Help Reference

The Features Tab: Interactive Timeline

The Interactive Timeline helps filter content on the e-WV Web site according to dates and time periods that have been associated to the content. Using the timeline filter bar on the “Interactive Timeline” page, users can drag the sliders to adjust the year or time period for which they wish to see results. The results contain the date, the significance of the date, and then the related article(s) the information came from. Some results give the users the option to map geographical data so that it displays on the Interactive Timeline map.

Using Interactive Timeline

Once on the e-WV Web site, navigate to the Features tab; Interactive Timeline will be displayed as an option under the “Interactive Maps & Timelines” heading. Upon clicking this link, the user will be directed to the “Interactive Timeline” page. At the top of the “Interactive Timeline” page there is a Google Map image of West Virginia. Directly underneath the map, under the “Showing Date to Date ” heading (the Date parts of the heading are subject to where the sliders on the timeline bar are located), there will be a horizontal timeline bar with two square knobs at either end; these knobs are called sliders and can be dragged across the horizontal bar by the user. Below the timeline bar the user will see a list of dates with descriptive text. This list is the results of filtering done by moving the sliders on the timeline bar. To change the list of results, slide the knobs left or right; the content listed underneath the timeline bar will be updated according to the dates you have chosen with the sliders.

On the right side of the “Interactive Timeline” page beside the list of results, is the “Other Filtering Options” heading. The filtering options listed under this heading will search the results shown for a specific year or time period (according to the sliders on the timeline bar) to give the user more specific results within defined categories or keywords.

When the user has filtered the results to their liking, they will notice that each result contains the options to view Related Articles and to Map This Article. The Related Articles option will display a popup which lists all the articles that are related to the result. The Map This Article link will populate the map located above the timeline bar with geographical data defined for the article(s) related to the result. The balloon items that appear on the map, after the user has chosen to map the article, can be clicked to display a popup describing the geographical item.