App Review | Aeon Timeline

I've seen other people talking about this, and I was convinced to give it a go earlier this year.  So far, I am deeply unimpressed.

Aeon Timeline is another one of those tools for writers that's meant to make your life easier by helping you organise all of your thoughts and, well, your timeline.  In the end, all it winds up being is a fiddly, frustrating mess.  It feels like other software I've used in the past, where the developer made a tool based on their own needs, and didn't really consider how anyone else might want to use it.  I always have problem when software like this comes with a price tag—release it for free, or for tips/donations, and fine.  Aeon Timeline is $65, plus an additional $35 per year if you want updates beyond the first year.

I am glad I decided to opt out of the updates, because if I'd paid $100 for this, I'd be mad.

It does have a 14 day trial, which I did take advantage of.  But in my experience with software like this, trials are tricky to use.  I didn't want to set up my entire project in it, because if I decided I didn't like the software enough to buy it, it would have been a lot of time wasted that I could have spent doing something else.  So I fiddled around with it with a dummy project, not really knowing what I'd need out of it.  But it seemed easy enough to use, and it had a lot of features that seemed like they'd help.  I was able to establish a timeline, create different metadata types, and have everything organised.  It felt like it would work for me, so I bought it.

And then I created a new project for God of Outcasts, and everything went to hell. ( Read more... )