Using the Timeline Express Toolbox Add-On is as simple as installing and activating the add-on, and then adjusting the settings on the new settings tab.
Toolbox Settings Tab
Once you have the Timeline Express Toolbox Add-On installed and activated, you can alter the settings by heading to ‘Timeline Express > Settings’.
On the settings page you should see a new tab created, titled ‘Toolbox Add-On‘. Click on the tab to view the Toolbox settings.
Example:
Toolbox Settings
On the settings tab you’ll see a new set of options that can be adjusted to control different aspects of the plugin.
Announcement Slug
The announcement slug setting is used to control the slug of the Timeline Express announcement post type. Out of the box the slug for all announcements is /announcement/. This means if you created an announcement to display on the timeline with the title “My New Announcement”, the URL for that announcement would be http://www.example.com/announcement/my-new-announcement/.
You can enter a new text string into the ‘Announcement Slug’ field to alter the value of the slug, meaning you would also alter the URL to the announcement. If you set the announcement slug to ‘event’ and saved the settings, the URL to the announcement would then be http://www.example.com/event/my-new-announcement/.
Announcement Singular
The announcement singular option is used to alter the string of the word ‘Announcement’ on the dashboard. You can set this to something like ‘Event’ to change all occurrences of the word ‘Announcement’ on the dashboard to say ‘Event’.
As an example, if you changed the announcement singular option to ‘Event’ and saved the settings, you would see all of the option names change to ‘Event’, eg: Event Slug, Event Singular etc.
Announcement Plural
Similar to the Announcement Singular option the Announcement Plural option alters all plural instances of the word ‘Announcements’ throughout the dashboard to a custom string of your choosing.
As an example, if you set this option to ‘Events’ and saved the settings, you would then see in the left-hand sidebar underneath ‘Timeline Express’ that ‘All Announcements’ has changed to ‘All Events’.
Announcement Date String
The announcement date string option is used to completely alter the date string on the announcement single template (The page displayed when the user clicks on ‘Read More’ below an announcement on the timeline).
With this option, you can easily customize the string, move the date in the string or remove the string altogether.
As an example, if you wanted the string to change from ‘Announcement Date: 03/11/2017’ to ‘This event occurred on 03/11/2017’, you could set this option to ‘This event occurred on {date}’.
You’ll want to use the {date} tag in the string to dictate where you want the generated date to appear. You can also delete the {date} tag altogether so there is no date in the string.
Announcement Date Format
Out of the box Timeline Express inherits the date format that your site is using, which is set on ‘Settings > General > Date Format’ from the dashboard.
With this option, users can set a custom date format to use on the announcements, independent of the WordPress date format option.
You can select one of the pre-set date formats, or you can specify a custom date format in the ‘Custom’ field.
If you want to specify a custom date format, you’ll want to use the PHP date format.
Edit Capabilities
The edit capabilities option is used to control who has access to view and edit the Timeline Express announcements. Some sites have strict standards on who can manage what. Using this option you can control who can access the timeline express announcements pages and who has access to make edits to them.
Timeline Image Size
The timeline image size is used to control the image size on the timeline. Out of the box Timeline Express uses a custom image size of 350px x 150px (hard cropped). Using this option you can quickly adjust the image size on the timeline.
Any custom image sizes registered on your site will also display here, so you can always register a custom image size using add_image_size to use here.
Single Announcement Image Size
The single announcement image size option is similar to the timeline image size option, but it controls the image that displays on the single announcement template. Out of the box the single announcement template uses the Full image size, which might work but can be too large for some users.
Adjusting the option here will adjust the image size that appears on the page when a user clicks on ‘Read More’ from the timeline.
You can also specify custom image sizes here registered through add_image_size.
Year Icons
The year icons option came about because many users wanted to display years in the timeline circles instead of the default icons. While we’ve always had the option available to toggle on the year icons, users had to go through the meticulous task of editing the theme functions.php file to enable the option.
Through the Toolbox settings UI users can now toggle on/off the setting without ever having to touch their functions.php file, saving everyone time and the headache of running into the white screen of death.