Set up your sheet for timeline view

Timeline view displays date-based work on a horizontal timeline. Use timeline view to create project roadmaps, or to plan, track, and manage tasks, work, and portfolios.

Who can use this?

Plans:

  • Smartsheet
  • Business
  • Enterprise

Access timeline view

In any sheet, navigate to the view switcher in the top toolbar and select Timeline.

Timeline view is only available if your sheet includes at least one date column that isn’t backed by a column formula.

view picker for timeline view

Configure your sheet for timeline view

Timeline view is available when your sheet has one or more date columns:

  • One date column: Items with a date appear as milestones (diamonds). Items without a date are not shown.
  • Two or more date columns: The first two date columns become the default start and end dates in sheet settings.
    • Items with both dates appear as bars.
    • Items with only one date appear as milestones.
    • Items without any dates won’t appear in the timeline.

Adjust sheet settings

Select the settings icon  Adjust settings.  in the top toolbar. Use the Sheet tab to set up or edit:

  • Start and end date columns
  • Dependencies (duration and predecessor)
  • Month that the fiscal year starts
  • Day the week starts
  • Working hours in a day
  • Working days and non-working days (including company holidays)
  • % Complete

Learn more about each tab in sheet settings.

Switch to grid or Gantt view to adjust Resource Management settings. 

Sheet settings panel

Item stack order

On the timeline, bar and milestone stack order is determined by:

  1. Hierarchy level
  2. Start date
  3. End date
  4. Grid row order

Create and edit items

Timeline view displays your data as:

  • Bars for multi-day items.
  • Milestones for items with only a start or end date, or the start and end dates are the same day. Learn more about milestones. 

If dependencies are enabled in project settings, the timeline uses duration values to determine bar (+1 day duration) or milestone (0 day duration) formatting. 

Hover over an item to see its title, start date, and end date.

Changes made by others are updated in real time.

Create a new item

Users with Editor or Admin permissions can add items.

  1. Select anywhere on the timeline where your cursor shows a blue addition sign  Add row or add column plus sign .
  2. Enter the item’s:
    • Title
    • Start date (required)
    • End date (optional)
  3. Select Add.

Providing a start and end date creates a bar. Providing only a start date creates a milestone.

add an item to timeline view

Delete an item

To delete an item,

  1. Open the item options menu  More kebab menu.
  2. Select Delete item.

Or, you can right-click the item and select Delete item.

delete item in timeline view

View item details

You need Editor or above permissions to edit the fields in the timeline. To do so, you can:

  1. Double-click the item to open the details panel, or hover over the item and use the options menu  More kebab menu. >  Open item details. 

You can edit any visible field. Any hidden columns in grid view don’t appear in the details panel.

  1. Drag and drop the item to: 

When trying to drag and move an item with dependencies enabled and a +1 predecessor, you get a warning that predecessors are being removed.

  • Change the item's start or end date: Grab the start or end of the bar and move it to change the dates. Keep in mind that the duration can’t be less than one. 
  • Move the item to a completely new date range without changing its duration: Grab the entire item and drag it to its new location. Changing the dates doesn’t affect a milestone's duration.

When dependencies are enabled, you cannot edit the dates of a parent bar because they are dictated by its child cards. If you change the dates for child bars, the duration remains the same.  

  • Move the item between lanes: Drag and drop items to different swimlanes. If you drag a parent item, its children don’t move with it. 

Edit timeline items

You can display the title and up to four additional fields on bars. Only the title displays on milestones. By default, item titles use values from the primary column.

  1. On the toolbar, select Show fields.
  2. Toggle the fields you want to display.
  3. Select the text/number or auto number column you want to use as the title. 
edit the title and fields displayed on timeline bars

You can also set how the text is displayed on the item. Use the overflow icon  to set:

  • No overflow  No-overflow.
  • Partial overflow  Partial overflow.
  • Full overflow  Full overflow.

Edit item colors

Task bar colors assigned in Gantt, card, or calendar views carry over into timeline view. To edit lane colors:

  1. Right-click the item you want to change the color of.
  2. Select Set item color.
  3. Select the desired color. 
manual coloring

Apply conditional formatting rules to set task bar color automatically.

If your sheet has at least one conditional formatting rule that sets task bar color, then all bars on the sheet that don’t meet your conditional formatting rule are grey.

File operations

Select the three-dot menu  More kebab menu.  next to the sheet name to open the File menu. Here, you can duplicate your sheet, open the activity log, or export the sheet to Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or a PDF file.