AI Timelines

An AI timeline takes material where the order of events matters — a history chapter, the steps of a biological process, the phases of a project — and lays it out as a clear chronology. Scholarly reads your sources, finds every dated or sequential event, and arranges them on a single timeline so you can see how one thing led to the next.

Timelines are built to reinforce understanding of sequence and cause — not rote date memorization. The AI pulls out the events that actually matter and how they connect, so the timeline reflects the story your course is teaching, not a list of trivia.

When to use a timeline

A timeline is the right tool when the order of things is the point. Reach for it when you're:

• Studying a history unit and need the major events in order, with context.
• Mapping the stages of a process — a cell cycle, a chemical reaction, a legal procedure.
• Laying out the phases of a case study, experiment, or project.
• Turning a dense reading into a scannable sequence you can review at a glance.

If you instead want a branching overview of how ideas connect, generate a Mind Map. If you want a structured document to read and review, generate a Study Guide. Many students make a timeline and flashcards from the same source.

Creating a Timeline

Open the Timeline tile on your home page create grid, or pick it from the New menu. The create window lets you build a timeline from any of these starting points:

• Upload — Drag in PDFs, Word documents, or PowerPoints from your computer.
• Library — Pick a PDF or file you've already uploaded to Scholarly.
• Google Drive — Connect Google Drive and choose the exact files — Docs, Slides, PDFs, Word docs, or PowerPoints — without downloading and re-uploading. See Uploading Content.
• Link — Paste a website or PDF URL and the AI pulls in the content.
• Prompt — Skip files entirely and describe a topic, like "Timeline of the major events of World War II in the Pacific." Great for review when you don't have a source on hand yet.

You can combine sources — for example, pick two readings from your library and add a prompt to steer what to emphasize.

Customize before you generate

After choosing your sources, the customize step lets you shape the timeline:

• Theme — Pick the look of the finished PDF. Every timeline is professionally typeset, and you can choose from four themes:

• Language — Generate the timeline in your preferred language.
• AI model — Some models are reserved for paid plans and show a lock badge. See Choosing an AI Model.
• Custom instructions — A free-text field for specific directions, like "Group events by decade" or "Focus on the economic causes and keep it printable."

Click Generate Timeline and the work runs in the background — you can close the window and keep studying. You'll be notified when it's ready, and it appears under Background Tasks while it generates.

What you get

Your finished timeline is a professionally typeset, downloadable PDF that lands in your library like any other content item. Each entry shows when an event happened, what it was, and why it mattered, in order — laid out in the theme you picked. Open it and you can:

• Read and study it in the PDF viewer, with chat alongside to ask follow-up questions about any event.
• Download it to keep or print.
• Share it with a link so classmates can view it.
• Turn it into more study material — from the timeline's follow-up actions you can spin up Flashcards, a quiz, a study guide, or a podcast from the same content, no re-uploading required.

Because the output is a real PDF in your library, everything you can do with an uploaded PDF you can do with your timeline. See the PDF guide for the full set of viewer and conversion options.

Tips

• Richer sources make fuller timelines. A full chapter produces a more detailed chronology than a single slide; a one-line prompt produces a broad overview.
• Say how to group it. Use custom instructions to group events by era, theme, or stage when a flat list isn't what you want.
• Pair it with active recall. A timeline shows you the sequence; convert it into flashcards or a quiz and test yourself to actually lock the order in.
• Keep a unit together. Group a topic's timeline, study guide, and source PDFs in one folder so everything for that exam is in one place.

Frequently asked questions

What can I make a timeline from?

Uploaded PDFs, Word docs, and PowerPoints; files already in your library; Google Drive files; a website or PDF link; or just a typed prompt. You can mix several sources in one timeline.

How long does it take?

Generation runs in the background and usually takes a few minutes. You don't need to wait on the screen — keep working and you'll be notified when it's ready.

Can I download or print my timeline?

Yes. Every timeline is a PDF you can download, print, or share with a link.

What if my source has no dates?

The AI still orders events by sequence — first step, next step, and so on — even when there aren't calendar dates, which is what makes timelines work for processes and procedures as well as history.

Is it free?

You can create timelines on the free plan using your shared lifetime AI creation credits. Those free credits do not reset. Paid plans raise those limits and support longer source documents. Limits depend on your plan — see Plans and Limits.