Steps

1. On 1/27/10, you should have received an e-mail inviting you to collaborate with me on a Google Docs spreadsheet.
2. During today's tutorial, open up your timeline document on your laptop. We will work on inputting information onto our Google Docs spreadsheet.
3. In the Google spreadsheet, enter all of your events, filling out the various fields with the appropriate information (see below).

The Spreadsheet's Fields

Using the spreadsheet is easy, but it also requires the data to be input in a very particular way.  For best results, follow these instructions exactly:

1. Always add your information to the BOTTOM of the spreadsheet. 
2. The first field, "{label}" is the text that will be visible directly on the timeline.  It should be short: 3-6 words (where a title of a novel or poem can count as one poem).  To make a title appear italicized, type it exactly like this (without the quotation marks): "AuthorName, <em>Book Title</em>"  Don't worry about the fact that it doesn't look italicized in the spreadsheet, and DON'T USE THE SPREADSHEET'S ITALICS FUNCTION!
3. The second field, "{start-date}" is mandatory: when did the event happen?  Fill this in: yyyy-mm-dd.  You must use 2-digit months (01, 02, 03) and 2-digit days.
4. The third field, "{end-date}" is optional: If the event happened over a span of time, when did it end?  Again, use yyyy-mm-dd format.
5. The fourth field, "{description:single}"  is where you put your description.  If you have a URL for a citation, wrap the sentence--or some portion of it--in a hyperlink.  Here's how to do it (the quotation marks in the pointy-brackets are REQUIRED!!): <a href="LINKGOESHERE">SENTENCE GOES HERE</a>  
6. The fifth field, "{image:url}" is where you cut-and-paste the url for the related image.
7. The sixth field, "{EventType}" is where you identify what kind event this is:

• Biography
• Publication
• Social
• Political
• Cultural
• Science
• Other

Only choose one and type the word exactly as it appears here. This enables a search function for each of these categories.

8. The seventh field: "{group}" is where you put your group number, for ease of bookkeeping. This also enables a search for only your group's entries
9. The eighth field: "{initials}" is where you put your initials. Make sure that you are consistent with your initials. This also enables a search for only your entries
10. After you have entered your information in the spreadsheet, make sure that it is displaying properly on the timeline. (The Google Docs spreadsheet will automatically save every 5 minutes.)