BEEDOCS Blog

Closing Timeline 3D after 20 Years

2025-09-19T13:33:00.000-07:00

In the next few weeks, I will be closing BEEDOCS and will discontinue Timeline 3D on the App Store. It was a goal of mine to maintain Timeline 3D for twenty years, and I am proud to have reached that goal.

I am grateful for my customers, teammates, advocates, and everyone that helped make Timeline 3D possible. One thing I learned is that the community of people that support small businesses really do make a difference. When you discover and purchase a product you enjoy, and then you tell someone else about it, it allows that work to continue.

I work at Apple now, and I do my best to bring the values I’ve learned in my indie days to my current endeavors. In particular, the customer support conversations I’ve had with many of you still inform the decisions I make on a daily basis. Thank you all for being a part of this journey.

Cheers!

Adam

Ready for Big Sur!

2020-11-12T11:39:00.000-08:00

Timeline 3D v5.2 was released today on the Mac App Store (both in-app and education version).

I rewrote all of the rendering code to use Metal/Swift migrating from OpenGL/C++ which should keep it compatible with Apple platforms as they evolve. For example, it renders with the new M1 chip that was just announced.

I also updated the user interface to the new Big Sur patterns including dark mode, which looks pretty cool. Kenichi Yoshida, who has been contributing beautiful illustrations to Timeline 3D for over a decade, has updated the icon to match the new Big Sur style.

I hope you enjoy the update. Thanks for your continued support. Some of you have been with me on this journey for over 15 years! If you are feeling generous, please consider leaving a positive review on the app store. Cheers!

Timeline 3D w/ macOS Big Sur

2020-08-08T16:35:00.002-07:00

I have been testing Timeline 3D with Big Sur as well as iOS 14 (both are currently in beta). The bad news is that it looks like Bug Sur has changed the OpenGL pipeline such that it breaks the 3D rendering features. Apple has asked developers to move from OpenGL to Metal so it is unlikely that Apple will prioritize a fix.

The good news is that I am working on a free upgrade to Timeline 3D v5. I am rewriting our custom rendering pipeline with Metal for better graphics and battery life. I am also modernizing the user interface to support Dark Mode and other Big Sur features.

Furthermore, I have obtained a Mac Transition Kit featuring the new Apple Silicon so I will be working to make sure that Timeline 3D will be compatible with the new hardware when it becomes available.

Software development is difficult to predict, but I already have the basic features ported to Metal and am aiming to have the update ready in September. If you depend on Timeline 3D for macOS, please avoid updating to Big Sur until that update is available. iOS 14 seems to run Timeline 3D just fine so far though it is also being upgraded.

I released the first version of my Timeline software 15 years ago! That is a long time for an indie sofware application, and I am proud that some of my customers from that first year and still actively using the software today. I'm looking forward to upgrading Timeline 3D for the next generation of Apple operating systems and hardware.

New Version of Timeline 3D for iOS!

2017-07-13T07:15:00.002-07:00

Thank to you all the beta testers who have been sending us bug reports and feedback over the past month. We have just released the new version of Timeline 3D for iOS to the App Store. New features include:

Document format now compatible with Timeline 3D for Mac
User interface optimized for larger iPhones
Movie export allows on-device rendering of HD video
Import documents and media from iCloud Drive and other sources
Event categories allow color-coding of events
Separate themes for screen presentations and printing

There are now two versions of Timeline 3D for iOS on the App Store:

Timeline 3D (Free with in-app purchases)
Timeline 3D: Education Edition (Paid up-front, no in-app purchases)

Both versions have the same price and functionality when all the features are unlocked.
All customers who previously purchased Timeline 3D for iOS will be automatically upgraded to the “Education Edition” so that all features will continue to work (including the new features) without any additional purchase required.

New customers are encouraged to try the free version of Timeline 3D for iOS. It allows you to create, edit, save, and present timelines at no cost. If you choose to export a rendered timeline chart (print, PDF, movie, slideshow, etc…) then you can add that functionality with an in-app purchase. If you are a long-time customer of the Mac version of our software, there has never been a better time to try out the iOS version too!

NEWS: Timeline 3D for iOS

2017-06-02T07:47:00.001-07:00

Howdy folks! I am pleased to announce a new version of Timeline 3D for iOS that is several years in the making. It will have some great new user features including:

Document format now compatible with Timeline 3D for Mac
User interface optimized for larger iPhones
Movie export allows on-device rendering of HD video
Import documents and media from iCloud Drive and other sources
Event categories allow color-coding of events
Separate themes for screen presentations and printing

In addition to these great features, this update also represents a major re-architecture of the code to bring the iOS and macOS versions of Timeline 3D into a common code base. That means that it will be easier for me to keep them both up-to-day with the latest Apple technologies as well as making simultaneous improvements across platforms.

Because this new update has so many changes, some of which change the format of user data, I am planning to beta test it a few weeks on TestFlight before releasing. If you'd like to join the beta test, please send us an email at support@beedocs.com.

Timeline 3D - Reimagined for OS X Yosemite

2015-01-20T07:11:00.000-08:00

I am pleased to announce the release and immediate availability of Timeline 3D for Mac (v5), a significant update to our award-winning timeline software for Mac OS X. Completely redesigned for OS X Yosemite, Timeline 3D provides a new interface to support the creation of larger and more complex timelines. Timeline 3D helps present chronologies and historical events in full screen and with a 3D perspective.

Download Timeline 3D for Mac

We also launched our new website and updated help documentation to support the new version.

BeeDocs Website

Help Documentation

I encourage you to send feedback to me at support@beedocs.com. I look forward to hearing what you think of the new version. Cheers!

New beta update: Timeline 3D v5.0 b2

2014-11-10T07:27:00.000-08:00

This weekend, I released the second beta for the new Timeline 3D for OS Yosemite. Please replace the previous beta and give it a spin. I appreciate your feedback at support@beedocs.com!

