Track date-based work with timeline view

Timeline view is the first new view experience. When you switch to timeline, the look and layout of the sheet controls are different, and some features such as the file menu, access to forms, and automations may not yet be available. 

If you don’t have a business or enterprise plan, you need to upgrade in order to use timeline view. Reach out to your account manager or contact support to upgrade. 

Timeline view allows you to:

• See date-based work on a timeline
• Group data into horizontal lanes and filter down to specific items
• View and edit milestone and bar details
• Zoom in or out to see more or less data 
• Scroll to see future or past work

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Access timeline view

On a sheet, navigate to the top toolbar where you can switch views, and select Timeline.

Configure your sheet for timeline view

Timeline view is available in any sheet with at least two date columns (not backed by a column formula). If your sheet has two or more date columns, then the first two date columns are automatically set as the start date and end date in project settings.  Items missing a start and/or end date will not appear on timeline. 

If a sheet does not have at least two date columns, the Timeline option in the sheet layout switcher is not selectable. 

If a sheet has project settings configured with dependencies enabled, and predecessor/duration columns defined, then timeline uses duration values to determine whether an item appears as a bar (1+ day duration) or milestone (0 day duration).

Project settings must be configured and edited in grid view. 

Edit timeline items

Timeline view displays data as bars (multi-day duration events) or milestones (zero-day duration events). Hover over bars and milestones to see their full name and their start and end dates. Changes to bars and milestones made by other users are displayed in real time. 

View and edit timeline item details

Right click and select Edit details or double click on the bars or milestones to see all of the item’s details and edit them as needed. Changes are saved immediately.

Edit item colors

Timeline displays task bar colors from Gantt, card, or calendar view on its bars and milestones. To edit these bar and milestone colors, switch to Gantt, card, or calendar view and either:

• Manually apply a task bar color by right-clicking on the color bar
• Apply conditional formatting rules, specifically setting the task bar color

Edit item titles

Bar and milestone titles are pulled from the sheet’s primary column by default. You can customize which column is used to define item titles via the Settings toolbar button. Only text/number or auto number columns can be selected. When you change the item title, these changes are applied for all viewers of the sheet. 

Assign contacts to items

To assign bars and milestones to contacts, return to grid view, select Edit Column Properties for the contact column, and add the contacts to the contact list. See Specify preferred contacts in a contact list column for more instructions.

Use timeline view

Group items on the timeline

Grouping organizes data on the timeline into horizontal lanes. Timeline view supports up to two levels of grouping; data can be grouped by any dropdown list (single-select), contact list (single-select), or symbol column. 

To add grouping:

1. On the toolbar, select Group. 
2. In each dropdown, select the column you want to group by. 

Grouping is a user-specific preference. Smartsheet remembers the applied grouping for each user for each timeline.

Uncategorized lane

When applying grouping, you can choose to show or hide the uncategorized lane by toggling the Group toolbar button. Like other grouping settings, preferences for the uncategorized lane are saved per user for each timeline. 

Item hierarchy 

A dropdown arrow next to the item title denotes whether that item has subitems in the same grouping lane. Hierarchy is respected on timeline view; parent items appear above their child items. Bar and milestone stack order is determined by: (1) hierarchy level, (2)  start date, (3) end date, (4) grid row order.  If conditional formatting is not applied on your sheet, then parent bars are displayed with a darker color shade on the timeline. 

Timescale controls

You can change the timeline to show days, weeks, months, quarters, or years using the dropdown in the toolbar. You can also zoom in or out of the timeline using the toolbar controls, and jump to today by selecting the Today button.

Filters in timeline view

In the toolbar, you can select any existing filter, switch between filters, or turn filters off. Filters applied in grid, card, Gantt, or calendar view are automatically applied when you switch into timeline view, and vice versa. To create new, edit, or delete filters, you must switch to grid view.

Share your timeline

You can share your sheet with collaborators directly from timeline view. You can set timeline as a default view with a specific filter applied 

1. In the sheet, select Share in the upper right. 
2. Insert any people or groups as needed. 
3. Select Edit next to Default view. 
4. Here you can specify which filter should be applied. 
5. Select Share or Copy link

Timeline view limitations

• Not available for reports
• Can’t embed it on dashboards
• Doesn’t display in Workapps
• Can’t be printed or exported
• Doesn’t include comments / attachments