The Timeline View renders your tasks as horizontal bars on a time axis, giving you a visual Gantt-chart perspective of your project schedule. Drag, resize, and rearrange tasks to plan dates interactively.

Overview

• Hierarchical Display — parent tasks and subtasks shown in a collapsible tree.
• Horizontal Bars — each task spans from its start date to its due date; colour reflects task status.
• Resizable Split-Pane — a draggable divider separates the task list from the timeline canvas.
• Collapsible Parents — expand or collapse parent tasks to focus on specific areas.
• Today Indicator — a vertical line marks the current date on the timeline.
• Dependency Arrows — SVG connectors drawn between linked tasks showing Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, and Start-to-Finish relationships.
• Auto-Scheduling — when a predecessor task's dates change, dependent tasks automatically shift to maintain the dependency relationship.

Zoom Levels

Switch between three zoom levels using the Day / Week / Month buttons in the toolbar:

• Day — each column represents a single day. Best for short sprints.
• Week — each column represents a week. Good for iteration planning.
• Month — each column represents a month. Ideal for roadmap overviews.

Interactive Bars

Task bars on the timeline support three interaction modes:

• Move — drag the body of a bar to shift both the start and due dates.
• Resize Left — drag the left handle to change the start date.
• Resize Right — drag the right handle to change the due date.
• Click — single-click a bar to open the Task Details Panel.

Task List Panel

The left side of the split-pane contains the task list. It mirrors the hierarchical structure of the Grid View with these additional features:

• Drag Handle — reposition the divider to give more space to the list or the timeline.
• Collapse / Expand — toggle subtask visibility with the arrow icon.
• Inline Title Edit — double-click a task title to rename it in place.
• Context Menu — right-click for actions: add subtask, promote, cut, copy, paste, copy link, move to project, open details, and delete.

Smart Filtering

Narrow the timeline to exactly the tasks you need:

• Status Filter — show only active, completed, or specific statuses.
• Priority Filter — focus on critical and high-priority items.
• Search — type keywords to filter tasks by title.

Usage

Opening the Timeline

1. Click the Timeline icon in the view switcher in the header, or
2. Open the Command Palette and run Project Planner: Open Timeline (Gantt) View.

Adjusting Dates

1. Move a bar — click and drag the bar body horizontally.
2. Resize — grab the left or right handle and drag to change start or due date.
3. Release to save. Dates are persisted immediately to the project's task file. If Markdown Sync is enabled, the corresponding .md file is also updated.

Dependency Arrows

Click the arrow toggle button in the toolbar to show or hide dependency connectors. Arrows are drawn between linked task bars using right-angle routing, colour-coded by dependency type. When auto-scheduling is enabled (Settings → Dependency Scheduling), changing a predecessor's dates automatically cascades to dependent tasks.

Navigating the Timeline

Click the Go to date button in the toolbar to jump to today or choose a specific date. Scroll horizontally on the timeline canvas to move through time.

Managing Hierarchy

• Make Subtask — right-click a task → Make subtask to nest it under the task above.
• Promote — right-click a subtask → Promote to parent to move it up one level.

Reordering Tasks

Drag rows in the task list panel to reorder. The following rules apply:

• Tasks can be reordered within the same parent.
• Dropping a task onto another task nests it as a subtask.
• Dropping between tasks repositions it at that level.

Resizing Panels

Drag the vertical divider between the task list and the timeline chart to allocate more space to either side. The panel width is saved to settings and persists across sessions.

Zoom Control

Use the Day / Week / Month buttons in the toolbar. The timeline automatically extends the date range to fill the viewport at each zoom level.

Task Display Rules

Date Handling

• Tasks with both a start date and a due date render as a bar spanning the range.
• Tasks with only a due date render as a single-day bar on that date.
• Tasks with no dates are placed at today's date with a one-day span. They still appear in the task list and on the canvas.

Bar Colors

Bar colour reflects the task's current status:

• Not Started — gray
• In Progress — blue
• Blocked — red
• Completed — green

Visual Indicators

• Today Line — a vertical line marking the current date on the canvas.
• Dependency Arrows — right-angle SVG connectors between linked bars, colour-coded by type (FS/SS/FF/SF).
• Auto-Scheduled Indicator — a 📐 icon in the task list's dependency cell indicates auto-scheduling is active for that task.

Integration with Other Views

• Task Details Panel — click any bar to open full task editing in the details panel.
• Grid View — changes made in the Grid View are reflected on the timeline instantly.
• Board View — status changes on the Board update bar colours in real time.
• Markdown Sync — when enabled, all timeline date edits are written back to task .md files immediately.

Tips & Best Practices

1. Always set both a start date and a due date for tasks you want to visualize clearly on the timeline.
2. Use the Week zoom as your default — it balances detail and context.
3. Collapse parent tasks to get a high-level roadmap view; expand them for sprint planning.
4. Enable dependency arrows when reviewing scheduling dependencies; toggle them off to reduce visual noise day-to-day.
5. Leverage the today indicator to quickly assess whether the project is on track.
6. Resize bars carefully; the grid snaps to the nearest day boundary.
7. Use filters to create focused views — e.g., show only "In Progress" tasks.
8. Keep the task list panel visible for quick context while scrolling the timeline.

Timeline vs. Grid vs. Board

Troubleshooting

Tasks not showing on the timeline

All tasks appear in the task list panel. If a bar isn't visible on the canvas, the task may have no dates set — in which case it is placed at today's date. Check that start and due dates are set if you expect the bar in a specific position.

Bar positions look incorrect after editing Markdown manually

Verify that the date format in the frontmatter follows YYYY-MM-DD. The metadata cache watcher picks up changes automatically; if the bar still looks wrong, close and reopen the Timeline View to force a re-render.

Drag-and-drop not working

Check that you are dragging from the body of the bar (not the handles). The handles resize; the body moves.

Support & Related Pages

• Dashboard View
• Grid View Guide
• Board View (Kanban)
• Dependency Graph View
• Task Details Panel
• FAQ