Timeline 3D v5.0 b2 —

FIXED: Layout was crashing for 3D renders of large timelines
FIXED: Crashing bug when timelines were exported prior to naming document
FIXED: Movie export help text reflects current settings
IMPROVED: Timelines display sharper text and images when zoomed in 3D renders.
IMPROVED: Code signed so that you won’t get Gatekeeper warnings during first launch.

www.beedocs.com/beta

Timeline 3D for OS X Yosemite Beta

2014-10-22T02:52:00.001-07:00

Last week, Apple released OS X Yosemite and I published the first beta of new the new Timeline 3D for OS X Yosemite. After you upgrade your Mac, please try the new Timeline 3D.

www.beedocs.com/beta

The beta will be free while I iron out the bugs and put the finishing touches on the iOS 8 product that goes with it. This is a good time to send me feedback about any bugs you find.

Why the rewrite?

The new version is an almost complete rewrite of the code base (the last rewrite of this scale was the “T2” release back in 2007). I have been working on this release for about three years. Some of the features have found their way into the iOS releases during that time.

A few people asked for more details on why a rewrite was necessary. The main reason is that the iOS version and the Mac version of Timeline 3D shared about 5% of their code base and the other 95% was different for each platform. This is because the Mac version was written before iOS existed and many of it’s technologies are not available on iOS. It is difficult for me to develop new features and fix bugs when the products are completely different behind the scenes.

The new versions have about 85% of the code in common. All of the date parsing, document storage, layout, rendering, and exporting code is now common. For example, when I recently improved the way date parsing works in Chinese, that improvement was applied to both platforms.

In this effort, and also in the effort to remove my dependence on technologies that have been deprecated or fallen out of favor, I swapped out many of the core technologies for newer technologies.

Here are some of the frameworks that were major components of Timeline 3D and have now been removed:

Core Data
Quartz Composer
Garbage Collection
Quicktime

In their place, I have added modern Apple technologies such as:

iCloud compatibility
Auto-saving with versioning
OpenGL
Automatic Reference Counting (ARC)
AVFoundation
Sandboxing

Obviously, the user interface has changed quite a bit too. I’ve discussed some of those changes on this blog. The main idea behind the changes is to address the most common issues customers have as well and standardizing on a user interface that can scale from phones to 5k iMacs.

If you have any questions or concerns about the new version, please send me an e-mail. I realize that it will be a transition and will cause some inconvenience, but I hope that the new architecture will serve us all well for the next 5-10 years.

Pricing — Timeline 3D for OS X Yosemite

2014-10-16T10:44:00.000-07:00

When I announced the new versions of Timeline 3D, I received a lot of feedback about pricing. Thank you to everyone who sent a thoughtful reply. I enjoyed interacting with you and if helped refine my thinking.

I described the new pricing model as “freemium” and described an option to pay a small fee per export. Even though I also described an option to pay one price to unlock everything, the “freemium” description caused a bit of panic.

My goals remain the same:

Allow anyone to try the software for free
Allow most customers to unlock the complete set of features for a reasonable price.
Give less expensive options to people who only want to use Timeline 3D for one particular project (like a school project).

So, here is my latest plan…

Included for free:

Creating timeline
Editing timeline
Saving and Syncing
Presenting 3D timelines on your Mac or with AirPlay

Unlocking the exporting and rendering features require a purchase. The purchases will be handled as an in-app purchase. These are non-consumable purchases which means that unlocking a feature on one of my Macs will allow you to unlock the feature on all your Macs that are using the same Apple ID or family sharing.

Timeline 3D for iOS will contain a separate but similar pricing arrangement. If you've already purchased Timeline 3D for iOS, you will not need to pay again.

Here is the pricing sheet for the Timeline 3D for OS X Yosemite launch. The prices are subject to change in the future.

I know that education and enterprise customers are interested in a paid up-front version so that they can purchase and install Timeline 3D in bulk. I am working on a solution to that as well.

Hopefully the new pricing arrangement seems clear and fair. If you have questions or feedback, please send me an e-mail at support@beedocs.com.

Editing - New Interface for Timeline 3D

2014-10-15T13:35:00.001-07:00

Here is a comparison between the legacy Timeline 3D (v3) interface for editing timeline events and the new design that will be released soon for the Yosemite update. The new design gives much more space to your content and makes it easier to see and edit multiple events at the same time.

Note the new “Color Category” feature. This allows you to quickly categorize your events with a single click. The actual colors change with the theme so you can adapt your timeline to different outputs (like printing) and still retain the category information.

Timeline 3D (v3) - Event Editing

Timeline 3D on Mac OS X Yosemite - Event Editing

Development Log: Event Posters

2014-09-02T10:02:00.000-07:00

The first release of Bee Docs Timeline in 2005.

Here is a retro screenshot of Bee Docs Timeline version 1.0 running on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

At that time, events could contain an event title and dates. Other information such as notes, images, movies, links, and tags were added in later versions. As I mentioned in my previous post, the user interface was designed around those initial requirements.

When I added the ability to use notes and media, almost everyone took advantage of those features. In fact, people took advantage of those features to a degree that I did not initially expect.

As I have provided e-mail support to customers, I have seen hundreds of timelines. Many of those timelines use notes that are paragraphs long. Notes that are about as long as a printed page in each event are not uncommon.

A graphical timeline chart must trim or scale down this data in order to display it efficiently together with other events, so it has become important to have an additional way to view and edit your events. It is with this in mind that I developed the Event Poster view.

This view shows all of the information associated with an event in a layout that is optimized to fill the screen, minimize scrolling, and feature your event media. You can quickly flip through your events with a swipe or using the arrow keys.

The Event Poster view also is designed to adapt to a huge range of screen sizes. For example, the iOS version scales between the iPhone and the iPad in different orientations.

This view also presents your events beautifully on any Mac screen. Here is a screenshot of Timeline 3D running on a Mac OS X Yosemite at 1280 x 800:

Timeline 3D on Mac OS X Yosemite

I originally wrote the layout code for Event Posters when I designed the iOS app several years ago. At that time, it was manually coded layout logic. For the iOS 7 release, I migrated the layout code to use Apple’s auto-layout technology instead. For the Yosemite release I am using the same auto-layout structure, but tuned for the fonts and screen sizes available on the Mac.

