Embedding a timeline

An embed shows a timeline inside another web page, such as a blog post, a course page or a Notion document, so readers can explore it without leaving. Embeds are free on every plan. This article covers how to get one, what readers see, and what switches one off.

Embed a timeline

On a public timeline, Embed, under the Share button in the viewer's header, opens the Embed this timeline dialog. It is there for everyone who can open the timeline, signed in or not, so a reader can embed a public timeline they don't own. For a timeline that isn't public, embed through a share link instead: each live link has its own Embed button, in the Share dialog's Share links list and on Timelines > Share links in the dashboard. If you own or manage a private or team-only timeline, the viewer's Embed entry is there for you too: it walks you through picking one of its share links, or creating one with Create share link, before it shows the embed. See sharing and visibility for how share links work.

The dialog gives you the same embed in two forms:

• Embed URL: for tools that turn a pasted link into an embed. Notion takes the URL. Copy it with the button beside it.
• Embed code: an HTML snippet for pages and platforms that accept HTML. Copy it with Copy code and paste it where the page's HTML goes.

Paste either one into the other page and the timeline appears there. In the timeline and map views, an embed starts idle: readers see Click to explore, and the embed only responds once they click, so the host page keeps scrolling normally until they choose to explore. Open full timeline opens the timeline on Timescrolly in a new tab, and a full-screen button appears when the host page allows it.

Language and theme

Before you copy, use the first select to pick the language the embed should use, from the six Timescrolly supports; it starts on the language you are using now. The second select sets the theme, Light or Dark, so you can match the page it sits on. The embed URL and code change with your choices, so choose first and copy after.

The Timescrolly mark

An embed of a timeline owned by someone on the Free plan carries a small Made with Timescrolly mark in its bottom-right corner. Pro and Team remove it. The mark follows the plan of whoever owns the timeline, not the plan of the person who copied the embed or the reader looking at it, and a team-owned timeline follows the team's plan. Timescrolly's own timelines always carry it. When the owner upgrades, the mark goes from the embed within a few minutes, with no new code to paste. See billing and plans.

What turns an embed off

An embed reads the timeline the way a visitor with the same access would. Visibility and share links are two separate ways to get access, and either one is enough, so what switches an embed off depends on which one it relies on.

Two things follow that people often don't expect:

• Making a timeline private does not turn off an embed that goes through a live share link. To stop it, revoke the link too.
• Revoking a share link does not turn off an embed of a timeline that is public. To stop it, make the timeline private.

An embed that has stopped shows This timeline is not available. Nothing tells the host page, so the frame simply shows that message until someone removes it.

A share-link embed carries the link's token in its address, so anyone who can see the host page's source can open the timeline. Only use one on a page you are happy for that audience to reach, and revoke the link if the page gets passed around further than you meant.

Changes take a few minutes

An embed of a public timeline can show the timeline's previous state for about six minutes after you change it, whether you made the timeline private or its owner changed plan. An embed through a share link follows the timeline the next time it loads. An embed that is already open on someone's screen keeps what it loaded until the page is reloaded.

What an embed does not do

An embed is for reading. There is no sign-in, no comments and no editing in it. It sets no cookies, writes nothing to the reader's browser storage and sends no analytics.

Each opening is still counted as a view of the timeline. For an embed, that view records the name of the site it was opened on, for example moodle.example.edu, and nothing about the reader. See the privacy policy.