Storybuilder Fact Timelines

Storybuilder’s Fact timeline is a structured, chronological workspace where you can organize key events and information using building blocks called Facts. A Fact represents a discrete event or piece of information that can be associated with supporting details such as specific evidence, people, labels, Depositions/Drafts, and other related Facts.

A single Story can contain multiple Fact timelines, providing flexibility to break apart and structure different aspects or phases of a case independently.

By building a timeline of Facts, your team can create a comprehensive case backbone for prepping for depositions and drafting materials such as memos, briefs, and outlines.

A Fact Timeline can be set up at any time — even before documents have been reviewed. This makes it a great tool for pre-review case building and early narrative development. This approach allows you to structure your case narrative and identify critical data points early in the case development, creating a strong foundation for the subsequent review and drafting workflows.

Requirements

To build and/or edit Fact timelines, you must have Admin permission for Storybuilder or have the Story shared with you with Edit or Full Access permission.

All users with at least View permission for the Story can view all Fact timelines.

Ways to create Fact Timelines and Facts

There are a few ways to create Fact Timelines and add Facts:

• Start from scratch: Create an empty timeline, and add Facts one by one when you’re early in a case, don’t have a structured spreadsheet yet, or want to build a small, carefully curated timeline as you think through the narrative.
• Import a spreadsheet as a new timeline: Use this when you already have a chronology in a spreadsheet and want to turn it into a shared Fact Timeline without retyping.
• Import a spreadsheet into an existing timeline: Choose this when you’re expanding or updating an existing timeline with many new events, so you can bulk-add Facts while keeping your current structure.

Create a Fact Timeline

To start a new Fact Timeline:

1. Go to Storybuilder . 
2. Select Fact timelines from the side navigation bar, then select + New Fact Timeline.
   
3. Enter a name for your Fact timeline in the Fact name field.
4. To finish creating your Fact timeline, select Create.

Now what? It’s time for you to add Facts to the timeline. Once you’ve added Facts, you can link documents to those Facts as evidence.

Create a Fact

To create a Fact directly on your Timeline page:

1. If you’re not already there, go to Storybuilder > Fact timelines, and select the timeline you want to add to.
2. Select + New Fact.
3. Give your Fact a name in the Fact name field. 
   
4. [Optional, but recommended] Add a date for the Fact. This allows Everlaw to automatically and chronologically sort it into your existing timeline.
   To enter a date:
   1. Select the add date plus button. This opens a popup.
      
   2. Enter date values into the From and/or To fields. 
   3. If you want to mark the data as approximate, select This is an approximate date.
   4. To close the date picker and to save the date, click anywhere on your screen outside the popup, or hit Escape on your keyboard.

5. [Optional] In the Description field, enter a description that provides any additional background information you want about the fact.

6. [Optional] To associate this fact with specific evidence, people, labels, Depositions/Drafts, or related Facts:
   1. Select More details.
      This expands the view to display the fields and values for EVIDENCE, PEOPLE AND LABELS, REFERENCES (Depositions/Drafts/Fact Timelines), and/or RELATED FACTS. 
      
   2. Select the plus button for the relevant header. This opens a dropdown including the information already present in your Story.
   3. Select an item from the list to link it to this Fact.

7. When you're done adding information, select Save.
   Or if you want to immediately add a new Fact, select Save and create another.

Facts appear on the Timeline in a list view. They can be expanded or collapsed using their expand / collapse buttons.

Import Facts from a spreadsheet

This section covers the ways you import Facts via a spreadsheet.

Step 1: Prepare your spreadsheet

You can upload a previously exported Fact Timeline, or create your own spreadsheet by hand or by using our template (attached).

Supported file types: Both .CSV and .XLSX files are supported.

Use the following columns and formats:

Step 2 (option A): Create a new Timeline from imported Facts

Before you start: Prepare your spreadsheet using the format above.