The principle that it takes a lot of complexity to make something simple definitely holds true here. There are over 70 layout constraints involved in determining the layout. Many of them change priorities or values based on the contents of an event (for example, the aspect ratio of the event media affects the line wrapping of the notes).

The result is that your content looks beautiful and readable on any screen!

Auto-layout constraints in Xcode

Development Log: Content and Presentation

2014-08-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Ten years ago, Bee Docs Timeline was born out of the idea that a member of a legal team could record events as a witness was describing them and then show the resulting timeline chart to the witness for confirmation. Two main parts of this challenge appealed to me as a product designer. First, quick real-time entry of the data. Second, a clear and professional presentation of the data that did not require lots of tweaking.

Both of these activities remain central to the design of Timeline 3D. The upcoming release will have a new interface design that further clarifies and reinforces these features. In order to understand the coming changes, I first want to review the design of the software as it exists today.

Here is an image of the current version of Timeline 3D for OS X (v3.9):

The main layout of interface has stayed basically the same for the past ten years. A layout of your timeline fills most of the window. This graphical presentation dynamically adapts to the contents of your document as well as the size of the window.

Double-clicking an event reveals an edit form that allows you to add or edit information like the event title, date, and media. You are responsible for that information as well as the date formats, colors, font size, and image sizes. The software is responsible for finding the best way to position everything in the timeline based on the these settings.

This structure had many advantages over timeline product that came before it. Notably, it removed the time consuming task of arranging event positions and tick marks. It also looks nice and works great for timelines where most of the events fit on a single screen. In the beginning, before event notes and media were an option, most of the timelines that customers created did fit on a single screen.

However, there are some down sides to this arrangement. It muddies the division of responsibility between the software and the user. When you want the timeline layout to fit more compactly, it involves changes to the timeline elements so that the software can change the timeline layout. This is confusing to many people at first.

The whole structure of editing your data within a dynamically changing timeline chart also does not scale very well. If you have one hundred events, for example, changing the date of an event may cause it to move completely off screen as the layout adapts. Then you need to go scrolling to find it.

Furthermore, the layout logic is complex behind the scenes and may take a few seconds to computer for a large timeline. The software can feel sluggish when it is constantly calculating the layout as you edit your content.

Finally, screen sizes on Apple products were fairly predictable when I introduced Timeline 3D. Now, the screens you work with every day can cover a huge range. Everything from a 3.5” iPhone to an 11” MacBook Air to a Mac Pro with multiple 4K displays.

The existing layout works well for very large displays, but it involve lots of side scrolling on the smaller displays which represent Apple’s most popular devices.

In the next Development Log, I will introduce a new design paradigm that addresses these issues in the upcoming version of Timeline 3D for OS X Yosemite.

Development Log: Timeline 3D File Formats

2014-08-20T10:39:00.001-07:00

I am planning to use this blog to share some of the technical details that I am working through for the upcoming version of Timeline 3D for OS X Yosemite and Timeline 3D for iOS 8.

After the conceptual design of a major new release, usually the first code that I develop is centered around the document format. I need a document format that can meet the goals of the release and that can also have a migration path from the previous formats the software has used.

New platforms and features have new requirements. After all, Timeline 3D was originally designed before the iPhone, iPad, and iCloud, not to mention the changes in the Mac platform during that time. Timeline 3D also did not originally support embedded images, movies, and audio.

Timeline 3D is almost ten years old and has supported six different file formats in that time. These formats include a custom binary format, SQLite Core Data store, XML Core Data store, as well as the ability to import and export tab-delimited text.

The file extensions have been txt, bdt, bdt2, bdt3, and bdt4 (short for Bee Docs’ Timeline). The new format will have a file extension "TL3D".

For the new version of Timeline 3D, my main goals have been cross-platform compatibility and support for syncing data. To this end, I designed a file format that is a folder structure of text (JSON format) files and media files in their native format (JPG, PNG, PDF, MP4...). Each event in the timeline has it's own folder with a data file and media files.

The new format is inherently cross-platform because it is just text and media files. There is nothing OS X specific, iOS specific, or even Apple specific about the format. If I wanted to build Timeline 3D for another platform or have a web server generate Timeline 3D files, the file format would still work.

Using “Show Package Contents” in Finder reveals the internal structure of the new format

The new format is also atomic. Change the tags in an event and only one little text file needs to be saved and synced. Change the image in an event and only two image files need to get synced (the media you added and a jpg thumbnail).

Since QuickLook and Spotlight were introduced, I have stored the thumbnail, preview, and search data within the file format. If I did this in a synced app, you could potentially be syncing large multimedia data every time there is a minor change to an event title or date. So, the new format uses an external QuickLook and Spotlight generator embedded in the Timeline 3D app. That information is now generated by your Mac as needed and not synced with the file format.

While the file format is not an aspect of software that customers think about often, the file format is the foundation of the features and performance that are critical to the app. The new format should be a great foundation for Timeline 3D for the next decade.

QuickLook file icons for the new TL3D file format

Important News: The Future of Timeline 3D

2014-07-23T10:52:00.000-07:00

To all of my loyal Timeline 3D customers, thank you very much for your support! I have some exciting and important news regarding Timeline 3D for Mac and iOS. First, the bad news...

Yosemite and Timeline 3D v3

Timeline 3D v3 and Easy Timeline for Mac are not compatible with Yosemite OS X 10.10. I built the core functionality of these apps 6-7 years ago on features of the operating system that are no longer supported by Apple. I will be discontinuing Easy Timeline from the App Store immediately. Timeline 3D v3 for Mac will continue to sell for those customers running OS X 10.6—10.9.

If you are interested in running Apple's beta of Yosemite, please be aware that there is not yet a version of Timeline 3D that will run on it. My suggestion is to use our iOS app until we are able to ship a new OS X application (more info on that below).

