Bee Docs Timeline 3D v3 is nearing completion! Bee Docs Timeline 3D is what it sounds like – timeline software for Mac OS X that allows you to create charts. These can be interactive as well as 3D. Full motion 3D versions of these timelines can be downloaded to your iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, or AppleTV, as well as imported into Apple’s Keynote or exported into HD video. It’s useful for genealogists – it goes above and beyond the timelines that can create with genealogy software.
In the meantime, Easy Timeline is available in the Mac Apps Store (Update – Timeline 3D – BEEDOCS).
Timeline 3D v3 is a major upgrade over previous version, and it will be a paid upgrade for owners of previous version. There is a new blog post up on Blog.BeeDocs.com detailing some of the changes to 3D presentations:
Our interactive 3D presentation feature was designed for storytelling to a live audience. Most timeline charts designed for web sites, touch screens, or printing are not simple enough to see across a classroom or a courtroom. Giving a three dimensional perspective to your timeline is the best way to show both the context and detail of your events during a presentation.
With that in mind, we’ve made some improvements to the 3D presentation interface that will make it an even better tool for storytelling with a live audience.
Among the presentation changes:
* New controller interface for presentation nagivation
* New interface indicates when there is a link or multimedia content present in an event.
* You can easily skip around the timeline presentation
Among the general changes in v3:
* Custom Date Labels
* You can chart anything in an interactive chart, if it can be represented with a number.
* Three timeline types to choose from when creating a new timeline document – Dates & Times, Geological Scale, and Quantities.
Yesterday (Tuesday, January 18, 2011), Bee Docs started sending out v3 pre-purchase invitations through e-mail for software upgrade pre-purchases. The cost $25 and you will have access to the current v3 beta. Reflecting the unique nature of the software, the invites are going out to people in the order in which they became Bee Docs customers starting in 2005 (more here).
In the meantime, version 2.11.6 has been released with a minor update. You can now use Version 3 license keys in case you want to keep both version 2.x and 3.x installed on the same Mac.
It does require Mac OS X 10.5 or later, and current versions can be downloaded here (BeeDocs.com)