Custom Item Types

On this page
What are item types?
Change an item's type
Find your file's types
Set up favorites in the sidebar
Set up relationships in the inspector
Customization
Name and icon
Show in views
Parent types
Custom properties
Create an item type
All guides
Quickstart Guide
Working with Dates
Custom Item Types
For Fiction
Story Timeline
Novel Outline
Worldbuilding
For History
Ancient History
Historical Warfare

What are Item Types?

Timelines Are Built With Items

Items are the building blocks that contain all of the information in your timeline. Each time you create a new event, you are creating an item.

If you create a person to participate in an event, or a location to host it, you are also creating items, but they are items of a different type.

Item Types Help You Stay Organized

Item Types help you manage and categorize your data. Each Item Type has a dedicated panel where lists of items can be created and managed independently.  

Events, People, and Locations are common Item Types that form the foundations of many timelines. You can access each of your file's Item Types by clicking their icons in the Sidebar.

Some Item Types Have Different Behaviors

Some types of items are visually represented on the timeline, while others play more of a supporting role, only becoming visible when they’re assigned to an event.
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We’ll cover how to adjust them to your liking in the Customizing Item Types section below.

Here’s how the 3 main item types behave with the base settings in the General template:

Show in Timeline

Allow Dates

Show in Sidebar

Event

Yes

Yes

Yes

Person

No

Yes

Yes

Location

No

No

Yes

Events are date-based items that appear on the timeline. Their position and duration are determined by the start and end dates you set.

Other item types can be assigned to an event to show details like the location, people involved, or the story arc it’s part of.

When an event has items assigned, they are displayed on the event card on the timeline.

People have birth and death date fields, but they typically don’t appear on the timeline in most default templates. Instead, you can assign them to events to show their connection.

You can choose to display People on the timeline if you want to see their birthdates or lifespans visualized. To find out more on that, check out the section on customizing the settings > show in.

Locations don’t accept date information or show up on the timeline by default. You can, however, assign a location to an event to see it labeled on the event card.

Change the Type of an Item

Items can be converted to other types, so you can re-categorize your information whenever you need to. If the new type doesn’t include all the same fields—like dates—you’ll receive an alert so you can double-check the details before committing.

  1. Select the item to bring up the Inspector.
  2. In the Type section, click Change.
  3. Select an option from the list.

Find the Item Types in Your File

You might see different Item Types in your file, depending on the template you started with. To see which item types you have available in your timeline:

  1. Open
    Settings
    and select the Item Types Tab.
  2. All of the item types in your file are displayed in a list on the left.

Set Up Relationships in the Inspector

Creating relationships lets you share information with other Item Types in your file. In this example, we can see in the Inspector that the event has been linked to a person and a location. Those relationships are then displayed on the event on the timeline.

The General template starts you off with 3 item types: Events, People, and Locations. This setup lets you quickly assign a person to an event and specify where the event is taking place.

But what if you wanted to keep a record of something else, like where the people in your file live? You'd just need to create a new relationship between the two Item Types.

Create a Relationship Type

In the following example, we'll be setting up a new relationship between People and Locations to let us record the hometowns of everyone in our timeline.

  1. Open
    Settings
    .
  2. Select the Relationships tab.
  3. Enter a Label to describe the relationship.

    In this example, we want the location to be the person’s Hometown.
  4. Under Item Types with a field for this relationship, select the Item Type you want to link from.
    In this example, we’re selecting Person because this is where the Hometown field will appear.
  5. In the Allowed item types section, select the item type you want the field to link to.

    In this example, it will be Location.
  6. Make sure the Always show in inspector box is checked so that the field will be visible, even when it’s empty.

Now, when viewing a person in the Inspector, you can assign a Hometown to them.

Showing Relationships Both Ways

You can also set it up so that it works the other way, so that viewing a location shows you who lives there and lets you add new people to the list.

  1. Select Show Inverse.
  2. Under Inverse Label, enter a label that suitably describes how people might be related to a location. 
(In this example, Residents feels like a good fit.)

Now, when selecting a location, you can see a list of its residents.

Learn more about relationship type settings

Customizing Item Types

The behavior of the item types in your project aren’t set in stone. You can tweak any Item Type to choose where it can display, how it can be nested, and heaps more.

Change an Item Type's Name or Icon

You can adjust the basic appearance of any visible item type with the edit menu in the Sidebar.

  1. Select the Item Type in the Sidebar.
  2. Hover over the name to reveal the
    Edit
    icon.
  3. Use the edit menu to change the name, icon, or default item color.
Show In

Choose where an Item Type can be displayed.

  1. Open
    Settings.
  2. Select the Item Types tab.
  3. Select an Item Type.
  4. Select from the Show In options to choose where an Item Type can be displayed.

Timeline View: Lets items with dates appear on the timeline, alongside events and tasks. Select this option to visualize the lifespans of people, or the founding (or destruction) of locations on your timeline.

Chronological Order: Allows for items to be sorted from first to last based on their dates. Every item of the selected type will be included in Spreadsheet, Relationship, and Subway views.

Narrative Order: Select this if you want to be able to add certain types of items to the Narrative and Outline views.

Sidebar: Turn this on for quick access to the selected item type in the Sidebar.

Relationship Comparisons: Allows items of this type to be chosen as Timeline view groups, Relationship view columns, and Subway tracks.

Allowed Parent Types

Choose what an Item Type can be nested under.

  1. Open
    Settings.
  2. Select the Item Types tab.
  3. Select an Item Type.
  4. Select from the Allowed Parent Type options to choose what items of the selected type can be nested under.

The image above is for the Location item type and shows that a location can be nested within another location. You might use this to show that a city belongs within a country, or a point of interest inside the city.

Nesting is useful on other types of items to show:

  • A subtask within a task
  • A person within a team
Creating Custom Properties

Every item type is fully customizable, letting you add fields for text (single or multi-line), numbers, fractions, currency, checkboxes, and more.

You can create new fields for things like tracking publication info for citations, adding details to your characters, or marking tasks as completed.

Add Text or Numerical Fields

Create fields for inputting things like task budgets, city populations, story tension, detailed character descriptions, or publication information.

In the example below, we're going to add a new property that will create a field to capture the name of a record's author.

  1. Open
    Settings.
  2. Select the Properties tab.
  3. Click the Add button.
  4. Enter a label for the new property.
  5. Under Format, choose Single-line text or Integer number.
  6. Choose which item type should contain the new property.
  7. Click OK.
Add a List of Options

Create a list of options to easily track things like status, rating, or category.

  1. Open
    Settings.
  2. Select the Properties tab.
  3. Click the Add button.
  4. Enter a label for the new property.
  5. Under Format, choose List of options.
  6. Create as many options as you need.
  7. Choose which item type it should apply to.
  8. Click OK.

Creating a New Item Type

Duplicate an Item Type

The item types in each starting template are a good starting point, but as your timeline grows, you might want more ways to organize your data.

Duplicating an Item Type copies all of the settings of the original, but doesn’t copy any of its items. Just duplicate one you like, give it a new name, and you’re all set.

  1. Open
    Settings.
  2. Select the Item Types tab.
  3. Select the one you’d like to copy.
  4. Click Duplicate.
  5. Change the Name and Plural fields to something fitting.
Create a New Item Type from Scratch

Sometimes, you’ll want to create a completely new item type, without carrying over any settings from the original.

  1. Open
    Settings.
  2. Select the Item Types tab.
  3. Click Add.
  4. Enter a name and a plural for the new item type.
  5. Select an icon and a color to help you identify it.

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