Aeon Timeline 3 Reviews

I bought this at version 3.1.6, and found it useful for managing smaller projects. I bought a new MAC and noticed that I am being charged again, with no restore purchase button anywhere, just a new subscription model and read-only mode. When software companies do this they prioritize profit over value which means the consumer always loses, now I am left with a bunch of useless Aeon formatted project files because I cant edit them on my new MAC without paying once again for the ability to do so, feels like ransomware. Apple needs to stop letting these scammers in AeonTimeline3 Store.

I tried to demo AeonTimeline3 before buying. I downloaded it one day ago. Today, I went to try it out and it says my free trial is over and I have to buy it to use it! Won’t be using this program!

I tried using this to keep track of my timeline for a book I’m writing no matter how many times I tired it keep trying to use real world times as well as auto correcting dates I put in breaking a timeline every time I did it by putting in current dates messing everything up.

Looking for timeline software online, there were two prerequisites: 1) I need to be able to export the timeline to the web at some point. 2) I want to buy the blasted app, not rent a version of it.

Bought v2 in time to qualify for the free upgrade to v3. Except now in v3 there's no export to web ... AND guess what else? We're now on a subscription model.

Other than these gripes, I'll add one more: it's incredibly complicated, which = steep learning curve. However, this is only a gripe b/c it means you get a really amazing feature set and lots of bells and whistles and it'll do a LOT of stuff (once you learn how). So yay for you if you don't mind the above complaints.

I’ve been impressed with the number of features AeonTimeline3 (and also the PC version) have to offer. However I have a rather large dataset of approximately 25K+ elements (mostly events) and this tool very noticeably struggles with that amount of data. One serious annoyance is that when creating a new event, it seems to want to save every field after I enter it. Why wouldn’t AeonTimeline3 just save everything at once when the event is completely filled out an all the data has been entered? From a programming standpoint this makes absolutely zero sense. My takeaway so far is that this could be an absolutely incredible app if the developers would take the time to optimize it to operate at larger scales.

I've tried this twice now and I'd hoped in the interim between uses it would've synced up more with its own functionality. No such luck. The subway view is great, and is the biggest organizational selling point for me. Unfortunately, unlike the timeline, the subway map isn't auto-generated based on entries to the narrative. You have to create your subway map independently of the other tabs. So, there's a lot of repetition, and then what, updates to the narratives require updates to the subway map? There might actually be a way to sync it all up, but my general point of view on productivity apps is, if you have to spend hours figuring a feature out, you're not being all that productive. Figma is intuitive, and arguably a more complex app. So are a lot of apps, actually. I don't mind a learning curve, but I've learned new programming languages easier than this. If you want to improve AeonTimeline3 let people enter their content... full stop. AeonTimeline3 should be what organizes it visually. I'll be asking for my money back.

I love Aeon. Love love love it. And it's only gotten better with time.

So why only three stars?

Well… I recently discovered Setapp, which is a bundled app service. Very handy, for some (like me). And Setapp offers Aeon (and Ulysses—a match made in heaven)! Cool, I thought… Instead of juggling several app subscriptions, I'll just get them for one monthly price.

So I switched to Setapp for the desktop Aeon app… Only to be told that their iPhone app isn't available thru the Setapp service. Now, I've managed other desktop–iPhone apps via Setapp (Ulysses, for example), so it's definitely possible. But for some reason, Aeon isn't interested in fully serving their Setapp subscribers.

This is a five-star app with two-star shady stuff going on with Setapp. When Aeon gets their Setapp house in order, I'll be happy to give them back the stars they've lost because of this silliness.

One of the biggest issues I'm having with creating timelines is not being able to use BP. Some dates are just known with the BP or YA scale and having to transfer it mentally to BCE is too much when there's a lot to keep track of.

AeonTimeline3 is great for creating and understanding of complex timelines. I use it for wrangling fiction writing info and also visualizing IT incidents and their resolution.

I'm dinging it a star because the licensing is glitchy resulting in me being unable to use AeonTimeline3 for a couple of days, claiming I needed to buy another perpetual license. However after a contacted support I found AeonTimeline3 had magically started working properly again.