Timeline 3D in the Future

For several years, I have been anticipating these changes and have been developing technologies to support a transition. My goal for Timeline 3D is to allow a seamless experience across your Mac, iPhone, and iPad. I was pleased to see Apple reveal a similar vision for their platforms at this year’s WWDC.

Many of the next generation features are shipping in the iOS app already and will be coming to a brand new OS X version of Timeline 3D over the next few months. This strategy has many benefits.

Timeline 3D for OS X benefits:

Speed and Stability — Build on modern OS X frameworks and technologies.
iCloud sync with other Macs and with iOS
Retina display support for 3D presentations.
Better animations and lighting in 3D timelines.
Faster, smarter, and more accurate date parsing in all localizations
Per-timeline localization — For example, build a French timeline if you are in the UK
Auto-save and document versions
3D web exports using WebGL
Simplicity — No more tweaking fonts and image sizes to get a timeline to fit on a page.
Continuity Features — Seamlessly move between Apple devices without loosing your place.
App Store Distribution — Timeline 3D for OS X is coming to the App Store!

Timeline 3D for iOS gains:

Support of iOS 8 features and devices
iCloud sync with Macs and other iOS devices
Movie Export — Render HD movies of your 3D timeline.
Continuity Features — Seamlessly move between Apple devices without loosing your place.

Please note that this ground-up redesign means that some features that have been a part of Timeline 3D for Mac will not be available immediately on the new version, for example, event rows and event colors. As I bring new features to Timeline 3D, they will be added to both platforms at the same time whenever it makes sense to do so.

Timeline 3D for OS X will support OS X 10.10 and above. The new Timeline 3D for iOS will support iOS 8 and above. I expect to launch the new versions soon after Apple officially launches their new operating systems later this year.

Pricing

Timeline 3D is going freemium. For free, anyone will be able to download Timeline 3D for OS X or iOS, make and edit timelines, and present them in 3D. You also will be able to sync timelines over iCloud and share timeline documents using AirDrop or Dropbox. There is no time limit and no limits to the number of timelines or events that you can create and present.

If you are a regular user of Timeline 3D, there will be an option to purchase unlimited exports, in which case the app will never present an in-app purchase option to you again.

If you prefer an à la carte option, then exporting your timeline will require an in-app purchase. There will be a fee each time you print or export a PDF, PowerPoint slideshow, Keynote slideshow, HD Movie, or WebGL website. For example, if you use the timeline occasionally for a homework project, the software should be much less expensive for you than it is now.

The new pricing model is designed to allow people to use the core features of Timeline 3D without paying (there are no free trials in the App Store). It also allows schools to install a usable version of Timeline 3D on every iPad and Mac for free. It allows current customers to make the switch without paying to gain access to their existing timelines, and it enables you to send your timeline document to someone who does not yet own the software without requiring them to purchase.

Conclusion

I am excited about the future of Timeline 3D. The work I am doing now builds on over 10 years of experience with timeline software and thousands of support conversations. I am also a bit nervous, because I know that it may be a bumpy few months during the transition for some of you. I am committed to making the transition as fair and as painless as possible for existing customers.

If you have any questions, please contact me at support@beedocs.com. To stay informed of betas and launches, please subscribe to this blog and connect to our twitter account.

Keynote, PowerPoint, and Timeline 3D

2013-12-04T18:02:00.001-08:00

One of the most beloved features on Timeline 3D is our ability to create Keynote presentations from your timeline automatically. If you have not used the feature before, it renders 3D images or movie segments based on your timeline and places them in presentation slides creating the illusion of animating through history.

Of course, the Timeline 3D application can present your timeline as well, but the nice thing about using slideshow software is that you can integrate your timeline into your other content and also send the slideshow to computers that do not have Timeline 3D installed.

Unfortunately, Apple recently made changes to iWork that prevent this feature from working. We were caught off guard, because Apple did not pre-announce these changes before public release (unlike OS updates, which have developer betas). Many of you sent us e-mails to let us know that you are missing this feature.

Keynote Changes

This is not the first time that Keynote has changed the way that it interfaces with third-party apps. When Keynote was first announced in 2003, Steve Jobs highlighted the XML file format, which could be “hacked” by third-party developers. The first time we integrated Timeline 3D with Keynote, we used the Keynote file format to generate the presentations.

At some point, the iWork file format changed to a proprietary format, and it became necessary to use AppleScript to build Keynote presentation. In other words, instead of building a Keynote file directly, Timeline 3D instructed Keynote to build the presentation for us.

With the most recent release of Keynote (6.0), Apple has completely re-engineered Keynote with more modern technologies and with more iOS compatibility. Unfortunately, they removed most of their AppleScript support, which makes it much more difficult for third-party apps to create or manipulate slideshow content.

Apple has hinted that AppleScript support may be coming back in the future, but for now it is gone and so is our ability to control Keynote.

PPTX

Meanwhile, over the past decade, our friends at Microsoft have been opening up their MS Office file formats... For PowerPoint, the latest versions default to the PPTX file format, which is well documented XML format.

Fortunately for iWork users, Keynote can also open PPTX files!

So, for the past few weeks, we’ve been working on a way for Timeline 3D to export PPTX files. Besides replacing the lost Keynote feature, there are several advantages to this approach.

The PPTX file can be opened with Keynote, PowerPoint for Mac, or PowerPoint for Windows. This will make things easier for MS Office users.
Because we can generate the file directly, you do not need to own Keynote or PowerPoint to generate these presentations.
Even if you do own Keynote or PowerPoint, those applications to not need to launch in order to generate a slideshow.
And most importantly…

One more thing…

We are adding the ability to create slideshows to Timeline 3D for iOS!

The same technology we use to create PPTX files on the Mac can also work on your iPhone or iPad. That means that you can create a PowerPoint or Keynote presentation on your mobile device and then send that slideshow to a PC via Mail or Dropbox, or you can open it directly in Keynote on your iOS device.

At this time, Timeline 3D for iOS can create slideshows using still images but not movie segments (the Mac version can do both).

This will be a significant upgrade. Especially for our customers who use our software in a Microsoft Windows or MS Office environment.

