# People, places and things

> Keep people, places, organizations and objects as records of their own, link them from items, and give each its own page.

An entity is a person, place, organization, group, object or other thing that you keep as a record of its own, with its own page. Items link to it: an author can be linked from the books they wrote, and a city from the events that happened there. You describe the entity once, and every item that links it shows it.

## Whose entities they are

Entities belong to an owner, the way tags do: you, a team, or the site. A timeline's items can link only the entities of that timeline's owner, so the items on your own timelines link your entities, and the items on a team's timeline link the team's. Two owners each keep their own: your "Napoleon" and someone else's "Napoleon" are separate entities that never meet.

## Creating and editing an entity

Open [Entities](https://timescrolly.com/dashboard/entities) in the dashboard. Its Mine and Team tabs list your own entities and a team's, and site admins also get a Site tab. New entity creates one there. You can also create one straight from an item's form while linking: type a name that doesn't exist yet, choose its kind, and it is created in the set of the timeline's owner. To bring in a whole family tree from a GEDCOM file, choose Import family tree there; see [Importing a family tree](https://timescrolly.com/help/importing-a-family-tree).

An entity has a name, a kind (person, place, organization, group, object, species, faction, deity, artifact, concept, building, vehicle, work, dynasty or other), a one-line summary of up to 140 characters (shown under the name, and used as the page's description in search results), aliases (the other names it is known by), a description, a start and an end date, a location and images. The dates can be in any built-in calendar, but not relative dates, and either one can be left out: a person known only by the date of their death has just an end date. A person who is alive or an organization that still exists can be marked Ongoing next to the end date instead of being given one; its dates then read "1950 – present". Ongoing and an end date exclude each other: untick Ongoing to enter an end date. The image you mark as main is the entity's picture everywhere; with none marked, the first image is used. An entity can also carry up to 20 external identifiers, such as a Wikidata, VIAF or ORCID id, or a number from a registry of your own; each one is unique within the owner's entities, so two of them cannot hold the same identifier. An identifier that has a catalogue link opens that catalogue's page, and an entity in the trash keeps its identifiers until it is deleted permanently.

Each kind also has attributes: facts of its own, such as a person's sex, titles, occupation, allegiance and rank, or a place's type and population. You fill them in under Attributes on the entity's edit form, and they show on the entity's page and in the viewer. Changing the kind removes the values the new kind has no room for; the form says which, and History can restore them.

An entity can cite sources, like an item: under Citations in its edit form, choose Add citation and pick one from the owner's library (see [Sources and citations](https://timescrolly.com/help/getting-started)), and the citations show in a Sources section on its page.

The entity's URL (`/e/...`) is filled in from its name as you type it, and you can change it before you create the entity. Afterwards its owner can still change it with Change URL on the entity's Details tab, and links to the old URL keep working.

Every change is recorded in the entity's History. Changes to its fields can be restored from there. Changes to its images, such as uploads, captions and deletions, are recorded but can't be restored.

### Your own kinds and attributes

The built-in kinds and their attributes are the same for everyone. On top of them, each owner (you, a team, or the site) can keep its own: kinds of its own, and attributes of its own on any kind, built-in or yours. Open [Entity kinds](https://timescrolly.com/dashboard/entities/kinds) in the sidebar, or choose Kinds on the Entities page beside Relation types. It has the same tabs as the Entities page: Mine, Team and, for site admins, Site. It lists every kind, the built-in ones first and then yours, with the number of attributes each has. New kind creates a kind of your own with a name (up to 60 characters) and an optional description (up to 140); its ⋯ menu has Rename and Delete. Choose a kind's name to open its page, which lists the kind's attributes with their Type. Built-in attributes are marked Built-in and can't be changed; Add attribute adds one of your own, on any kind.

An attribute has a label and one of six types: Text, List, Number, Yes or no, Choice or Date. The type is fixed when the attribute is created; Rename changes only the label. A Choice attribute also has its choices, from 1 to 50 of up to 60 characters each. Edit choices, in the attribute's ⋯ menu, changes them. Anyone who can create entities for the owner can add choices. Only owners can remove them, which in a team means its owner and admins, and nobody can remove a choice an entity still holds until those values change. Entities in the trash count.

You can also make both on the spot in an entity's edit form: choose New kind… at the end of the Kind list, or Add attribute under Attributes. They appear only for an owner whose kinds you can change: you, a team where you can create entities, or the site if you are a site admin. The kind list of the New entity dialog and of the item form's entity picker offers your kinds too, but without New kind….

A kind or an attribute can be deleted only while no entity uses it. A kind's page shows how many entities use it, trash included, and links to the Entities page filtered by that kind. Change the kind of those entities, or clear the attribute's value on them, first. Entities in the trash count until they are deleted for good; Deleted entities lists them, and you can restore and change them or delete them for good. Deleting a kind deletes its own attributes with it.

On the Entities page, the Kind filter lists your kinds after the built-in ones. With one kind chosen, an Attribute filter offers that kind's Choice and Yes or no attributes, and a Value filter then offers the chosen attribute's choices, or Yes and No.

