Timeline & navigation
This page covers how the timeline is scaled and how people move around the chart: zoom levels, the starting view, weeks and weekends, the Today line, search, and the top bar. All of these live in the Format pane (the paint-roller icon) unless noted.
Zoom
The timeline can be viewed in six zoom modes:
- Automatic sizes the timeline so the whole project fits the visual's width, and re-fits when the visual is resized or the filtered date range changes.
- Days, Weeks, Months, Quarters and Years set a fixed density (e.g. Days shows every day; Quarters compresses to quarters).
Zooming in the top bar
The zoom controls in the top bar are:
- The zoom dropdown: pick any of the six modes. It shows Custom (greyed out) after a free zoom with the mouse or trackpad, so you can always see that you've left a preset and pick one again.
- − / +: step to the next coarser or finer mode (Days ↔ Weeks ↔ Months ↔ Quarters ↔ Years).
- Auto Fit: switch back to Automatic.
Zooming keeps the date you're looking at in place. A zoom from the top bar stays centred on the selected task, or on the middle of the view when nothing is selected.
Zooming on the timeline
| Gesture | What it does |
|---|---|
| Ctrl + mouse wheel, or a trackpad pinch | Zoom freely around the date under the pointer |
| Drag the top row of the date header | Pan the timeline |
| Drag the bottom row of the date header | Stretch or compress the timeline |
These free zooms last for the session only; they never change the report's saved zoom.
Selecting a task (in the task list, owner circles or extra columns) whose bar is off screen scrolls the timeline to show it.
Set the default zoom
Format → Zoom and scroll → Default zoom preset
Choose the zoom mode applied when the report loads. Default: Automatic.
You can also set it from the top bar: in an editing view, picking a mode in the zoom dropdown or with the − / + or Auto Fit buttons saves it as the report's default zoom. In reading view, a viewer's zoom change lasts only for their session.
Default scroll position
Format → Zoom and scroll → Default scroll position
When the timeline is wider than the visual, this sets where it's scrolled to on load:
- Start — just before the first task or milestone drawn (default). Tasks hidden under a collapsed parent don't count.
- Today — centered on the current date.
- End — the end of the schedule.
Pair Default scroll position → Today with a Week or Month zoom to open reports right at the current point in the project.
Weeks and weekends
Format → Appearance → General
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| First day of week | The day weeks start on in the timeline: Monday, Sunday or Saturday. It sets the week boundaries and the week numbers on the date header. | Monday |
| Shade weekends | Shades the weekend days when the timeline is zoomed in to days or weeks. | On |
| Weekend days | The days shaded as the weekend: Saturday–Sunday or Friday–Saturday. | Saturday–Sunday |
How the weeks are numbered depends on the first day of the week:
- Monday uses ISO 8601 week numbers.
- Sunday and Saturday count the week containing 1 January as week 1.
Weekend shading only appears at the day and week scales. Coarser zooms don't show it, and it is turned off in high-contrast mode.
Today line
Format → Today line
A vertical line marking the current date, so viewers can instantly see what's overdue and what's upcoming.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show | Turns the Today line on or off. | On |
| Color | The line's color. | #D64550 (red) |
| Style | Solid, Dashed, or Dotted. | Solid |
The top bar (search & zoom controls)
Format → Appearance → Header
The top bar holds the search box and the zoom controls, grouped together on the left. You can hide the whole bar or just the search box.
| Setting | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|
| Show top bar | Shows or hides the entire top bar (search and zoom controls). | On |
| Show search bar | Shows or hides just the search box. | On |
| Font | Font family and size (7–24 pt) of the timeline's date labels. The size also scales the top bar itself — its height, controls and icons. | Segoe UI, 10 pt |
Hiding the top bar also hides the zoom dropdown and buttons, so the chart opens at your Default zoom preset with no way to pick another mode. Viewers can still zoom on the timeline itself with Ctrl + wheel, a trackpad pinch or the date header.
Searching
When the search box is visible, viewers can type to find and highlight tasks by name — handy for large projects. Search is a viewing aid; it doesn't filter the underlying data.
Keyboard navigation
The task list is a treegrid: press Tab to move focus into it, then navigate the rows with the keyboard. Focus is always visible, and the chart scrolls to follow it.
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| ↑ / ↓ | Move to the previous / next row |
| → | Expand a collapsed parent, or move to its first child |
| ← | Collapse an expanded parent, or move up to its parent |
| Page Up / Page Down | Move one screenful |
| Home / End | Jump to the first / last row |
| Enter or Space | Expand or collapse a parent; select a task |
| Ctrl/⌘ + Enter | Add a task to the current selection |
| → on a task with links | Open its URLs |
Task names, hierarchy level, owner and extra-column values are all exposed to screen readers, and hover, selection and focus states stay visible in high-contrast mode.
When a report author turns off the visual's interactions, the chart becomes static: selection, collapsing and the resize handle are all disabled.
Related
- Change bar sizes and grid lines → Progress, colors & appearance
- Full list of settings → Formatting reference