Timeline View

The Copera Timeline view plots your board items as colored bars along a horizontal time axis — a fast, clean way to see when work happens, how items relate, and how reality is tracking against the plan. Each bar runs from an item's start date to its end date, dependency arrows show the order tasks should follow, progress bars show how far along each item is, and a faint planned-vs-actual baseline reveals at a glance whether work has slipped from where it was first scheduled. Drag a bar to reschedule it, group items into lanes, and zoom the axis from days to months.

The Timeline was rebuilt for smoother, faster performance --- it loads only when you open it, scrolls, pans, and zooms fluidly even with many items, and updates live as your teammates make changes.

Setting Up a Timeline View

When you create a Timeline view, you configure:

1. Start Date column --- The date field that defines when each item begins.
2. End Date column --- The date field that defines when each item ends. An item with only a start date appears as a single-day marker.
3. Color by column (optional) --- A Status or Dropdown column whose colors are applied to the bars, so you can read state at a glance.
4. Group by column (optional) --- A Status, Dropdown, or Users column that organizes items into horizontal lanes.
5. Progress column (optional) --- A column that drives the progress fill inside each bar.
6. Dependency column (optional) --- A link column that connects related items with arrows.
7. Access --- Set the view to Everyone or Private.

info

If your table doesn't yet have the date columns the Timeline needs, Copera can create them for you when you save the view, so you can start planning right away.

Reading the Timeline

Task Bars

Each item appears as a bar:

• The left edge aligns with the start date and the right edge with the end date, so the bar's length shows the item's duration.
• The bar color comes from your Color by column, making status or category readable across the whole timeline.
• A progress fill inside the bar shows how far along the item is when a progress column is configured.
• Items with only a start date show as a small point marker.

Dependency Arrows

When a dependency column is configured, arrows connect related bars to show the order in which work should happen --- so you can follow a chain of tasks from one to the next and spot what is waiting on what.

Planned-vs-Actual Baseline

The Timeline records where each item was originally planned to start and end and shows it as a faint baseline beneath the live bar. As the real dates shift, the baseline stays put, so a glance tells you whether a task has slipped earlier or later than the plan --- without digging into history.

Grouping into Lanes

When a Group by column is set, items are organized into horizontal lanes --- one lane per value of the grouping column:

• Group by Users to give each team member their own lane and see who is working on what.
• Group by Status to put each stage in its own lane.
• Group by Dropdown to separate items by category, project, or any custom list.

Lane headers appear on the left of the view, showing the grouping value as a name, avatar, or label.

Zooming the Time Axis

Use the toolbar to change the time scale so you can plan at the right level of detail:

• Zoom in to a day or week scale for detailed short-term scheduling.
• Zoom out to a month or longer scale for roadmaps and quarterly overviews.

Navigate forward and backward with the toolbar arrows, or click Today to center the view on the current date. Your zoom choice is remembered for the view.

Interacting with Items

• Click an item to open the row detail dialog where you can view and edit every field.
• Drag a bar left or right to change its start and end dates together.
• Drag a bar's edge to resize it and change just the start or just the end date.
• Click an empty spot in a lane to create a new item pre-filled with that date and group value.

Every change saves immediately and is reflected across all of your other views.

Filtering, Sorting, and Searching

All standard toolbar controls are available:

• Filter --- Show only items that match specific criteria.
• Sort --- Control the order of items within each lane.
• Search --- Highlight items matching keywords.

Settings and Options

Setting	Description	Default
Start Date column	The date field that sets each bar's start	First date column
End Date column	The date field that sets each bar's end	Second date column
Color by column	The Status/Dropdown column whose colors paint the bars	None
Group by column	Organizes items into horizontal lanes	None
Progress column	Drives the progress fill inside each bar	None
Dependency column	Connects related items with arrows	None
Zoom level	The time scale of the axis (day to month and beyond)	Remembered per view
Access	Who can see the view (Everyone or Private)	Everyone

Limits and Notes

• The Timeline needs start and end date columns to place bars; without them there is nothing to plot.
• Dependency arrows, progress fills, the baseline, and color require their respective columns to be configured.
• For rigorous scheduling --- critical path, milestones, lag/lead, and PNG/PDF export --- use the Gantt view instead.

Example Use Cases

• A product roadmap grouped by team, colored by status, zoomed to a quarterly scale.
• A campaign plan where the baseline reveals which deliverables have slipped past their original dates.
• A delivery schedule with dependency arrows so everyone can see what is blocked on what.

Tips

tip

Turn on the planned-vs-actual baseline at the start of a project so that, weeks later, a single glance tells you exactly which tasks have drifted from the original plan.

• Group by Users for a team-level picture of who is working on what during a given period.
• Zoom in to a daily scale for stand-ups and out to a monthly scale for executive summaries.
• Drag bars directly on the timeline to reschedule --- changes appear instantly in every other view.
• Pair the Timeline with a Gantt view on the same table when you need both a quick overview and detailed dependency scheduling.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add a Timeline view to a board?

Open the table you want to plan, click the + button next to the existing view tabs, and choose Timeline. Pick the Start Date and End Date columns that position each bar, then optionally choose a column to color by, a column to group by, and a progress or dependency column. Save, and your items appear as bars on the time axis. If your table is missing a date column, Copera can create one for you.

What is the difference between the Timeline view and the Gantt view?

Both plot items as bars on a horizontal time axis. The Timeline view is a lighter, faster planning view that adds progress bars and a planned-vs-actual baseline so you can see how reality is tracking against the original plan. The Gantt view is built for rigorous project scheduling with all four dependency types, critical path analysis, milestones, and PNG/PDF export. Both read from the same table.

What is the planned-vs-actual baseline?

The baseline is a faint marker that records where a task was originally planned to start and end. As the task's real dates shift, the baseline stays put, so you can see at a glance whether work has slipped earlier or later than the original plan.

Can I reschedule a task by dragging it?

Yes. Drag a bar left or right to change its dates, or drag an edge to resize it. Changes save immediately and appear in every other view. You can also zoom the time axis in and out to plan at a daily, weekly, or longer-range scale.

Related Features

• Views Overview --- Compare all eight board view types and learn how to create them.
• Gantt View --- Detailed project scheduling with critical path, milestones, and export.
• Calendar View --- Place the same dated items on a day, week, or month calendar.
• Workload View --- Balance the same dated work against each member's capacity.
• Filters & Sorting --- Narrow the timeline down to exactly the items you care about.