Kinds count against the owner's plan: up to 20 on Free, up to 200 on Pro, and 200 per team and for the site. So do attributes, across all of an owner's kinds: up to 50 on Free, up to 500 on Pro, and 500 per team and for the site. See [pricing](https://timescrolly.com/plans) for the current numbers.

When a timeline is [transferred](https://timescrolly.com/help/transferring-a-timeline), a kind may arrive as "Dynasty (2)" if the receiver already has one by that name; it is just a name, and you can rename it. An attribute may also appear twice with the same label; the kind's page then shows the attribute's key beside the label, so you can tell them apart.

## Dating an entity in a calendar

By default an entity's dates are real-world dates. An entity that belongs to an invented world can be dated in one of its owner's [custom calendars](https://timescrolly.com/help/custom-calendars) instead.

In the entity's edit form, turn on Advanced in the Dates block. A Calendar select appears there; it also shows without Advanced when the entity already has a calendar. Its first choice, None (real-world dates), keeps the built-in calendars; the others are the calendars of the entity's owner: you, a team or the site. Manage calendars, beside the label, opens the Calendars page in a new tab, so what you typed in the form stays where it is. Calendars are created and changed on that page, not in the entity's form, and the link shows only if you could add calendars to the owner's set. See [Custom calendars](https://timescrolly.com/help/custom-calendars).

With a calendar chosen, the entity's start, end and date attributes take dates in that calendar only. Without one, they take real-world dates only.

Changing the calendar clears the start, end and date attributes, because a date means something only in the calendar it was written in. A note above Save names the fields that will be cleared, and nothing changes until you save. You can't change the calendar while one of the entity's relations has a date in it: the select is disabled, and a note names the related entities. Clear the dates on those relations first.

A relation between two entities on the same calendar can be dated in it. A relation keeps the kind of dates it already has: moving both entities onto a calendar leaves a relation's real-world dates as they are, while a relation with no dates yet takes the calendar the two entities share.

History shows when an entity's calendar changed, and restoring a date restores it together with the calendar it was written in.

## Linking entities to items

In an item's form, you can link up to 50 entities, each with an optional role that says how it relates to the item: "author", "birthplace". The role is free text.

Linked entities show on the item as chips, each with the entity's picture, its name and its role: in the viewer, in the list view, and on the item's page in the dashboard.

You can also mention an entity in running text. Type `@` in an item's notes or in a description (or press the `@` button in the toolbar) and choose one of the owner's entities under Entities in the list. Items, timelines and collections can be mentioned the same way; see [Relations](https://timescrolly.com/help/relations). Readers who may open the entity get a link; everyone else sees plain text. The entity's page then lists the items whose notes mention it, and don't link it, under Mentioned in. A mention has no role and doesn't count toward the 50 linked entities.

## Who can see an entity

A new entity starts private, as a draft. Its visibility can be:

- **Private:** only its owner. On a team's entity, the team's owner and admins.
- **Team:** every member of the team. Only offered for a team's entities.
- **Public:** anyone, signed in or not.

Only the owner can change an entity's visibility; on a team's entity, the team's owner and admins can. When one of the team's contributors creates an entity for the team, it is visible to the team from the start.

A private entity can still be linked from an item. Readers who can't see the entity still get its name and role on the item, but no link to its page and no picture.

A public entity has a page anyone can open, and search engines may list it.

## The entity page

An entity's page, at its `/e/...` URL, shows its picture, its name and aliases, its summary under the name, its dates, its attributes, its identifiers, its description, a map of its location and its other images. If you can edit the entity, an Edit button takes you to it in the dashboard. An entity's location can be on one of its owner's [custom maps](https://timescrolly.com/help/maps) instead of on Earth: choose the map under Where when you add the location, and the page then shows that map.

Below that, Appears in lists the items that link the entity, in date order, but only the ones on timelines you can already open. Each one opens its timeline at that item. In the dashboard, the entity's Items tab lists the same items grouped by timeline, and each one opens that item's page there.

## Deleting and restoring

Moving an entity to the trash hides it everywhere, its links on items included. You can restore it, with its links, until the date shown next to it in the trash; after that date it is deleted for good. To open the trash, choose Deleted entities on the Entities page.

Deleting permanently is for the owner only: on a team's entity, the team's owner and admins. It removes the entity, its images and its links at once, and can't be undone. See [Deleted items and restoring](https://timescrolly.com/help/deleted-and-restore) for how the trash works.

## Transfers and limits

When a timeline is [transferred](https://timescrolly.com/help/transferring-a-timeline), the entities its items link are copied into the receiver's set, with their images; the sender keeps the originals. An entity visible to a team arrives private when the timeline moves to a person or the site.

An entity set holds up to 50 entities on Free; on Pro and Team there is no practical limit (the safeguard is 100,000). Entities in the trash count until they are deleted for good. A timeline can refer to at most 10,000 different entities, through its items' links and mentions. See [pricing](https://timescrolly.com/plans) for the current numbers.