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ENGL 1102 (Weaver) - English Composition II (Digital Projects): TimelineJS

Creating a Timeline with TimelineJS

TimelineJS is an open-source tool that allows for the creation of interactive, media-rich timelines using a Google spreadsheet. Timelines allow you to use media, text, and dates to tell a story.

Tips for Choosing and Creating a Timeline

  • Keep it relatively short. The recommended max is 20 slides.
  • Choose this medium if you want to tell a story that has a chronological narrative.
  • Write each piece as a part of a larger narrative.
  • Include the major events as well as the minor events that lead up to them.

Finding Media to Use

Specially Licensed

  • Some media is made available for others to use through special licenses. A popular license that does it the Creative Commons Attribution license, meaning it can be used freely as long as the creator is given proper attribution.
    • Search for works (images, music, & more) to use - CC Search  
    • Google Images (can be filtered by Usage Rights under Tools)
    • YouTube (search results can be filtered by CC license)
    • Learn more about Creative Commons licenses - CC Licenses

Public Domain

  • Works that are not copyrighted are considered to be in the public domain. Some reasons they might be in the public domain are 1) they are very old, 2) their copyright has expired, 3) they were created by the federal government.