Title: Timeline Express: Common Issues
Last modified: August 31, 2016

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# Timeline Express: Common Issues

 *  Plugin Author [Evan Herman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eherman24/)
 * (@eherman24)
 * [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/timeline-express-common-issues/)
 * In this thread I am going to mention some of the common issues that users run
   into, and post in the forums about.
 * You should use this guide as a way to help debug your issues before posting here
   in the forums, or reaching out to use via e-mail.
    - **I cant save dates prior to xxxx. Why?**
    - This is a limitation with the PHP function `strtotime()`, which is used to
      store dates in the database, and then later for comparison when displaying
      your timeline.
    - We have built out an add-on that re-writes the way dates are stored in the
      database, so historic a wide range of dates can be used, from the year 1000
      to the year 9999.
    - [Timeline Express Historic Dates Add-On](https://www.evan-herman.com/wordpress-plugin/timeline-express-historical-dates-add-on/)
 *  - **No HTML markup is working in my excerpts. How do I enable HTML markup in
      the excerpts?**
    - In previous versions we were allowing HTML to be used in excerpts. This was
      possible through the use of a custom function we wrote to allow for this. 
      Unfortunately, this was causing a number of issues for some users – and we’ve
      since had to remove it and fallback to the standard WordPress core way of 
      generating excerpts – which do not allow for HTML markup.
    - If you need HTML markup in your excerpts, you can extend the plugin to enable
      an additional field on the announcements where you can enter your own custom
      excerpts, including HTML.
    - For a step by step on enabling custom/HTML excerpts, please see our knowledge
      base article: [How do I enable HTML in my excerpts?](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/enable-html-excerpts/)
 *  - **My announcement containers are overlapping, how do I fix this?**
    - Generally speaking, the announcement containers overlap because you have an
      announcement (or multiple announcements) with little, or no, content.
    - You’re two options are:
    - 1) Set a min-height CSS declaration on the `.cd-timeline-content`, which would
      ensure that all of your announcements are the same height.
    - 2) Enable announcement container classes by adding the following php snippet
      to your **functions.php** file:
    -     ```
          define( 'TIMELINE_EXPRESS_CONTAINER_CLASSES', true );
          ```
      
    - Once added, you can manually add classes to specific announcements from the
      add/edit announcement page.
    - (For an example, see “[How can I add custom classes to the announcement container?](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/can-add-custom-classes-announcement-container/)“)
    - Once you add your classes to the overlapping containers, you’ll need to add
      custom CSS to your theme – which would add either a top or bottom margin to
      that specific announcement container. This can get tricky, especially on mobile
      devices.
    - If all of your announcements are going to be different lengths, we suggest
      purchasing the [Timeline Express Pro](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/),
      which has a built in method for laying out variable height announcements.
 *  - **How do I change the way that the date displays on the front end/in the datepicker?**
    - By default, the date should display in the same format that your site is setup(**
      Settings > General > Date Format** ). However, you may want to alter the way
      the date is displaying on the front end of the site. You can quickly and easily
      do so using the following snippet, added to your active themes **functions.
      php** file.
    -     ```
          function custom_te_date_format( $date_format ) {
             $date_format = "M d, Y"; // will print the date as Apr 22, 2016
             return $date_format;
          }
          add_filter( 'timeline-express-custom-date-format' , 'custom_te_date_format' , 10 );
          ```
      
    - For additional help, please see [How do I change the announcement date format ?](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/change-announcement-date-format/).
 *  - **How can I display the announcement year instead of the icon?**
    - Add the following to your themes **fucntions.php** file to display the year
      in place of the icons:
    -     ```
          define( 'TIMELINE_EXPRESS_YEAR_ICONS', true );
          ```
      
    - For a full explination, please see [How can I display the year instead of an icon on the timeline?](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/can-display-year-instead-icon-timeline/).
    - **How do I customize the announcement container/single announcement template/
      single announcement content?**
       We’ve built out a very flexible contemplating
      engine, allowing you to customize any aspect of the timeline, the announcement
      template, or the announcement itself.
    - Take a look at the following three tutorials we have setup, explaining how
      to customize each template:
    - – [How do I customize the announcement container on the timeline?](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/customize-announcement-container/)
      –
      [How do I customize the single announcement content?](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/how-do-i-customize-the-single-announcement-content/)–
      [How do I customize the single announcement template?](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/customize-single-announcement-template/)
 *  - **Is there a list of available hooks in Timeline Express?**
    - Yes, take a look at our ‘Hooks Visual Guide’ that we have setup in our documentation.
      This visual guide should give you a good representation of where the hooks
      are, that you can use to display additional content:
    - [Hooks Visual Guide](https://www.wp-timelineexpress.com/documentation/hooks-visual-guide/)

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## Tags

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 * [content](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/content/)
 * [single](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/single/)
 * [tags](https://wordpress.org/support/topic-tag/tags/)

 * 0 replies
 * 1 participant
 * Last reply from: [Evan Herman](https://wordpress.org/support/users/eherman24/)
 * Last activity: [10 years, 5 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/timeline-express-common-issues/)
 * Status: not a support question