[Tex/LaTex] Moderncv with moderntimeline – how to typeset positions that only lasted for one year

moderncvmoderntimeline

I'm using the package moderntimeline which originated here on TeX.sx to typeset my CV. It looks great!

However, I have a bunch of positions (mostly for volunteering positions within our student union) which only lasted for one year. If I typeset them in the same way as other stuff (ranging over several years), I get a really thin line (something on the order of 1 px) in the timeline, and the year is displayed twice.

Here's an MWE to explain what I mean. Compile with e.g. pdfLaTeX or XeLaTeX

\documentclass{moderncv}

\usepackage{moderntimeline}
\moderncvtheme{classic}
\tlmaxdates{2007}{2012}

\firstname{Lorem}
\familyname{Ipsum}

\begin{document}
\tlcventry{2010}{0}{I'm still doing this!}{}{}{}{}
\tlcventry{2009}{2010}{Then I did something else.}{}{}{}{}
\tlcventry{2009}{2009}{I did something cool for just one year.}{}{}{}{}
\tlcventry{2007}{2009}{A regular entry}{}{}{}{}
\end{document}

Is there any way to make this more beautiful? I would prefer if, for example, only the start year was shown, and the blue line was half as wide as one that represents two years.

Best Answer

You could either use the \tldatecventry, which will draw a circle instead of a bar:

\tldatecventry{2009}{I did something cool for just one year.}{}{}{}{}

Or you could patch moderntimeline.sty by

  • replacing the three occurrences of \ifnum #3=0 with \pgfmathsetlength{\pgf@xa}{#3} \ifdim\pgf@xa=0pt
  • and correcting the spacing by adding a missing % in line 171
  • and adding \useasboundingbox (0,-1.5ex) rectangle (\hintscolumnwidth,1ex); after line 156

which will allow you to use fractions of years for your bars. Then you can \tllabelcventry, which takes a starting time, an ending time, and a label text:

\tllabelcventry{2009}{2009.5}{2009}{I did something cool for just one year.}{}{}{}{}

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