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So I have a timeline list. Certain things happened at a known time but other times are estimates. In my example below, the first item is a known time. The second and third items are estimated times and I am wondering what is the best way to note that it is an estimate. Maybe it is more of a personal preference but I don't really like the '~' in font because my list is long and the times now don't line up nicely. On the other hand using 'est.' might not give the correct 'at a glance' information.

Example:

  • 20:57 - Power went out.
  • 21:30 est. - Arrived on site to investigate.
  • ~21:45 - Flipped switch to backup power.

Thanks in advance.

Brian M
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    Related: circa/ ca / c in relation to time. – Edwin Ashworth Jun 28 '22 at 18:57
  • You could use ± 5, e.g. 21:45 ± 5:00, to say 21:45 plus or minus 5 minutes. It would make more sense, though, to use 21:00, as there's no accuracy in the seconds here. The ± is available in MS Word. – Xanne Jun 29 '22 at 03:37
  • You could use an asterisk for the estimated time stamps, and a footnote to give the meaning of the asterisk. Or you could use bold/regular to show the difference between known and estimated. – aparente001 Jun 29 '22 at 08:02
  • Among the options that I would seriously consider are "~21:30", "approx. 21:30", and "21:30 (est.)". Putting "est." in parentheses makes the sense of the abbreviation more immediately recognizable, in my opinion, and helps set it off from both the precise time stamp and the following description. – Sven Yargs Jul 03 '22 at 08:09
  • You could use "at" and "ca" to distinguish the cases, and keep your columns aligned (assuming you're in a fixed width font). Side note: I found that when I use tilda to mean /approximately/, too many people confuse it with /negative/ which makes no sense in the context. – jimm101 Jul 05 '22 at 16:54

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