Working with records in the Timeline view

After learning how to create a new timeline view and customize your records in that view, it's time to learn how to work with records in your timeline view. The article below will run you through the end-user experience of working in a timeline view.

Introduction

Adding records to the timeline

• Records can always be added in another view, such as a calendar or grid view, so long as that record meets any filter conditions configured in the timeline view where you want the new record to appear.
• However, you can also create a new record in a timeline view by clicking and holding while scrolling horizontally on your timeline. Your mouse cursor will appear as a crosshair to allow for precise date start and end (if needed).
  • Where you begin your click will be the start date for your new record, and where you end your click will be the end date (if your timeline uses an end date).
• You can also use the + button in the timeline view to create a new record.
• After creating the new record and filling in a few details in the expanded record view, you can adjust that record on your timeline.

Expanding a record

Clicking on an individual record in the Timeline view will open a small window with details about that record and the fields for that record’s current labels. In this minimized record view, you can update a record’s date and field values directly. Clicking the Expand Record button will open that record’s expanded view, and clicking on “Delete” will remove that record from your table.

Collapsing and expanding swimlanes

• You can collapse and expand any individual swimlane by clicking on the arrow next to the name of that swimlane.
• You can also collapse an individual group by clicking on the three-dot menu for a swimlane and choosing the Collapse group option. You can expand or collapse all of your swimlanes at once by clicking on the three-dot menu and selecting either Expand all or Collapse all.

Moving records between swimlanes

The Timeline view displays your records as resources mapped out over time and is an excellent tool to relocate resources where they are needed. In a timeline, you can directly click on a record and drag and drop it to a different swimlane to update that record.

• While you are dragging a record, you can see an outline on the timeline of which swimlane it will fall into.
• Dragging and dropping records into different swimlanes is exceptionally useful for resource allocation or ensuring work is spread out evenly across a team. 
• You can also drag and drop records into nested swimlanes to update multiple values on a record.
• Imagine for a moment that we drag and drop a “Low” priority article record where Ash is the author to another author's “High” nested swimlane.
  • Meaning this record will now have two values updated:
    • The Priority (Low -> High)
    • The assigned author (Ash -> Lee).

Rescheduling records on your timeline

• To change the duration of a record, you can lengthen or shorten it by clicking and dragging on its left or right edges.
• You can also adjust the dates that a record begins and ends (without changing its duration) by clicking and dragging the record earlier or later on the timeline.
• If needed, you can press the Esc key while dragging to cancel, returning your record to its original date before you started dragging.

Viewing all the records in the record list

• In the Timeline view, you can see your records in a list by clicking on the See records button in the top right-hand corner of the view.
• The record list will also indicate if any record is currently hidden on your timeline. The timeline view will hide records with an empty start date (or end date if your timeline specifies one).
• Clicking on the See records button will open up the record list side panel.
• In this record list side panel, you can choose which kinds of records you’d like to see by selecting an option from the dropdown list. You can choose from seeing records: 
  • Without dates, that begin/end on Weekends & holidays, With dates, or see a list of All records.
• You can also use the search bar at the top of the record list to search for records that match the input text.

Creating milestones in a timeline view

• Records that contain an end date, but do not contain a start date will appear as milestones (diamond icons) in your timeline view.
• For additional details to appear about the milestone event, simply hover over the milestone icon.
• You can also click a milestone to drag and drop it (so long as the end date field is not a computed field type).

FAQs