The new slideshow features are available in Timeline 3D for Mac today. The new version of Timeline 3D for iOS has been submitted to the App Store and should be available in the next few weeks.

“More Hackable” Web Timelines

2013-09-25T10:21:00.001-07:00

When we launched our original web publishing service on the Mac, we received a lot of feedback from customers who wanted to tweek and customize the timelines in order to integrate them into their websites more fluidly.

I designed that publishing service to be a very simple, one-click, web publishing service with much of the complexity hidden on our servers.

This time around, our new web publishing feature (debuting on Timeline 3D for iOS 7) aims to maintain the same ease-of-use for the people that just want to share a timeline, but also aims to be more hackable for programmers and design pros.

Hosting your own files

Timeline 3D for iOS 7 enables you to export all of the web files required for your timeline to Dropbox, allowing you the opportunity to manage the hosting yourself. For example, you could publish the timeline on a secure server (like an intranet). It also gives you an opportunity to modify the files before publishing.

Customize Style Sheets

Web designers may want to change some of the colors and styles of their published timelines via CSS, and we are providing access to the individual web files to enable them to do so.

Most of our JavaScript code and CSS has transformed into a compact format optimized for fast downloads, which isn’t very readable by humans.

However, there are a handful of CSS settings that might be useful for tweaking. I have formatted these settings in a human-readable layout with plenty of comments and placed them near the top of the “index.html” file. These settings should be easy to find and modify for experienced web developers.

While the timelines themselves use pre-rendered graphics and cannot be modified via CSS, the color and behavior of the navigation controls can.

For example, you may want to adjust the HTML body background to match the color of the page the timeline will be embedded in so that any rounding errors around the edges of the pixels are not visible.

You may also want to change the color of the bee-line at the bottom of the timeline to match your logo or the media within your timeline events.

Finally, you may have licensed a custom font for your website, and you can change the CSS to use that font for the bee-line mouse overs.

Adding custom poster image

As an example of another “hackable” element, you may have a special situation where you want to display a poster image that is clicked to load the interactive timeline.

Perhaps the poster image contains instructions on how to use the keyboard to navigate the interactive timeline. Or, perhaps you want a highly optimized poster image to save some bandwidth on a site with millions of visitors.

Now that you have access to the files, you can add content like this before the timeline loads.

How to embed a timeline into your website

By default, if you navigate to the web timeline, it will adjust to fill the window of your web browser (or your screen if you are on a mobile device).

If you embed the timeline into your website using a standard iframe tag, it will automatically size to that iframe. For example, the timeline embedded in my announcement blog post uses code like this:

<iframe src="http://i.interactivetimeline.com/demo/index.html"
        width="500" height="365" frameborder="0" scrolling="no">
</iframe>
<p>
  <a href="http://i.interactivetimeline.com/demo/index.html">
    View Full Size
  </a>
</p>

Embed at any size

Our web publishing customers have told us that they want more flexibility to embed the timeline into their websites at any size. For example, I know this blog post will be 500px wide when styled for our website. If I include images, movies, and timelines, then I want them to be 500px wide.

I may want a long and skinny timeline to use as a header for my website or a portrait-sized timeline to use beside an article.

This is now possible with web timelines published with Timeline 3D for iOS.

As I discussed last week, our new web publishing feature has two modes. It uses WebGL in browsers that support it. When the timeline is shown in WebGL, it will always adapt exactly to the window or frame that surrounds it. The size and aspect ratio do not matter.

If the end user’s browser does not support WebGL, then we show them an interactive sequence of pre-rendered images instead. Since these are pre-rendered, they are not quite as flexible on the size.

We render out each image in about a dozen different aspect ratios if you publish with the default settings in Timeline 3D. Not only that, but each image is rendered in three different resolutions.

In real-time, the javascript code will dynamically select and download that appropriate image based on the aspect ratio and size of the browser window. Yes, this takes into account retina displays.

The result of this magic is that the timeline always looks great, fills the available space, and uses bandwidth appropriately.

If you are embedding the timeline in your website, be sure to test it on a non-WebGL browser and tweak the aspect ratio until the timeline fills the iframe completely.

If the aspect ratio your coded is not available as a pre-rendered size, then there will be a border around the entire image. When you hit a pre-rendered aspect ratio exactly (or within a few pixels), the border will go away and the image will display to the edges of the frame.

Pro Tip: A more efficient render

As you may expect, it takes some time, battery power, and bandwidth for your iOS device to render all these image variations and upload them.

If you are planning to present your timeline exclusively within an embedded iframe, and if you know the aspect ratio of that iframe in advance, then you can select that aspect ratio in Timeline 3D.

If you choose a specific aspect ratio, Timeline 3D will skip all of the files that are not needed for that situation.

Specifying an aspect ratio before publishing also has the benefit of using nice simple ratios for easily calculating the optimal embedding size. “Adaptive” uses actual pixel ratios of common mobile browser, which are not as mathematically pure.

As you can see, the options for publishing a timeline are now more advanced. You can tell by the length of this post!

Our hope is that designers, web programmers, and news media will find Timeline 3D to be a valuable and flexible tool for telling their stories. If you have any questions about web publishing, please send us an e-mail at support@beedocs.com.

Dynamic Type in Timeline 3D

2013-09-18T16:30:00.002-07:00

Personally, one of my favorite features in iOS 7 is one that many people seem to be overlooking. That is “Dynamic Type,” which gives you the opportunity to tell the operating system what size fonts you prefer, and then apps that support Dynamic Type can adjust accordingly.

When adapting Timeline 3D for iOS 7, this is one of the first features on which I focused.

Here is an animated image of our Timeline 3D’s event list, event detail page, and the Dynamic Type setting. You can see how each of them look with different size settings. Click the animation for the full size.

Obviously, the font sizes are changing. It may be less obvious that the layout is changing too. The image size, the margins, and the list spacing are all adjusting according to the font metrics.

For example, the app always tries to keep the event details within a single screen if it is practical to do so. As a result, the kangaroo image gets smaller as the text around it grows larger. There are design rules that govern the size of the image. So, it will only shrink to a minimum size, and then, if the event needs more room, the layout will introduce a vertical scroll.

