Community Suggestion: Improve Linking Between Calendar, Timeline, and Articles
Improve Linking Between Calendar, Timeline, and Articles
Dear World Anvil team,
Right now, it seems like each of the features I mentioned in the title (the Timeline, Calendar, and Article editor) were made mostly in a vacuum, without high-quality linkages between the two.
Today, I was working on a character, and when I went to the Year of Death field, I had two problems. First, I had to use the absolute year, rather than a certain year of a certain era. So, this is specific request number one. Can we have an option to control the length of an era by a set number, rather than computing it from a set start and end. Also, can we have an option to reference years of specific eras in the Article editor (and in the Event editor), rather than having to reference a year from "the start of time". I had to put in a year of death of 1272, rather than the simple 17 of era ____. The second problem I encountered was that even after I entered 1272, it said in the "View in World" viewer that the character died in 1272 CE. It paid no attention to the eras I had defined in the Timeline. Full integration between timelines and the article editor would be excelent. Also, it would be nice to integrate the calendar, timeling, and article manager together. That way, I can set the current date to display the name of the month, rather than just a string of numbers, and the same for the start or end date of an event.
Again, while the individual features are fine, better integration between these three features would make for a much more enjoyable worldbuilding experience.
In summary, here is qhat I am requesting:
- Option for length based eras, rather than setting length by start and end
- In tandem with the above suggestion, referencing the year of a specific era rather than the year in the global scope
- Better integration between Calendar and Timeline, and Calendar and Articles
Follow up
Thanks!
The Team's Response
Thanks for the suggestion! This is Closed because it's multiple suggestions in one, each with a different answer. Better integration between the various time systems and the rest of the world is coming (we are already working on it, but don't expect it soon, as time management is extremely complicated). Eras resetting the year count, however, will not be implemented as you describe it, as it's a very complicated feature with a ton of edge cases that are incompatible with other areas of the site.24/300 Votes · +5401 points
Votes Cast
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+300
by Malleus Beneficarum
on 2026-07-27 20:10 -
+300
by TheFoolishBid
on 2026-07-27 00:37 -
+300
by Jerjibei
on 2026-07-25 14:13 -
+100
by LittleRaider
on 2026-07-24 17:44 -
+100
by RunicIllusionist
on 2026-07-24 00:12 -
+300
by ShadowclawFC
on 2026-07-23 06:52 -
+300
by Samantha.Osei
on 2026-07-22 13:57 -
+300
by A Wild Kitten
on 2026-07-20 18:11 -
+300
by Dork117
on 2026-07-19 18:58 -
+300
by CottageofConnie
on 2026-07-18 17:52 -
+100
by WildGhoul
on 2026-07-15 19:40 -
+300
by spookyskellyton
on 2026-07-12 17:27 -
+300
by JGulia,DM
on 2026-07-11 03:23I am having trouble with the bbcode calendar block. I have not been able to set the calendar to a specific year even with trying multiple ways on two different devices.
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+300
by Ratha
on 2026-07-10 09:41 -
+300
by CoinCrafter
on 2026-07-09 18:20 -
+100
by AmevelloBlue
on 2026-07-08 20:03 -
+100
by PhoenixRae
on 2026-07-08 14:33 -
+100
by DramaticDragons
on 2026-07-07 19:13 -
+100
by Jupiter Melichios
on 2026-07-07 15:44I absolutely agree that this would be nice, but it also feels like something that would be a complete nightmare to code up. Plus any additional links would further slow down the article UI, and it already runs at a crawl. Upvoting in the hope I'm wrong, but I'll be surprised if it's possible.
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+300
by AceMaster
on 2026-07-07 14:07 -
+300
by Xizor14
on 2026-07-06 19:38 -
+1
by ss2020
on 2026-07-06 05:33 -
+100
by Mahdi Avendesora
on 2026-07-05 15:17 -
+100
by Elb Tenebris
on 2026-07-05 09:39Would alleviate some of the tedium of setting birth and death dates.
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+300
by W-8-5
on 2026-07-05 00:36
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