How can I label points in a timeline?

Question

Building on the nice answer to this question, I would like to modify the boxes right to the timeline to show a label (instead of the year) that I would like to specify right after the text of each entry, maybe in another {...}. Is this possible? I've seen the chains manual, but this one seems to require quite a bit more knowledge.

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{chains}
\makeatletter
\tikzset{west below/.code=\tikz@lib@place@handle@{#1}{north west}{0}{-1}{south west}{1}}
\makeatother
\tikzset{
  typnode/.style={anchor=north west, text width=12cm, inner sep=0mm},
  data/.style={draw=gray, rectangle, font=\scriptsize, inner sep=0.5mm},
}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x=1cm, y=-7mm]{
%draw horizontal line
\foreach \xValue in {0,5}
  \path (\xValue,0) edge[-latex] ++(0,6.5)
                    edge[dashed] ++ (down:1);
%%draw years
\foreach \year in {1995,2000}{ 
  \node[left=2pt,anchor=east,xshift=0,font=\scriptsize] at (0,\year - 1995) {$\year$}; 
}
\foreach \year in {1995,1996,...,2000}{ 
  \draw (-0.1,\year-1995) -- (0.1,\year-1995); \draw (0,\year-1995+.5) -- (0.1,\year-1995+.5);
}
\begin{scope}[start chain=ch1 going west below, node distance=+1em]
\foreach \Year/\Text in {%
    1995/{King James VI of Scotland ascends to the English throne, becoming James I of England and uniting the crowns - but not the parliaments - of the two kingdoms},
    1995.01/{King James VI of Scotland ascends to the English throne, becoming James I of England and uniting the crowns - but not the parliaments - of the two kingdoms}
    }{
  \node[typnode, at=(right:3cm), on chain=ch1, alias=Text] {\Text};
  \node[data,    base left=+2em of Text, alias=Year] {\Year};
  \draw     (Year.west) -- ++(left:3mm)
                        -- ([shift=(right:3mm)] 0,{(\Year-1995)/10})
                        --                     (0,{(\Year-1995)/10});
}
\end{scope}
}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

There is also a second vertical line crossing the text that I haven't figured out to remove and when I try to include it in a documentclass[article], I get 1.5 empty pages upfront for a reason I don't understand, but these are secondary questions.

The second vertical line comes from the second iteration of the first loop. The linked Q/A used the value 34, I don't know why OP had that in his original code. Just remove the 5 and/or replace the loop and substitute 0 for \xValue. The 1.5 empty pages I can't reproduce. You can just do \node[ base right=of Year] {\Label};. You just need to include the \Label like \Year and \Text in the \foreach loop. — Qrrbrbirlbel, Jun 12 '23 at 16:51
That solves it, the empty pages problem is specific to my document and vanishes if put the timeline in a figure environment. Thanks! — bolzep, Jun 15 '23 at 13:39

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 14 '23 at 11:08

The second vertical line comes from the second iteration of the first loop. The linked Q/A used the value 34, I don't know why OP had that in his original code. Just remove the 5 and/or replace the loop and substitute 0 for \xValue (which I did in the code below).

You can just do

\node[base right=of Text] {\Label};

after you add \Label to the loop variables.

Notes:

1995.01–1995.12 will not be recognized as a linear progession through the years. You will need some adjustments to allow real dates.
If the \Label will be multiline it might be higher than the \Year node and thus produce bad results when the chain isn't adjusted for that.

Code

\documentclass[tikz]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{chains}
\makeatletter
\tikzset{west below/.code=\tikz@lib@place@handle@{#1}{north west}{0}{-1}{south west}{1}}
\makeatother
\tikzset{
  typnode/.style={anchor=north west, text width=12cm, inner sep=0mm},
  data/.style={draw=gray, rectangle, font=\scriptsize, inner sep=0.5mm}}
\begin{document}
\begin{tikzpicture}[x=1cm, y=-7mm]
%draw horizontal line
\path (0,0) edge[-latex] ++(0,6.5)
            edge[dashed] ++ (down:1);
%%draw years
\foreach \year in {1995,2000}
  \node[left=2pt, font=\scriptsize] at (0,\year-1995) {$\year$};
\foreach \year in {1995,1996, ..., 2000}
  \draw (-0.1,\year-1995   ) -- (0.1,\year-1995   )
        ( 0,  \year-1995+.5) -- (0.1,\year-1995+.5);
\begin{scope}[start chain=ch1 going west below, node distance=+1em]
\foreach \Year/\Label/\Text in {
    1995/{A Label for the first Entry}/{
      King James VI of Scotland ascends to the English throne, becoming James I
      of England and uniting the crowns -- but not the parliaments --
      of the two kingdoms},
    1995.01/{A Label for the second Entry}/{
      King James VI of Scotland ascends to the English throne, becoming James I
      of England and uniting the crowns -- but not the parliaments --
      of the two kingdoms}%
    }{
  \node[typnode, at=(right:3cm), on chain=ch1, alias=Text] {\Text};
  \node[data,    base left=+2em of Text, alias=Year] {\Year};
  \node[base right=of Text]{\Label};
  \draw     (Year.west) -- ++(left:3mm)
                        -- ([shift=(right:3mm)] 0,{(\Year-1995)/10})
                        --                     (0,{(\Year-1995)/10});
}
\end{scope}
\end{tikzpicture}
\end{document}

How can I label points in a timeline?

1 Answers1

Code

Output

Linked