How do I build an album using Timeline Mode?

When building an album based on a series of events, use timeline mode.  Apply your photo collection into automatic layouts, deciding where to insert page breaks so that the event segments kept on separate pages. For instance, if you are building a wedding album, you can create page breaks to keep the pre-wedding prep, the ceremony, the speeches, cake ceremony, dance, and other reception events in separate sections of the book. 

Under the Projects tab, choose the General Photo Album or Wedding Album project types. Project tile presets enable certain features, such as particular types of wizards, templates, styles and other features.  

After configuring your book settings and adding a photo collection, move to the Editor's Book tab.  Click on the eye icon in the photo collection area to switch to Timeline mode.

Timeline mode initially displays your photo collection in order of file date/time. To the left, a single blank thumbnail will display an empty photo collection for the first and only page in your book. To the right, your unused photos.

Divide the photos into page collections using the page thumbnails and the timeline collection pane.

Simply hover between two photos and then click on the + sign to make a page split. The photos to the left of the division will be organized into a collection, and will automatically appear on the corresponding page in a layout. In the example below, the + sign is clicked between the 6th and 7th photo. The first six photos now are assigned to page 1-2 of the book, and are placed into an automatic layout.

If you add too many photos into a page collection, make a subdivision within it. The collection will divide into two sets of pages.

Drag one or more photos from the photo collection to the + sign between pages.  In the example below, two checkmarked photos in the unused section are dragged between pages 4 & 5. A new page is created between these two to host the the selected photos, which now appear on the timeline collection for Page 4-5.

Drag one or more selected photos between collections on the timeline. Target the + between collections. This will trigger a new layout to be created in the designated position. In the example below, a single photo is dragged to the + between the collections for pages 1-2 and 3-4. A new pages is inserted at that location to house the image.

Drag one or more images onto a page to add it to an existing collection. The layout will reshuffle to accommodate the new image.

Drag one or more images into an existing collection. The page will reshuffle the layout to accommodate the new photos.
The example below shows two photos being dragged into the Page 4-5 collection.

You can, of course, add blank pages to the project. The timeline collections will update appropriately.

Individual photos may be dragged onto pages. They will be added to the page's timeline collection. You can also drag a photo from one collection to a new page or new collection.

Note that photos are still sorted by File Time/Date within the collections.