Furthermore, the fonts are not all scaling in a linear proportion. Notice that the event dates in the list do not grow as fast as the event notes on the middle screen.

There is one more interesting note to point out from our support of Dynamic Text. The feature, in its stock configuration, provides variations of Helvetica Neue to apps. We wanted to use Brandon Text for our app, because it is more beautiful and readable than Helvetica Neue at small sizes. Therefore, I built a custom Dynamic Text system that forms a layer between the stock system and our app. This custom system translates your preferences into the font faces, weights, and sizes that our app's design language is built upon.

Next Generation Web Timelines

2013-09-16T11:33:00.000-07:00

I am excited to introduce a new way for sharing interactive timelines. This revolutionary new web publishing feature uses next-generation web and rendering technology in completely new ways and will debut with Timeline 3D for iOS 7.

View Full Size

Interactive 3D timelines on the web!

For years, I have been thinking about how to render 3D timelines in a web browser. Many of you have e-mailed and asked for this capability too. Until recently, however, I did not believe that it would be technically feasible.

Why don't you just use…

…Flash?

I received many suggestions along the lines of “Why don't you just use Flash to present 3D timelines?” There are several reasons. The most important reason is that Flash is not available on most mobile platforms, and it is falling out of favor on desktop platforms as well. Many people have Flash disabled in order to avoid annoying ads in their browser.

The second issue with Flash is technical. In a nutshell, Flash was not designed for this kind of work, and it would be very challenging to get it to work well for 3D timelines. It is more suited to 2D animations than 3D animations.

…HTML5 / CSS Animations?

Similarly, I received suggestions like “Why don't you just use HTML5?”

CSS Animations and CSS Transforms are great, but they are not designed for the advanced 3D animations that are happening in Timeline 3D. Yes, CSS transforms can display an image in perspective. But they cannot be used to implement technical features such as dynamic texture loading to the GPU, fragment shading for lighting, and other effects that make our animations look so good.

The new kid in town

Then a new technology emerged that looked promising. WebGL uses code similar to OpenGL. I am using OpenGL in Timeline 3D, so that is good. WebGL also enables advanced coordination with the GPU, which is also good. Promising!

However, WebGL also has challenges. It has only recently become adapted by desktop browsers and is not yet available on many mobile browsers. Most WebGL implementations that you can find at this point are technology demos that are cool but would not be practical in a real-world website. For example, I want web timelines that can be included in a major news media story with viewers using every platform and browser.

Then I realized…

WebGL would be the best way to show an interactive timeline in the web. But until it becomes ubiquitous, I would need a fallback — something that looks like the WebGL version but does not require WebGL.

So crazy, it just might work!

What if we pre-rendered every event as a 3D image, then stitched them together with HTML5 / CSS animations? We also could pre-render bitmap textures required by WebGL and present the WebGL animations for the browsers that supported it.

I dismissed this idea at first. Each website actually would need to be two websites, the WebGL and the pre-rendered one. Sounds complex!

Ideally, pre-rendering the images would need to be done at multiple sizes if we wanted the timeline to resize within it's frame. Rendering 3D images is a lot of processing work, especially for a mobile device. Would an iPhone or iPad even be capable of rendering and uploading hundreds of images?

So I had an idea, but it required something that has never been done with WebGL, along with intensive offline 3D rendering on a mobile device, which is rarely attempted. And, why not try to build it in time for the new version of Timeline 3D for iOS 7? What could possibly go wrong?!

Cutting edge technology, in your hands

Well, fortunately, not much has gone wrong. The project has come together quite well. We are shipping a first peak at the feature in our iOS 7 update for Timeline 3D.

You can now publish interactive web timelines from your iPhone or iPad!

Those timelines can be viewed on any web browser. On a WebGL browser, the timelines will be fully animated and interactive in 3D. WebGL-capable browsers include Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and Internet Exporer 11. WebGL is an opt-in feature of desktop Safari.

On other browsers, such as mobile Safari, the timelines are also 3D and interactive, though they will use cross-fading images instead of actual 3D motion graphics.

Either way, the timelines can be navigated with a mouse, keyboard shortcuts, or touch gestures.

Just the beginning

Please note that this is very new technology that we are continuing to improve. In fact, we have chosen not to advertise the feature in our App Store marketing until it is a bit more mature. Think of it as a stealth feature known only by our closest friends.

At this point, web publishing can take your iPhone or iPad quite a while to render the many images required. Processing will pause if you switch to another app, since the rendering requires the full resources of the CPU and GPU.

Your feedback will be valuable and will help us improve the feature. You can start by viewing the timeline above in your favorite web browser and letting us know how it goes. You can always reach us at support@beedocs.com with questions and comments.

Over the next few weeks, I will go into more detail on how the web publishing works and how you will be able to integrate it with your existing websites.

Sharing Files with Timeline 3D

2013-09-09T16:47:00.000-07:00

How many computing devices do you use each day?

Matt and I are working to make it easier to move your timelines and timeline related data between devices. I would like to highlight some of the data sharing improvements to Timeline 3D for iOS that we will launch this fall. These features will be free upgrades for those who have purchased Timeline 3D on the iOS App Store.

Sharing or Moving Timelines – Current Situation

Timeline 3D for iOS can currently share timeline documents using e-mail or iTunes File Sharing. It can convert files saved with our current Mac software and vice versa. E-mail works well for sharing timelines without many images or movies. iTunes File Sharing works well for larger files.

Unfortunately, e-mail attachments often do not work when the file size is large, which is often the case with multimedia timelines. iTunes File Sharing is unfamiliar for most customers, requires connecting your device to your Mac, and requires too many steps when transferring from one iOS device to another.

Things will get better soon…

In the version of Timeline 3D we are preparing for iOS 7, we are adding two new methods of sharing timelines between devices: 1) Dropbox. Easily share large timeline documents between your devices, your computers, or with your team. 2) AirDrop. Wirelessly transfer your timeline documents with devices nearby.

