Google adds timeline view to Sheets as part of Smart Canvas

Google introduced Smart Canvas last year as a reimagined approach to working with others in Workspace and has been steadily adding features to apps under the Workspace umbrella. Yesterday Google added one more feature in Smart Canvas that will be very welcomed by fans of Google Sheets and productivity apps, as this melds the two together.

Google is adding an interactive timeline view to Google Sheets to aid with productivity and keeping track of projects. This new visual layer shows project information stored in Sheets, such as the task’s start and end dates, description, and owner. The timeline view can make it easy to interact with project information and can help with managing things like marketing campaigns, project milestones, schedules, cross-team collaboration, etc. If you click on a card in the timeline, the sidebar will show you more information about the project as well as looking at your timeline at different points in time (day, week, month, quarters, year, and multiyear).

Workspace users will be able to use this feature by going to Insert > Timeline, choosing a data range, and then setting the attributes in the sidebar for the timeline. Once the timeline is made, users will be able to view it in different ways, such as at different points in time, the current date, or changing the way it looks by adjusting the spacing or colors.

There is no admin control for this feature, and it has already begun rolling out to Rapid Release domains. Scheduled Release domains won’t see the feature pop up until November 16th; however, both release tracks will take about two weeks to fully roll out. Availability will be as follows:

• Available to Google Workspace Essentials, Business Standard, Business Plus, Enterprise Essentials, Enterprise Standard, Enterprise Plus, Education Fundamentals, Education Plus, Education Standard, the Teaching and Learning Upgrade, and Nonprofits customers
• Not available to legacy G Suite Basic and Business customers
• Not available to users with personal Google Accounts