Chronos Timeline

The Obsidian Plugin Chronos empowers users to beautifully render interactive timelines directly within their Obsidian notes, breathing life into historical events and timelines with just simple Markdown syntax. This innovative tool is powered by the vis-timeline library, providing you with the ability to visualize timelines effortlessly to make time make sense.

Quickstart Guide

Getting started with Chronos is simple. To create a timeline in your notes, just wrap your timeline items inside a chronos code block. For example:

```chronos
- [1789~1799] French Revolution
- [1791~1804] Haitian Revolution
- [1776] American Declaration of Independence

Timeline Templates

With the Command Palette (accessed via ctrl/cmd + p), you can easily insert blank, basic, or advanced templates for your timelines, letting you customize how details are presented. Additionally, you can highlight text in your notes and use the "Generate" command to create a timeline based on the selected content, making it perfect for detailed histories or comparative analyses.

Cheat Sheet

To enhance your experience, after installing the Chronos Timeline plugin, paste the contents of the provided cheatsheet into a file in your vault for hands-on examples and reference.

Syntax Overview

Chronos allows a broad range of temporal details from events to markers:

• Events: Use - for single dates or date ranges, enriching them with descriptions if needed.
• Periods: Use @ for spans of time, making it easy to visualize extensive eras.
• Markers: Highlight significant milestones using = for key dates.

Chronos understands various date formats, enabling you to input time down to the exact second. For instance:

```chronos
- [2020] A year
- [2020-02-28T12:30] A minute
- [-550] 550 BCE

Advanced Features and Modifiers

Enhance your timelines by applying modifiers for colors and groups, thus categorizing your events visually. Create swimlanes by grouping related events, thereby bringing clarity to complex narratives.

Visualize Your History

Chronos offers an aesthetically pleasing and organized way to represent your notes over time. From science to history, capture the flow of events in an engaging manner. Here's a glimpse of how different components interact in a timeline:

```chronos
- [1945-07-17] {Europe} Potsdam Conference | where post-WWII Europe is divided
- [1989-11-09] {Europe} Fall of the Berlin Wall | symbolizing the end of Cold War tensions
= [1991-12-26] End of the Cold War

User Actions

Easily modify existing timelines by entering Edit mode to update your chronos Markdown quickly. To fit all items within the view window, simply click the Refit button.

Localization

Choose your preferred language for date tooltips through the plugin settings, customizing it to your system's language setting.

Unlock a new dimension of note-taking and make your historical narratives come alive with the Chronos Timeline plugin for Obsidian!