Dropbox

You will soon be able to share your timeline documents in Dropbox and also import from Dropbox.

To export, we are using the standard share panel in iOS 7 to send your timeline to the Dropbox App, and it will be uploaded from there. You also can export a PDF version of our timeline this way.

When importing, Timeline 3D runs a search on your Dropbox and highlights your folders to make timeline files easier to find. Timeline 3D can import bdt3 files from our Mac products, bdt4 files from iOS, as well as zipped versions of both types.

Since Dropbox folders can be shared easily, this method would be a good way to “turn in” a timeline document for school or to share it with BEEDOCS customer support.

AirDrop

We also are adding support for AirDrop, which is a new feature in iOS 7. AirDrop makes it easy to share a timeline document or PDF between devices on your network. For now, Apple has limited this feature to iOS-to-iOS transfers and only newer devices, but we look forward to seeing this technology grow, because it is very cool.

Photos and Movies

Previously, you could add multimedia to your timeline that was stored in the “Photos” app on your device. Soon, you will be able to import photos and movies from Dropbox as well. It will be great to plan a story on your Mac or PC, gather your media into a Dropbox folder, then build the timeline on your iPad or iPhone.

…and PDFs!

You also will be able to add PDFs to your events via Dropbox. As with any media, you can zoom the PDF to full screen during a 3D presentation. We are currently only showing the first page of the PDF, but we would like to add multi-page support in the future. Please let us know if that feature is important to you.

Web Site Export

We will talk more about our brand new Web Publishing features next week. However, I wanted to let you know that you will have the option of exporting the files in order to use your own server for hosting. In that case, we will save your web files to Dropbox, and you (or your IT department) can take it from there.

All of these features are intended to make it easier for you to create, edit, and share your timelines on multiple devices wherever you are.

Syncing Timeline Files

2013-09-04T09:49:00.000-07:00

We announced earlier that the new Timeline 3D release for iOS 7 will make it easier to share timeline files and media between computers. We are really excited to roll out these new features, because they address specific requests from many of our customers. We will discuss our file sharing solutions in more depth next week, but this week we want to focus on something we are not doing in the upcoming release.

Sync and the future

We get many requests for auto-sync between iOS devices, as well as syncing with the Mac, using iCloud, for example. Changes to a timeline on one computer would automatically show up on another computer. We would love for this to work as well. There currently are a few challenges, unfortunately, that have prevented us from implementing this feature so far.

The first challenge is our own. Timeline 3D for Mac uses a document format that predates iOS, iCloud and other modern technologies. We cannot sync between the Mac and iOS unless the document formats are the same. Thus, it will take a major new release of Timeline 3D for Mac that includes new document technologies (and drops support for older versions of Mac OS X) before we can do an automatic sync. We have that release in development, but it isn’t far enough along to predict a release date.

The second challenge is that I have been unable to get iCloud syncing to work consistently and reliably with Timeline 3D for iOS. It is a more complex issue for us than many other apps because of the large files involved (movies, high-res images, etc...). I have spent months of effort on this functionality. My best prototypes have worked some of the time but also corrupt documents sometimes too. We will not add a feature that makes data storage less stable, even if it is a high-demand feature.

We will continue to investigate syncing technologies as they improve. We are interested in seeing how Dropbox, Apple, OmniGroup and others are building solutions. We will investigate the possibility of building our own solution. However, for the immediate future, automatic syncing is unlikely.

The good news is that our new features make it much easier than before to collaborate and use multiple devices. We’ve been using it ourselves for a few weeks, and we are always bummed out when we need to use the currently shipping version for some reason. I hope that is a good sign that you will like the new features too! Stay tuned for more details on those features next week.

Better Depth in Timeline 3D

2013-08-27T08:00:00.000-07:00

We are announcing some exciting new features in the upcoming version of Timeline 3D for iOS 7.

We also improved the features that you are using already.

Most importantly, we improved the way that your timelines look and the feeling of depth in a 3D presentation. These improvements will make your timeline more beautiful and easy to read, both on your device screen as well as when connected to an external display.

“Depth” is a key concept that Apple has been pushing for iOS 7. There are two main features I've added which will increase the feeling of depth for your timeline presentations.

Lighting — The Mac version of Timeline 3D implemented lighting and shading several years ago, but the iOS version has used constant shading to date. In the new version of Timeline 3D for iOS, I've designed a new lighting effect that is a huge improvement over the previous iOS software and is even better looking than the Mac software (we plan to bring these improvement back to the Mac in a future release).
The new lightning effect gives greater emphasis to the highlighted event and enhances the feeling of depth in the overall timeline by brightening that event and shading the background.
In the Mac version, we accomplish a similar effect by multiplying a vignette effect over the timeline. This causes the image to darken around the edges. We vary that effect as the timeline is rotating, so it tricks your eye into believing that the shading is caused by lights. This method is a very fast way to simulate lighting.
However, the layering approach has some technical downsides. First, the selected event can not fill a large percentage of the screen without also being affected by the vignette. Also, the vignette does not work as well at portrait aspect ratios or long and skinny aspect ratios (it is optimized for Mac screen sizes). Finally, the vignette can not work along the sharp edge of an event, so we lose an opportunity to make the selected event “pop” off the background.
For the new iOS 7 release, I calculated the trigonometry to do the actual lighting that we desire. We want the selected event to be 100% lit, the background to fade to a pre-determined amount when it reaches the right edge of the screen and we also want it to work for all render aspect ratios and all chart aspect ratios.
The trigonometry works, but some devices (like the iPad 3 retina) can not calculate it at 60 frames per second. The iPad can do the calculation at 30 frames per second, but after much soul searching, I had to admit that a consistent 60 frames per second animation is more important than the shading effect.
I was about to give up on the lighting improvements when I learned about a value in OpenGL that is adequate for this calculation and is generated by OpenGL's normal pipeline. I simplified my formulas using this value and now we have a beautiful depth lighting effect that can run at 60 fps, even on the most GPU challenged devices.
Parallax — Have you see the parallax motion effect in Apple's iOS 7 intro video? Pretty cool, huh? It makes the buttons on your home screen stand off the wallpaper. Well, we've leveraged that technology to make your timelines look more 3D too. As your iPhone or iPad moves in your hand, the 3D timeline also shifts subtly to reinforce the feeling of depth.

