Digital and multimedia publishing

Timelines are a great way to illustrate an issue through time. TimelineJS, uses a Google spreadsheet to populate the timeline. Knowledge of HTML is useful but not necessary.With TimelineJS you are not limited to images. You can also add maps, sound bites, links to Wikipedia, YouTube videos, etc.

Tiki-Toki creates visually stunning 2D and 3D timelines with the possibility of adding images, videos, and sound recordings. Their free account allows you to create a single timeline. Tiki-toki has an easy to use online platform.

Neither TimelineJS nor Tiki-Toki allow users to upload images to the platform (as one would do for social media or a blog post). Images need to be online and have a URL. The videos below show you how to obtain an image's URL.  

From WikiCommons

From Google Images or the Web

If the image you want to use is not available online, you can upload it to Google Drive and get a URL from there. 

Adapted from TimelineJS

1. Short and sweet: Limit your timeline to no more than 20 slides.
2. Make sure that your project has a strong chronological narrative that keeps moving forward (no jumping around in the timeline).
3. Remember each event is a part of your overall narrative.
4. A good timeline will include both major events and the minor ones that led to them.

There are many tools to create timelines. Some of these are free while others require a subscription. Below is a list of selected tools. You can find a more comprehensive list here.