To import Facts as a new timeline:

1. Go to Storybuilder .
2. Select Fact Timelines > + New Fact Timeline.
   This opens the new Fact Timeline page.
   
3. In the Name field, enter a name for the timeline.
4. Select Import spreadsheet.
5. If you have not already created your spreadsheet, do so now. To start from a template, select Download XLSX template.
6. When your spreadsheet is ready, select browse, then choose the file from your computer.
   
7. Select Create.
   The new Timeline is created and the Facts added.

Step 2 (option B): Import Facts to an existing Timeline

Before you start: Prepare your spreadsheet using the format above.

To import Facts to an existing Timeline:

1. Open the Timeline. 
2. Select the More options three-dot menu. Then select Import Facts.
   
   This opens the Import Facts dialog.
   
3. If you have not already created your spreadsheet, do so now. To start from a template, select Download XLSX template.
4. When your spreadsheet is ready, select browse, then choose the file from your computer.
5. Select Import.
   The new Facts are added to the Timeline.

Navigate a Fact timeline

When you open a Fact timeline, Facts are expanded and sorted chronologically (old to new), and are displayed in the advanced timeline view, by default. 

In the advanced timeline view, dated Facts are shown in chronological order with visual gaps that reflect how far apart they are in time.

Meanwhile, undated Facts are grouped together in an Facts with no date section at the end of the timeline. This allows you to track incomplete information without forcing artificial dates.

To switch between the advanced timeline view and a basic list view, which just displays the Facts in order, use the Advanced timeline and Basic list buttons at the top of the timeline page.

You can also change your view of the Fact timeline by:

• Changing the sort order: By Date or by Name
  
• Collapsing Facts to show just the Fact name: To do so, select the collapse button for an individual fact, or select Collapse all to collapse all the Facts.
• Filtering by date, title, description, labels, Draft/Deposition references and whether or not evidence is linked to a Fact: To do so, select the Filters button, which opens a panel to filter your Facts. Use Match all for your filtered Facts to match all the selected filters, and Match any for your filtered Facts to meet at least one of your selected filters.
  
  Select the checkbox(es) for the filter(s) you want, then select Add filters. The filters are connected with an AND, meaning that the displayed Facts are those that meet all your selected filters.

Each Fact timeline also has a Date visualizer. This lets you see, at a glance, how the Facts in your timeline are distributed over time. 

To filter to a specific timeframe, either enter dates in the From and To fields or hold down your cursor and drag it over the date range you want to filter to.

Then select Add filter.

Additional functionality on your Fact timeline is available in the Fact timeline toolbar.
 

The functionality includes:

• Associate Facts to People, Issues, Related Facts, Drafts, and Depositions in a batch. To do so, select Batch. This opens the Batch panel. Select a label once to add it to the selected Facts. Select it twice to remove it from the selected Facts.
  
• Delete Facts in a batch. To do so, select Batch > Delete selected Facts.
• Make sure you're seeing the most up-to-date version of a Fact timeline. This can be useful if multiple people are working on it at once. To do so, select Refresh.
• Export a CSV of your Fact timeline. To do so, select Export. The resulting CSV is available on your Homepage, in the Batches & Exports column, for 28 days. 
• Open a results table of all the documents and document highlights linked to Facts in your Fact timeline. To do so, select Review, which opens the results table in a new tab.

If you have multiple timelines, you can view all the Facts across them. To do so, select View all Facts. 

Link or unlink evidence to a Fact

Evidence is added into a timeline by linking it to a Fact. Wherever you are reviewing evidence, you can link it to an existing Fact or create a new Fact to link it to. If you have already linked evidence to a Fact but later realize that they should not be connected, you can also unlink Facts from evidence. You can:

• Link a single piece of evidence from the review window: This option is best used if you want to add documents to Facts as you review each document. To learn how to work with Storybuilder in the review window, see our Add Evidence to your Story article.
• Batch link evidence from a results table: This option is ideal if you want to batch add evidence to Facts. To learn how to add documents to a Story in a batch, see our Add Evidence to your Story article.
• Link evidence from within a Fact: This option is the most efficient method if you already have Storybuilder open and the document has already been added to the Evidence page, or you know its Bates/Control #.
• Link evidence to Facts from the Evidence page: If you are sifting through your Evidence page and identify evidence that supports one or more Facts, or want to create a new Fact based on the evidence, you can do so from the Evidence page. 
• [Testimony only] Link testimony from the Deposition transcript: When you add a transcript highlight to your Story, you can also add it to Facts. See our Work with a Deposition Transcript article for more details on how to create Testimony from a transcript.