Since releasing the original version of Timeline 3D for Mac five years ago, I have made dozens of subtle changes to the way 3D timelines are displayed. Nearly every update has contained updates to the 3D display. These were improvements to positioning, movement, lighting, shadows, coloring, lighting, and performance.

Each one of these changes may have been hard to detect on it's own. In fact, I have tried to tune each of them down to be just at the edge of perception. Did you notice any? When the changes are considered as a whole, however, the improvements are obvious.

Consider the comparison image below. The top version is Timeline 3D v2 for Mac OS X, the version that was recognized at the Apple Design Awards in 2008. The bottom version was generated on an iPhone with the upcoming version of Timeline 3D for iOS. Click on the image to view it at full size.

iOS 7 – Less Volkswagen, more Vanity Fair

2013-08-19T12:05:00.001-07:00

In a few weeks Apple will be launching iOS 7. We will be releasing a brand new version of Timeline 3D, redesigned specifically for iOS 7. I wanted to share some thoughts on what the new design direction from Apple means to me.

There has been a lot of talk about new icons, thin fonts, and inspiration from other platforms. To me, these discussions are interesting in the way that Beyonce’s new haircut is interesting, but they are not the main point.

Do you remember the web in the early 90’s? Text content was king, hyperlinks were blue with underlines, and images were reserved only to those that were important to the content.

To me, Apple is encouraging us to look back to those design values. Going back even further, think of books that only use one well-chosen font, in black, on one well-chosen paper, in white, laid out with well-chosen spacing. The goal is that you will get lost in the story and forget that everything you see was carefully designed.

iOS 7 feels retro to me, and I like it. It has been fun to reexamine Timeline 3D over the past few months with this throw-back lens.

In iOS 7, I am less likely to be inspired by the dashboard of a Volkswagen, or the EQ sliders on my boombox.

I am more likely to be inspired by the layout of a Vanity Fair magazine or a small-press edition of a classic novel.

iOS 7 emphasizes:

Font choices
Positional Layout
Color-coded meaning
Movement
App Functionality
Just-in-time adaptable layouts
Coherence across the system

iOS 7 deemphasis:

Real-world metaphors
Material simulation
Color for decoration
Designing for screenshots
Fixed layouts
Individualistic Style

That isn’t to say that all these things were not important before, and that all these things won’t have a roll to play going forward. But, iOS 7 makes a clear call for a change in emphasis.

Here are some iPhone examples of how I have redesigned Timeline 3D using these concepts as a guide. My opinion is that the new design is more useful, more efficient, and more beautiful. I hope that you will love it too!

Introducing Matt Nuffort, CEO

2013-08-12T15:41:00.001-07:00

I am very pleased to introduce Matt Nuffort. Matt will be joining BEEDOCS as my business partner and will take the role of CEO.

Matt has a huge variety of experience starting with engineering degrees at Princeton and MIT. He's had successes at a 2-person startup, an avionics company for private aircraft, the U.S. military, and most recently as a Senior Product Manager at Amazon, working in the areas of print on demand and independent publishing.

Matt also has some extreme hobbies, cycling from coast-to-coast across the US, flying, and Ironman triathlon. His favorite pastime, however, is sailing with his wife (also accomplished in business and sport) in search of sunsets, blue water, and interesting clouds.

At BEEDOCS, Matt will take leadership of business and customer relations, while Adam will provide leadership in product design and development. We have ambitions to build beautiful products and a beautiful business that will change people's lives for the better.

We've hit the ground running, and you can expect announcements from us very soon. You can follow us on our e-mail mailing list, Twitter, Facebook, or this blog. So grab a font row seat and hold on!

Contest: Tell us your true story of innovation

2012-12-13T11:17:00.000-08:00

For many, December is a season of storytelling and inspiration. Along with our partners at the Out of School podcast, we want to join in the excitement. Plus, we have gifts!

Now through December 27, we want to hear your true story of innovation, telling how timelines were used in a classroom to engage students. Your story can involve timelines created with a BEEDOCS product, another product, or even paper and pen!

Email your story to us at story@beedocs.com for a chance to win a prize package including:

A $25 App Store Gift Card

Timeline 3D for Mac ($65 value)

Timeline 3D for iOS ($15 value)

Educators, students, and others with stories of student engagement to share are encouraged to send them to us before midnight PST on December 27. The winning story will be read on the Out of School podcast and posted on the BEEDOCS blog.

The reviews are in!

2012-12-03T10:55:00.001-08:00

I spent about 2 years of full-time development work bringing Timeline 3D for iOS. As a developer, it is so exciting and nerve-wracking to arrive at the point that I can share the app with customers and wait for the first reviews to roll in.

Well, the first reviews are in and they have been very enthusiastic. If you haven’t yet purchased Timeline 3D for iOS, I hope that you will do so and will consider leaving your own review on the App Store.

Thanks everyone!

5 / 5 stars – Average App Store Rating

“It is like magic and makes me look brilliant” – David Sparks, MacSparky

“I was able to assemble a timeline for a colleague in a matter of minutes which put his professionally-produced timeline to shame.” – USA App Store Review

“This app has helped me clarify and communicate crucial evidence. It’s a God send for me.” – USA App Store Review

“A must have for trainers, teachers, speakers and lectures” – USA App Store Review

« C’est très propre, esthétique et élégant » – France App Store Review

“The iOS version takes the process of creating and presenting timelines to a new level” – UK App Store Review

„Das ist ja eine klasse Umsetzung.” – Germany App Store Review

“Timeline 3D on iOS that makes it even easier to create and present timelines” – UK App Store Review

“The time taken to bring this app to users is in evidence here; the ‘polish’ and precision show.” – USA App Store Review

“Today’s Best Apps” selection – AppAdvice