How do I create a timeline of events? I need help please.

I’d use notebook LM, load in all the emails as source info including the date / too / from etc. Each trail add as a different source. Then create a prompt to run the timeline. This way, it will only draw from the email facts, and. It hallucinate using other sources. You can also then go back to it and ask questions in the future. ‘The company is saying they provided this on x date, is this true?’ Etc

I did this the other day for a work case I am dealing with. Took about 4 hours. Emails were over a shorter period but did have 3 or 4 strands.

it was a pain but meant I had a really clear picture of what had happened. I think my advice is go through each individual email by date and time and document. It will take a while but I wouldn’t rely on AI to get it right.

I'm not sure i would be comfortable using AI if this is a legal case as there are current concerns in the profession about AI use and the impact on legal privilege.

I did do this manually for a friend recently though. I searched the inbox and started at the oldest date, and clicked Print but changed it to save as PDF. I had made a new folder to keep them all in one place. At the same time I had a free pdf tools site open (I use pdf24 tools) using the merge feature, and every time I saved an email I also dragged the file there, then I merged them at the end into one long sequential email chain in a single pdf.

In my case, I had multiple merged files from multiple senders/companies and THEN I had to construct the timeline as to what happened when in a spreadsheet, referencing the page no and file name for the source email.

Was it a ball ache? Yes. Long-winded and boring, rather than complicated iyswim.

Use ChatGPT (and ideally upgrade to the paid for version as the free version has daily limits on interactions, whereas paid is unlimited).

Drop all the emails into it and ask it to create a timeline of events. You can add more info
(e.g. a timeline of promises made/ commitments agreed/ who said x, y, z etc). Will take literally one or two minutes to create.

If you’ve not used AI before, have a play around because it’s a game changer and saves hours of work.

chat got or co pilot would do this in minutes

Do it in an excel table with links or of you want something more visual you could use Visio.

I’d probably use AI for it - copilot could do it easily if you use it.

Can you not just search for the sender and they’ll all show up in order?

No easy way unless you use an AI which has access to your emails. Otherwise, you either find them all and load them all into an AI and ask it to produce a timeline or you spend hours doing it yourself.