World History Timeline
Render horizontal bars along a time axis, each representing a named period with a start and end date or year. Color bars by region or category and optionally highlight delayed segments. Works equally well for ancient civilizations spanning millennia or modern project Gantt charts spanning months.
Examples
When to Use
- Visualizing the rise and fall of civilizations, empires, or eras
- Gantt-style project timelines with scheduled vs. delayed segments
- Comparing durations across categories (product lifecycles, contracts)
- Any dataset with a label, start, and end time/year
Data Roles
Settings
Timeline
Sort By
dropdownHow lanes are sorted: Start Time, Region, Category, End Time, or Duration.
Default:timeLane Padding
numberVertical padding ratio between bars (0–0.9).
Default:0.32Bar Corner Radius
numberRounded corners on timeline bars (0–24 px).
Default:2Show Top Axis
booleanDisplay the time axis at the top.
Default:trueShow Bottom Axis
booleanDisplay the time axis at the bottom.
Default:trueShow Today Line
booleanDraw a vertical marker at today's date.
Default:trueShow Crosshair
booleanShow a crosshair on hover for precise date reading.
Default:trueAppearance
Delayed Color
colorColor used for delayed segments when a Status field is bound.
Default:#f97316Dim Before Today
booleanReduce opacity of bars before today's date.
Default:falseBefore Today Opacity
numberOpacity for dimmed past segments (0.05–1).
Default:0.35Data Labels
Show
booleanDisplay civilization/item labels on bars.
Default:trueFont Size
numberLabel font size (6–40).
Default:9Common settings like Legend, Tooltip, and Color Scheme are covered in Shared Concepts.
Tips & Best Practices
- Sort by region to group related bars together, or by duration to emphasize the longest-running items
- Use the Type/Status field to distinguish scheduled vs. delayed segments with different colors
- Enable "Dim Before Today" to visually separate past periods from current and future ones