Your first timeline

You will go from a library with no timelines to one timeline holding two events, one of them citing an item from your library. Then you will find that event again from the item itself. It takes about ten minutes.

What you will need

• Zotero with the plugin installed from the .xpi on GitHub releases. See Getting started for the supported Zotero versions.
• A library with a few items. Any regular item (a book, an article) will do for the source. The tutorial calls the one you cite Bastille; use whichever item suits the event you write.

Step 1: Open the Timeline tab

Choose Tools > Timeline. Pressing Shift+T with the library focused does the same, as long as the keyboard focus is not in a text field.

A tab titled "Timeline" opens. It has three parts: a sidebar headed "Timelines" on the left, the canvas in the middle, and an editor panel on the right that reads "Select an event to edit it, or click an empty spot on the canvas to create one there."

You did not create a timeline, but the sidebar already lists one called "Timeline", with one lane on the canvas. Opening the tab in a library with no timelines creates it for you, and makes it the active one. This is the only case where just opening the tab writes anything. Your library also gains two plugin data items, a container titled "Zotero Timeline (plugin data)" and the timeline's note under it, which the plugin hides from your item list by default; see Why data lives in a note if you want to know where your timelines are stored.

If you open the tab in a library you cannot edit, a banner says so and nothing is created.

Step 2: Create the first event

Click an empty spot on the "Timeline" lane.

The editor panel fills in. The event already exists at this point: it is drawn on the lane, selected, and stored under the title "Untitled event". The Date field holds the date under your click, written at the precision of the zoom level.

Your click only created the event because "Timeline" was the active lane. With several timelines on the canvas, only one is active at a time, and the first click on a lane that is not active only makes it active. Nothing is created. Click a second time to create the event. This stops a click into a timeline you were only reading from adding an event to it. With the single "Timeline" lane you will not notice it yet.

Step 3: Title it and give it a date

In the editor:

1. Type Bastille falls in Title.
2. Set Date to 1789-07-14.
3. Press Save.

Below the Date field, a line of feedback names the date form and the range it covers. For 1789-07-14 it reads Plain 7/14/1789 – 7/15/1789.

The field takes EDTF, the extended date format. Try these in the Date field to see the feedback change:

You type	Feedback starts with	Meaning
1789-07-14	Plain	A single day
1793?	Uncertain	A year you are not sure of
1793/1794	Interval	A span from one year to the next

Two things to know about the field:

• A string the plugin cannot read, such as not a date, shows "Not a date this can read". Save still works. The text is stored as typed and the event is drawn parked instead of being refused.
• An interval whose end is not after its start shows "The end must begin after the start begins".

Set the date back to 1789-07-14 before moving on.

Step 4: Cite a library item

In the Sources part of the editor:

1. Click Add source…. Zotero's own item picker opens in a separate window.
2. Select the item and confirm the dialog.
3. A row for the item appears under Sources. Its type select is set to cites. There is also a "Name (optional)" field, a Show in library button and a Remove button.

At this point the source is not stored yet. Sources are written on Save, like every other field. Press Save.

Step 5: Create the second event

Click another empty spot on the lane, further along the time axis. Title it Terror begins and set Date to 1793/1794. Press Save.

The canvas now shows both events on the "Timeline" lane.

Step 6: Find the event from the item

1. In the first event's source row, click Show in library. Zotero switches to the library tab with your item selected.
2. In the item pane, find the Timelines section. It can sit below the fold; scroll down, or click its icon in the side navigation.
3. The section lists a group headed "Timeline", with one row: the event title Bastille falls, and a line beneath it with the date and the source, ending in the link type, for example 1789-07-14 · Bastille — cites, with your item's title in place of Bastille.
4. Click the row.

The Timeline tab opens with the event selected and the editor showing it.

An item no event cites shows "Not cited by any event." in the same section.

If the timeline was hidden in the sidebar (the checkbox "Show or hide this timeline"), the jump turns it back on first. If a tag filter was hiding the event, the jump clears the filter and says "Tag filter cleared to show this event."

What you built

You have one timeline with two events, one of them linked to a library item with the type cites, and you can get from the item back to the event.

From here:

• Add a second timeline with the + button in the sidebar (its tooltip is "Create a timeline"). It becomes a second lane. Creating a timeline does not make it the active one.
• Where the data lives, and why it is a note: Why data lives in a note and Plugin data reference.
• Why the editor can lose unsaved edits when something else writes to a timeline: How the Timeline tab redraws.