Instructions for Twistory 1.4

The Time-Line Window

     The time-line window shows lifetimes and events against a horizontal time scale. The buttons at the lower left of the window control the time scale, and the horizontal scroll bar can be used to set the current year directly.

     You may drag the contents of this window to alter the current time or cycle the items vertically. Dragging left and right changes the current time. Dragging up and down cycles the vertical position of the items.

     By holding down the option key while clicking or dragging, you bring the date on which you release the mouse to the centre of the view. Option-dragging up and down zooms the time scale in and out dynamically in a logarithmic manner, but horizontal movement does not change the current date. Using this mode is tricky at first, but with some practice it is easy to zoom in on any particular day in history in a matter of seconds.

Time-Line Keys

     The cursor keys can also be used to control the time. The left and right arrows back up or advance the time by one step, respectively. The up arrow zooms the time in to a smaller step size. The down arrow zooms the time scale out.

     Use the "c" and shift-"c" keys to cycle the vertical ordering of events.

The "People" and "Events" Menus

     These menus are used to select which categories of people and events are shown. Their division into categories and sub-categories is arbitrary, and is based mainly on the number of different items in the default database. The default categories are defined in the files "p-menu.ttt" and "e-menu.ttt" in the "ttt" folder. They can be edited by the user.

     The "Time Line" and "Map" menus offer a variety of further options to control exactly what types of people and events are seen, and how they are ordered. Moreover, the "delete" key may be used to temporarily remove a selected item from the view. (These deletions are restored when any of the filter options are changed.)

Changing Views

     Clicking on the icon or time-line of any person or event selects that item, as shown by highlighting. Double-clicking on an item brings up the time-line window (or the map window if you are already there) and focuses the view on the selected item. Command-clicking on an item, i.e. holding down the command key as you click, brings up the info window (or the map window if you do this in the info window). Switching directly to the map from the time-line or info views causes the map view to focus on the selected item.

Map Windows

     You may open up two map windows. You may set their magnifications and locations independently. The maps will display any people or events whose date ranges overlap with the current time step. (When a map window is open, the current time interval is shaded in the time line window.)

The date interval is displayed in the upper-left corner, and the size of the current time step is displayed in the lower-left corner. View scale is shown in the upper-right (horizontal distance across the window). The bottom-right legend has the latitude and longitude of the centre of the view.

     The two easiest ways to move the map are to

  1. drag the contents, or
  2. select an item (by clicking on its icon) and then choose "Focus" (or command-H) from the "Map" menu. This centres the item in the view.

Projection Controls and Keys

     The primary projection controls are the scroll bars. The vertical scroll bar is used to change or set the latitude. The horizontal scroll bar controls longitude. It can turn the view through 360 degrees, and wraps around. There is no keyboard equivalent for these.

     The plus and minus (+ and -) buttons change the map's magnification. The plus and minus keys on the number pad do the same thing. Use the shift key with them to get larger zoom increments.

Time Controls

     The size of the time step is changed here with the up- and down-triangle buttons. (They have the same effect as the plus and minus buttons in the time-line window.) Use them with the shift key to change the time step by larger increments. Time can also be animated. The right-triangle button starts the calendar running forward, the left-triangle one starts it in reverse, and the button with the square stops it.

     The cursor keys have the same time-control function in the map window as they do in the time-line window.