1. How best to view your digital products

1.1 Software:

There are two apps that can be used:
1. MS Excel
2. LibreOffice (a free Office alternative to MS Office)

The World History Timeline and Family Trees have been created using MS Excel.
For the best user experience the they should be viewed and edited using Excel or LibreOffice installed on your device.
Due to the size of the timeline and the large number of entries, the viewing experience using the free online version of Microsoft Excel will be limited.

1.2 Devices:
For the best experience, the timeline and family trees should be viewed on a laptop or desktop screen.
They can also be opened on Apple and Android tablets and phones.
However, please be aware, that on a small screen, such as a phone, the viewing experience will be limited.


2. Downloading files from the Internet
When opening an Excel spreadsheet that you have downloaded from the Internet, the following warning is displayed:

"! PROTECTED VIEW Be careful-files from the internet can contain viruses. Unless you need to edit, it's safer to stay in Protected View."

Next to the message is a button titled "Enable Editing".
By clicking this button, you will have full access to the file so you can make changes to it. If you do not enable editing, you will only be able to view the contents.


3. Note on the Macro
The World History Timeline (WHT) and Family Trees are presented using a Microsoft Excel Macro-Enabled Worksheet file.
By default, when an Excel file containing macros is opened, the following warning is displayed:

"! SECURITY WARNING Macros have been disabled."

Next to the message is a button titled "Enable Content".
By clicking this button, the macro will be enabled. The purpose of this macro is explained below.


4. Issue with Comments in Excel files
The WHT contains over 3,000 comments in addition to the more than 15,000 timeline entries.

Some of our other Timelines and Family trees also contain additional comments.

There is a known issue with Microsoft Excel where comments are not always displayed correctly. They are often collapsed into a thin horizontal line rather than a correctly-sized yellow text box. Comments may also display a lot of blank space below the text.

Some of our timelines and family trees, including the WHT, contain a macro to fix this 'on the fly'. This macro is 100% safe to use, its sole purpose being to easily and quickly adjust comments that are not displayed correctly. To be able to use the macro, the "Enable Content" button must be clicked.

If you prefer to not enable macros, mis-displayed comments can still be fixed, but this must be done manually. This will have no effect on any other functionality of the World History Timeline.


5. Extra File for the WHT - New Entry Template
The WHT is completely editable. To assist in adding a large number of new entries, we have developed the 'New Entry Template'. This is available as a free download. Full instructions are included in the file.