I just had the pleasure of using this brilliant piece of software in a lesson I taught on how we got the Bible in its current form.  It’s called Bee Docs’ Timeline. Basically, this takes your average, boring type of timeline teaching and adds an incredibly interesting visual element that transcends the common timeline.  It’s incredibly easy to set up.  You begin by choosing your theme and adding timeline elements.  You can add pictures from your iPhoto library or simply search online for the image you want and drag it from your open browser window to the imageless element in the timeline program below, and it does all the rest. Then all you have to do is use your mouse or apple remote to control it in presentation mode.

All of that comes with the standard version for $40, but the real beauty is in the 3D version ($65… I know it’s a bit pricey).  Besides being able to export to several different formats including Quicktime and Keynote, this version gives you a 3D view that simultaneously allows you to see the detail and context by putting the timeline on an angle and pulling out each event as you fly through the timeline.

My only beef with this is in its export.  When exporting to one of the movie versions you are not able to assign different times for different slides which makes the videos more of a pause and play rather than sit back and enjoy (check out the timeline video exported from my presentation here), and when exported to keynote, it becomes much more static although still interesting.

For more information, make sure and check out their site and for an in-depth tutorial check out this screencasts online episode.