Project time

Unseen Lands starts in All time, where the project is not projected at a particular moment. Property and text summaries show their latest versions; history editors expose all versions. Activate project time when starts, endings, historical views, or custom calendar dates matter.

Activate or clear time

Use the time control near the bottom of the sidebar:

Choose At date to select a current moment and reveal the timeline wheel.
Choose All time to hide the wheel and return to the unprojected graph.

The All time and At date toggle remains above the wheel in either mode.

With time active, newly created nodes and relationships can be marked Timeless. Otherwise their visible validity begins from the creation context shown by the form.

Move the viewed moment

Drag the horizontal wheel or scroll over it to move through boundary marks. The displayed date updates as you move. If the calendar cannot format the new position, the control reports that the date is unavailable. The wheel loads more boundary marks automatically as you continue in either direction. Keyboard controls are available when the wheel is focused:

Arrow keys move one minor boundary.
Page Up and Page Down move one major boundary.
Home and End go to the supported minimum or maximum.
Enter or a double-click opens Jump to date.

Select the displayed date to type a date directly. Press Enter or leave the field to apply it; press Esc to cancel. Invalid calendar text stays visible with an error instead of changing time. The typed date field locks while it is being resolved. Esc cancels that attempt and returns to the displayed date. On failure, the error receives focus and the draft remains available for correction. Press Enter on the focused error to retry the same draft. Text composition and modified Enter or Escape do not apply or cancel a typed date.

Jump with a calendar grid

The calendar opens beside the timeline wheel. It lets you move between the top-level spans, choose a named span, then select a cell or day. Large spans can be paged.

Use arrows to move between cells, Home/End for the visible range, Page Up/Page Down for larger steps, and click a cell to choose a target. Choose Jump or press Enter on the focused cell to apply it.

Date pickers in forms use the same grid controls. While a date is being selected or a jump is being resolved, the picker keeps focus and locks its controls, Cancel, and Esc. If selection fails, the error receives focus and the date draft stays available for correction and another attempt. Cmd/Ctrl+Enter applies the active date picker; submit the surrounding form separately. Enter used to finish text composition does not select a date.

The grid requires a compatible linear, span-based calendar. When a calendar cannot produce that grid, use the typed date field or timeline wheel instead.

Configure the wheel

Open Timeline settings to:

select the calendar used to format project time;
set the minor and major groove unit and interval (1–500).

A calendar can only be selected when it can represent the current tick. Fix the calendar definition or choose a representable moment first if selection is rejected. If you choose another calendar while this check is still running, the newest choice takes precedence.

Understand the effect

Viewed time can change nodes, relationships, table rows, query results, mentions, property values, text blocks, timeline changes, layout content, and spatial manifestation validity.

Layout temporal mode is a separate choice. An All time layout ignores the project moment; a Follow project layout uses it, and a spatial layout may become unavailable before its owner comes into existence.

Nodes have starts only and remain part of history. Properties and text blocks have independent periods; an omitted start inherits the element’s start. State at a moment is the set of facts that apply then. Death is an ordinary property and does not hide a node. See Properties and notes for changes, corrections, and historical text.