timelines, see also: Include or Exclude Events in Timeline Charts
Default Theme
Each time a new timeline is created the program will automatically apply the chosen default theme for the timeline. Click the down arrow beside Default Theme to select your choice. Tip: All saved themes will appear in the dropdown list.
Show Connectors
By default, the Flag Timeline is created with a single connector arrow pointing to the timescale. To change the default connector to show arrows on both start and end date/time for the event by clicking the down arrow next to Show Connectors and selecting for start and end dates.
Footer text
To change the default footer text to be displayed on timelines, click in the box beside Footer Text and enter the new information.
Show
To always show Gridlines, Border, Page Breaks, Legend, or Event info pop-up on your timelines, click the checkbox next to the desired option under Show. When a checkmark is present, the option has been activated.
Date Tab
Date & Time Display Format on New Timelines
To select the default format for how dates and times are displayed on your new timelines, click the down arrow next to Display date as or Display time as and select your preference.
BC/BCE Dates
Your dates can be displayed using either BC or BCE. Select your preference by clicking the down arrow next to BC/BCE Dates and clicking on your style choice.
When Entering Dates
The Interpret month/day order option allows you to set your preference for how numerical dates are interpreted in data entry. Click the down arrow under Interpret month/day order as and select DD/MM or MM/DD.
You can also set your desired time format by clicking the down arrow beside Display time as and selecting either 12 hour or 24 hour.
Presentation Tab
The options in the Presentation Tab all pertain to formatting for presentations. When a checkmark is present, the option has been activated. For more information on presentations, see also: Creating a Presentation and Presentation Options.
Fit to height of screen
Scales the timeline so that the timeline height fills the window.
Step Through
Starts as an empty timeline in the presentation so that you can display events one at a time. Options for Step Through include:
- Order: Enables user to choose between presenting the events in the order they occurred (by time) or by category.
- Justify: Used for positioning of timeline when the active even/task would otherwise be off screen. Center shows the active event in the horizontal center of the timeline. Right positions the timeline so that the active event in on the right hand side of the screen.
- Highlight: Fade lightens events not in focus so that the active event is prominent, while Glow highlights the active event with a yellow outline. None displays the event without any added effects.
Include new timeline in presentation
Automatically adds any newly created timeline to the presentation.
Spelling Tab
Spellcheck
By default, Timeline Maker Pro checks spelling automatically as you type, using underlined red font to indicate possible spelling problems. When you right-click on the misspelled word you will be presented with a list of suggested corrections. To accept one of the suggested words, click on it. Otherwise, select Ignore All to have the spellcheck disregard the word, or Add to Dictionary to include the word in your Custom Dictionary.
To disable spellcheck:
- Select File > Options > Spelling and click the checkbox next to Check spelling as you type. This removes the checkmark, indicating the feature has been disabled.
Spelling Options
You can tailor the way the program performs the spellcheck to suit your needs. These include:
- Check capitalized words (eg. Canada)
- Check all-caps words (eg. ASAP)
- Check words with numbers (eg. Win95)
- Check words with mixed case (eg. SuperBase)
- Check Internet and file addresses (eg. http:/, com)
- Check doubled words (eg. the the)
To turn an option on or off, click in the box next to the option. A checkmark next to an option indicates it is activated.
Dictionaries
By default, Timeline Maker Pro uses all of the following dictionaries when performing the spellcheck:
- English (US)
- English (UK)
- English (CDN)
- Legal words (US)
- Legal words (UK)
- Medical words (US)
- Medical words (UK)
- Custom*
To disable any of the dictionaries, click in the checkbox next to the dictionary name. If a checkmark is not present the program will ignore the dictionary when performing the spellcheck.
Every time you select *Add to Dictionary during your spellcheck, it is added to your Custom Dictionary for future reference by the program. To make changes to the words in this dictionary, click the Custom Dictionary button. You will now be able to add or remove words.
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