Creating a new Internal Chronology document involves the following steps:

  • Decide what column headings you want to appear in the table
  • Decide which columns must always be completed, and which can be left blank
  • Decide how much information you want to use to identify each event in the chronology. Do you just want the date on which it happened, or also the time, and possibly the date and time it finished?

When you have decided, press the New Chronology button and complete each tab of the Case Details Wizard.

Special Columns

Chronolator treats most of the columns in a chronology table as free-form text, only checking them if you deem them mandatory. However, some columns play a major role in the way a Chronolator Document is processed.

These special columns are briefly described below. You define which ones you want in a document.

Chronolator's names for them are shown below in bold type, but you can give them different headings in the chronology table.

Event Order: Date, Time And Event Ref Columns

Up to five special columns can be used to specify when an event happened:

  • Event Ref (optional)
  • Start Date (mandatory for all Chronolator Documents)
  • Start Time (optional)
  • End Date (optional)
  • End Time (optional)

Chronolator can automatically populate the Event Ref column with event reference numbers. The numbers can also be used to specify the order of events on a particular day when their times are unknown.

When Chronolator checks a Chronology Document, it ensures that anything in a Date or Time column is a valid date or time, and that all the events are in order (either ascending or descending).

For ease of input, dates can be entered in a variety of formats. For example, all the following will be recognised:

  • 22.05.16
  • 22-may-16
  • 22/05/16
  • 22/05/2016

Many mistyped dates can also be recognised, e.g. 22.05/16.

Sometimes people might not know exactly when an event occurred. In that case, they can add a question mark (e.g. ?22 may 2016).  

Source of Information Column

It is vital that the source of information about an event is noted. The Source of Information column is therefore mandatory in all Chronolator Documents. It is the first one after the event ordering columns.

To make it easier for people to complete their information, there is no need for them to say what organisation they work for in this column.

For example, suppose someone who works for the Berrick New Town Clinic is entering data from a Health Visitor’s notes. They need only to record the source of information simply as, say, Health Visitor HV1 diary, not as Berrick New Town Clinic Health Visitor HV1 diary.

When you use Chronolator Integrate to merge their chronology into a Composite Chronology, Chronolator adds the fact that the information is from Berrick New Town Clinic to the Source of Information column.

For example, if the clinic’s document contains this entry . . .


. . . after you have imported it, the entry will look like this:

Glossary Column

A Glossary column can be included which should contain only defined abbreviations - for example, somebody's initials. This can be useful when a chronology contains information pertaining to more than one person. Chronolator will check that anything in this column has been defined in the Abbreviations Glossary.

'Must Fill' Columns

You might want to ensure that a particular column is always completed for every event. You can do this when setting up the new Internal Chronology document by ticking its box on the Must Fill tab of the Case Details Wizard.


The Start Date and Source of Information columns are always 'Must Fill' columns. Whether the other special columns are is up to you.