Xjyuk

I would like to have two lines of text with my time line below. How could I do this:

MWE:

 documentclassarticle
 usepackagetikz

 begindocument

 begintikzpicture
 % draw horizontal line 

 draw (0,0) -- (12,0);

 % draw vertical line
 foreach x in 0,2,9,12
 draw (x cm,3pt) -- (x cm,-3pt);

 % draw nodes
 draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt] Starts;
 % draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt] Lesson\starts; % <- !
 draw (2,0) node[below=3pt] 10' node[above=3pt] Pre-text;
 draw (9,0) node[below=3pt] 45' node[above=3pt] Text;
 draw (12,0) node[below=3pt] 60' node[above=3pt] Ends;

 endtikzpicture

 enddocument

OUTPUT:

Problem:

When I try to put a new line \ so that 'Lesson starts' appear on top of each other with the command draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt] Lesson\starts; I get this:

Question:

How would I change the above code so "Lesson" is on top of "starts"?

By default, the text of a node is put in an hbox, and therefore occupies only one line. There are several ways to do what you want, one of which is to specify align=left (or similar) for your multiline text node:

 documentclassarticle
 usepackagetikz

 begindocument

 begintikzpicture
 % draw horizontal line

 draw (0,0) -- (12,0);

 % draw vertical lines
 foreach x in 0, 2, 9, 12 draw (x cm,3pt) -- (x cm,-3pt);

 % draw nodes
 draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt, align=left] Lesson\starts; % <- !
 draw (2,0) node[below=3pt] 10' node[above=3pt] Pre-text;
 draw (9,0) node[below=3pt] 45' node[above=3pt] Text;
 draw (12,0) node[below=3pt] 60' node[above=3pt] Ends;

 endtikzpicture

 enddocument

For details and other techniques, see Text Parameters: Alignment and Width for Multi-Line Text in the PGF & TikZ manual (page 229 for version 3.1.3).

Briefly, the other techniques given in the manual are:

• 
  

  use a tabular inside your node:

  
  
  

  draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt]
   %
   begintabular@l@
   Lesson\
   starts
   endtabular%
   ;
  

  
  


• 
  

  ask for automatic line-breaking inside the node by specifying a fixed text width:

  
  
  

  draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt, text width=3em]
   Lesson starts;
  

  
  

Play with the width of the text:

 [![documentclassarticle
 usepackagetikz

 begindocument

 begintikzpicture
 % draw horizontal line

 draw (0,0) -- (12,0);

 % draw vertical line
 foreach x in 0,2,9,12
 draw (x cm,3pt) -- (x cm,-3pt);

 % draw nodes
 draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt,text width = 1cm, align=center] Starts New ;
 % draw (0,0) node[below=3pt] 00' node[above=3pt] Lesson\starts; % <- !
 draw (2,0) node[below=3pt] 10' node[above=3pt] Pre-text;
 draw (9,0) node[below=3pt] 45' node[above=3pt] Text;
 draw (12,0) node[below=3pt] 60' node[above=3pt] Ends;

 endtikzpicture

 enddocument

One more similar solution with slightly more compact code:

documentclassarticle
usepackagetikz

begindocument
 begintikzpicture[
every node/.style = align=center, text width=3em
 ]
 % draw horizontal line
draw (0,0) -- (12,0);
% draw vertical lines woith nodes
draw ( 0,-3pt) node[below] 00' -- ++ (0,6pt) node[above] Lesson starts;
draw ( 2,-3pt) node[below] 10' -- ++ (0,6pt) node[above] Pre-text;
draw ( 9,-3pt) node[below] 45' -- ++ (0,6pt) node[above] Text;
draw (12,-3pt) node[below] 60' -- ++ (0,6pt) node[above] Ends;
 endtikzpicture
 enddocument