It works great with its mac version

Took me one day to know that this was AeonTimeline3 for me. Has everything I need to keep my notes straight and let’s me manage my thoughts across my mobile devices and my laptop. Absolutely brilliant

I’ve used timeline since version 1 and version 3 is a game changer. Incredible tool for novels, world building, and tracking plots, arcs, characters, etc.. The flexibility is unmatched and very well thought through. The UI is fantastic, intuitive, and elegant. Very i press I’ve tool!

AeonTimeline3 is so essential to anyone who needs to put together a comprehensie timeline of events and facts. AeonTimeline3 can be tailored to suit different scenarios suited to your professional industry or personal needs. I, for example, am litigating my own case and this allows me to see all the Motions and Orders and those Events by the other party. It also allows you to attach documents to those events in the timeline which is essential. This makes it easy to see the event and have all the relevant docuemtns to that particular event without having to go back to your files to search for them. It also allows you to link People and Parties to those events specifically. Lastly, you can create a Narrative which allows you to group all those events and place them into each Narrative Folder allwoing you to address the individual narrative irrespective of the timeline. This means that if you are focusing to prove one element, you can have all the factors for that element in one Narrative Folder and so on. I LOVE YOU. Thank you for making this affordable for people like me, a single father who is fighting for his child.

I've been looking for a solid timeline app for years and this one blows away all of my expectations. This isn't just a timeline app—it's a relational database. AeonTimeline3 deserves one heck of a review from someone far more articulate than I am. Download AeonTimeline3 and don't hesitate to pay the annual subscription. It's more than worth it. I hope the developers are rich.

I had spent some time searching around for timeline software that I could purchase outright (not month to month) that would be able to host all of my notes for the fantasy I'm working on.
I definitely did not expect to find something so wonderful on the apple store!
It's fantastic that it syncs with my story's scrivenrer file, so now I can operate out of these two programs entirely! Goodbye OneNote and Google Docs!

I’ve owned Aeon Timeline for quite a while but I confess I never made much use of the earlier versions. They were too confusing to me and I was not able/willing to commit the energy to figuring out how to make it work for me. Now it seems completely transparent and it has made a huge difference in planning my current novel. The ability to see the same data in different views is very valuable. What isn’t visible in the spreadsheet view jumps out in the narrative view. Glad to have this!

I am really happy with this purchase. It’s just what I needed for world building and story writing. This program is feature rich and customizable, and I use it on my phone, tablet, and desktop. I am also pleased with the one-time fee model with an option to subscribe for updates at a discount after the first year. Syncing works well with Dropbox, which I prefer since I don’t have a Mac. I had no trouble with the free trial, but I started on my computer with the desktop version.

In the writing group, I am in; everybody seems to be talking about Aeon Timeline. So I did a little research checking reviews, especially one by an anthropologist, and concluded this was for me. I used it for an hour and am in love with it. Does it have a steep learning curve-a little? If you spent a short amount of time with it and went through its tutorial, you would be good to go.
They are subscription-based. In this case, it is not a pejorative term. Pay once, and it is yours forever. If you want to upgrade after a year, it's your choice. What more can you ask.

After some deliberation, I finally went ahead and bought AeonTimeline3. It's extremly well suited to my particular use case in writing a multi-POV, nonlinear story. There are a few quirks about the program, but the pros outweigh the cons and I'm using it in favor of a multitude of other timeline apps.

Things I love:
- It's lightweight. The program is small and isn't resource intensive
- It's more focused than similar apps, like Excel, Notion, and a number of others I've tried
- Allows me to backup my work in a compact filetype
- Extremely customizable and organizable
- A lot of reviews mention not liking the licencing model, but I prefer it to an app that wants to charge me month. If they improve AeonTimeline3 in the future, I'll pay for an update. If not, I won't. Simple
- Univeral access on all my devices. At this point in time, apps that don't have full functionality across MacOS and iOS are a no go for me. The iPad app of Aeon has full functionality, and the iOS app has 95% functionality with the desktop app

I feel like AeonTimeline3 could be bigger than it is and the fact that it's not is perplexing. I'm getting closer to importing my series outline into a single document. It's a pretty big outline, so it has taken me a while. I've probaby put about 20 hours into this software so far and haven't run into any major errors, no lost data, and the workflow makes sense.

This is a great app for writers! Give it a try.