Time Navigation

Overview

Your timeline can grow to contain thousands of screenshots. Retrace offers two powerful ways to navigate through time:

• Jump to Time: Show your history up to a specific moment and land near it
• Date Range Filter: Show only screenshots within a time window

Both methods use the same intuitive interface and support natural language input.

Opening the Time Navigator

1. Open the Retrace timeline
2. Click the calendar button in the top-right filter controls
3. Or press ⌘ + M

This opens the Time Navigator popover where you can enter time expressions, use quick presets, or select date range filters.

Jump to Time

Jump to Time shows your history up to the selected moment and lands near that point. Captures after that moment remain out of view until you clear the time jump. Type time expressions naturally:

As you type, Retrace shows a preview of the parsed date so you can confirm it's correct before jumping.

Quick Jump Presets

For common jumps, use the quick preset buttons:

The Yesterday preset keeps the current local time. Typing "yesterday" jumps to the start of yesterday.

Date Range Filter

Date Range Filter restricts your timeline to show only screenshots captured within a specific time window. This is useful when you want to focus on a particular day, week, or custom period.

Using Range Presets

The Time Navigator includes preset buttons for common date ranges:

Natural Language Ranges

Type range expressions naturally and Retrace will understand:

Active Filter Indicator

When a date range filter is active:

• A blue pill appears showing the date range (e.g., "Dec 1 → Dec 7")
• The calendar button highlights orange
• Click the X on the pill to clear the range filter

Using Both Together

You can use a date range and a time jump at the same time. For example, filter to "Today" to see only today's screenshots, then jump to "2 hours ago" to position the playhead there. Both stay active.

Retrace handles this intelligently:

• Jump lands inside the range: If you jump to "2 hours ago" while filtered to "Today", both stay active. You see today's history up to that moment.
• Jump lands outside the range: If you jump to "yesterday" while filtered to "Today", the range filter clears automatically so you can see your target.

Jump to Now

Lost in your history? Use the Now button to immediately return to the most recent capture. You can also use the keyboard shortcut:

⌘ + N

If you have active filters, clicking Now will prompt you to confirm clearing them before jumping to the present.

Combining with Other Filters

Time filtering works alongside other filters. A typical workflow:

1. Apply a date range filter (e.g., "Today")
2. Filter to a specific app using App Filtering
3. Use Text Search to find specific content
4. Jump to a specific moment within your filtered results

All filters work together. Filtering to "Today" + "Safari" + searching for "invoice" will show only Safari screenshots from today containing that word.

Clearing Time Filters

To clear time navigation:

• Click the X on a time pill to remove only that time filter
• Click Clear in the Time Navigator header to remove all time filters
• Press ⌘ + U to clear all filters at once

The X and Clear options remove time filters while keeping your other filters active. ⌘Uclears every filter.

Next Steps

• Learn Text Search to find specific content
• Use App Filtering to focus on specific applications
• Use Fast Scrubbing to navigate quickly through your timeline
• View keyboard shortcuts for faster navigation