Choose the evidence 

When you link evidence to Facts, you do so through the Link documents to Facts dialog. This section describes how to open this dialog from different places that you access evidence.

To jump right to how to use the Link Documents to Facts dialog, see Choose Facts to link or create a new Fact  

Link via the review window

To add a single document as evidence to a Fact as directly from the review window:

1. Open the document's Storybuilder tab.
2. If the document isn’t already added to the Story, select + Add document to Story and link to Facts.
   
   If it's already in the Story: Under the FACTS header, select the Link related Facts button.

This opens the Link documents with Facts dialog. Jump to the Choose Facts to link or create a new Fact section for instructions on how to link the evidence to Fact(s).

Link a document highlight to Facts

1. In the document review window, select the highlight.
2. Select the arrow, then Add to Story and link to Facts.
   If the highlight is already added to the Story, select View details for the highlight, and then the Link Facts button in the FACTS section. 

This opens the Link documents with Facts dialog. Jump to the Choose Facts to link or create a new Fact section for instructions on how to link the evidence to Fact(s).

Batch link documents to Facts

To link evidence to Facts from a results table:

1. Using the checkboxes, select the document(s) you would like to add as evidence to a Storybuilder Fact.
   
2. Select Batch > Modify.
   
   This opens the batch modify panel.
3. In the Storybuilder section, select Select Facts.
   
   This opens the Link documents with Facts dialog. Jump to the Choose Facts to link or create a new Fact section for instructions on how to link the evidence to Fact(s).

Link from the Evidence page

On the evidence entry, select the Link Facts button.
This opens the  Link document to facts dialog. Jump to the Choose Facts to link or create a new Fact section for instructions on how to link the evidence to Fact(s).

Link from a Deposition transcript

1. Highlight the transcript text you want to link to a Fact.
2. Select the arrow button, then Add to Story and link to Facts.

This opens the Link documents with Facts dialog. Jump to the Choose Facts to link or create a new Fact section for instructions on how to link the evidence to Fact(s).

Choose Facts to link or create a new Fact

Once you have opened the Link document to Facts dialog, you can choose the Fact(s) to link/unlink or create a new one:

1. Use the checkbox next to any Facts you want to link with this evidence. 
   To remove a Fact, select the checkbox a second time. 
   
   You can filter your Facts by title, description, date, or label.  
2. [Optional] To create a new Fact rather than link to existing Facts, select Create new Fact, which opens the panel to create a Fact. 
   You cannot select existing Facts and create a new Fact to link at the same time in this dialog.
3. When you're ready, select Review (for existing Facts) or Create and link for a new Fact. 
4. For existing facts, confirm the information in the Selected Facts summary, then select  Link.

This links/unlinks the Fact(s) and the document(s).

Reference Facts in Depositions and Drafts

When you're writing in a Deposition/Draft, it can be useful to reference your Facts. To support this, there is a Facts tab in each Deposition/Draft where you can add Facts. When you reference a Fact in the body of a Deposition or Draft, and that Fact is linked to evidence, the evidence is added into the Exhibit view for the Deposition/Draft. 

To reference Facts in a Deposition or Draft:

1. Open the Deposition or Draft.
2. In the side panel, select Facts to open the Facts tab.
   
3. Select + Add Facts.
   
   This opens the Add Facts dialog.
4. Using the checkboxes, select the Fact(s) you want to add.
   
5. When ready, select Review.
6. Review your selection. Then select Add.
   
   This closes the dialog. The Fact(s) are added to the Fact list in the side panel.
7. To add a Fact to the body of your Deposition or Draft, select its plus button, or drag and drop it into the text editor.