[Tex/LaTex] timeline and tikz

Question

Hello great TeX people 🙂

I am trying to create a timeline looking like

but with months down the side and with lines connected to dates.

I have been trying to modify the chronology package, but the "year" indication was way to deeply incooporated.

I have been trying with TikZ but unfortunately I really have not been able to produce anything close to the desired output.

How would you attack such a problem? how would you structure your code if trying to solve the same problem?

Answer 1

Here's my solution. First you specify entries via \timeentry{time}{description}, afterwards you draw the timeline via \drawtimeline. It automatically scales to the height of your time entries. Between the lines of ===== there are a few parameters you can use to influence the apparance (spacing etc.). You could also alter the commands to use colors, thin/thick lines and other stuff:

\documentclass[parskip]{scrartcl}
\usepackage[margin=15mm]{geometry}
\usepackage{tikz}
\usetikzlibrary{calc,arrows}

\newdimen\XCoord
\newdimen\YCoord

\newcommand*{\ExtractCoordinate}[1]{\path (#1); \pgfgetlastxy{\XCoord}{\YCoord};}%

\begin{document}

% ============================= modify these for altered appearence
\pgfmathsetmacro{\mintime}{0}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\maxtime}{15}
\newcommand{\timeunit}{Months}
\pgfmathtruncatemacro{\timeintervals}{15}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\scaleitemseparation}{4}
\pgfmathsetmacro{\timenodewidth}{2cm}
\newcounter{itemnumber}
\setcounter{itemnumber}{0}
\newcommand{\lastnode}{n-0}
% ============================= 

\newcommand{\timeentry}[2]{% time, description
\stepcounter{itemnumber}
\node[below right,minimum width=\timenodewidth, text width=\timenodewidth-1mm] (n-\theitemnumber) at (\lastnode.south west) {#1};
\node[right] at (n-\theitemnumber.east) {#2};

\edef\lastnode{n-\theitemnumber}

\expandafter\edef\csname nodetime\theitemnumber \endcsname{#1}
}

\newcommand{\drawtimeline}{%
    \draw[very thick,-latex] (0,0) -- ($(\lastnode.south west)-(\scaleitemseparation,0)+(0,-1)$);
    \ExtractCoordinate{n-\theitemnumber.south}
    \pgfmathsetmacro{\yposition}{\YCoord/28.452755}
    \foreach \x in {1,...,\theitemnumber}
    {   \pgfmathsetmacro{\timeposition}{\yposition/(\maxtime-\mintime)*\csname nodetime\x \endcsname}
        %\node[right] at (0,\timeposition) {\yposition};
        \draw (0,\timeposition) -- (0.5,\timeposition) -- ($(n-\x.west)-(0.5,0)$) -- (n-\x.west);
    }
    \foreach \x in {0,...,\timeintervals}
    {   \pgfmathsetmacro{\labelposition}{\yposition/(\maxtime-\mintime)*\x}
        \node[left] (label-\x) at (-0.2,\labelposition) {\x\ \timeunit};
        \draw (label-\x.east) -- ++ (0.2,0);
    }   
}

\begin{tikzpicture}
\node[inner sep=0] (n-0) at (\scaleitemseparation,0) {};
\timeentry{1}{The first entry.}
\timeentry{1.2}{The second entry.}
\timeentry{1.23456}{The third entry.}
\timeentry{3}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{5}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{5.1}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{5.2}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{5.3}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{5.4}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{5.5}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{5.6}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{6}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{7}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{8}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{9}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{10}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{11}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{11.1}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{11.2}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{11.3}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{11.5}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{11.7}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{11.9}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{13}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\timeentry{15}{Entry number \theitemnumber}
\drawtimeline
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}