Ladies and gentlemen, hold on to your seats because I have some exciting news for you! Google Sheets has just introduced a game-changing feature called the Chronological View. Now, I know what you’re thinking – how can a spreadsheet feature be exciting? But let me tell you, this update is nothing short of amazing. It allows you to create a Gantt chart in Google Sheets, filling a functional gap that has been around for years. And the best part? You don’t need to find plutonium to power it up!
What is the Chronological View in Google Sheets?
Let’s talk about this impressive feature called the Chronological View. It is the direct result of Google’s switch to a canvas-based rendering, which got me all excited again. In a nutshell, it’s a new way to visualize your spreadsheet data chronologically instead of looking at countless tiny cells. This helps you make sense of the world in a way that finally makes sense!
To use it, simply open any Google Sheets file that has at least one column of dates. Then, go to Insert > Chronology, and you’ll be prompted to select a range of data to create the timeline (don’t forget to include the date!). Click OK, and even though the menu is called Insert, it will create a new tab in the spreadsheet where the selected data will be transformed into a horizontal “timeline”.
In my opinion, the result looks like cutting your spreadsheet in Final Cut Pro at 3 am for the third consecutive day, with the director not answering your calls, and you’ve consumed an entire family-sized bag of Swedish candies, and the final scene of the project due tomorrow is just not coming together… AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Sorry, I just relived a moment from my film school days.
The point is, you are now visualizing your spreadsheet based on time instead of row number. The elements you see are called Cards, organized from left to right based on the first column of dates in your selection. They can be stretched based on a second column of dates (either an end date, a duration in days, or a time range in the format hh:mm:ss) and grouped based on a third column.
This allows you to quickly see who’s responsible for each initiative and how close their deadlines are.
You can even change the view to display it by day, week, month, quarter, year, or just what’s on your plate today.
The cards can also be colored based on the conditional formatting of the original sheet, allowing you to do things like changing the color of a card to red if it has unfinished related tasks or green if it has been successfully completed.
Note: Only the background color changes, while the font color remains black, so use light colors for better readability.
What is it all about?
Google’s announcement has already done a lot of the work for me by specifically mentioning that this feature makes it easier and faster to interact with project information while improving your ability to manage things like marketing campaigns, project milestones, schedules, and cross-team collaborations.
The target market here seems to be project managers, and if you are a project manager reading this article, chances are you already have strong opinions about this feature. However, I believe there are many interesting possibilities for other areas of application:
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To-Do Lists: Deb from Zapier was right, you should use Google Sheets as a to-do list. Adding a chronological view can not only help you see what needs to be done now but also give you a better understanding of what you have already accomplished (and to me, to-do lists that celebrate past successes are too rare).
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Dashboards: If you’re not a project manager, looking at a spreadsheet filled with deadlines probably isn’t something you’re used to (or enjoy). This quick solution offers a visual way to track what has been accomplished, where things currently stand, and what’s coming up next.
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Time Visualization: I’m fascinated by spreadsheets intended for strictly personal use, like Maxwell Neely-Cohen’s spreadsheet with the songs that stick in his head when he wakes up. This feature makes me imagine spreadsheets filled with little journals, like the Butterfly Effect, visualized on a cascading and moving timeline as life unfolds.
Is it just a Gantt chart in Google Sheets?
Absolutely!
People have been trying to create Gantt charts in Google Sheets for a while now (as evidenced by the surprisingly high number of monthly searches on the topic). Google has heard their pleas, and even though they call it the Chronological View, it’s actually Gantt chart display.
Why should I use this instead of other Gantt chart applications?
The big advantage here is that Google Sheets already integrates with everything (including Zapier), making it easy to import data from existing spreadsheets or other applications and dive right into a usable timeline. If you don’t have that data in Google Sheets yet, here are some common workflows to help you get started.
It’s also important to remember that Google Sheets now offers nearly 500 functions, and the ability to create your own functions with Google Apps Scripts. This means you can make all the data on the cards fully dynamic – for example, using the NOW() function to stretch a card from its start date to the current time, or using DAYS() to see how far away you are from a deadline and adjust the priority of a card accordingly.
Lastly, chances are you or your team are already using Google products. Even though it’s “just a Gantt chart,” it’s a Gantt chart in a product you already have access to, and that shouldn’t be overlooked. If you’ve ever had to explain the features of a new application to a colleague or make sure your boss remembers their password for something they haven’t used in months, you know the relief of having everything in one place.
Why should I not use this?
Now, I must address a potential concern. I’m “the Google Sheets guy” at work (my fault, I know), and I understand that all of this might seem like a free advertisement for Google. But I want to make this point as clear as possible: no matter what features they add, Google Sheets will always be “the spreadsheet tool.” It’s not “the survey tool” or “the application script tool,” for example. While being a proverbial jack of all trades is not a bad thing, it may not immediately replace other applications that consider the Gantt chart a core feature, such as ClickUp or monday.com. Applications that have built themselves around the Gantt chart probably have more tools – and more stable tools – to build this type of view, if that’s something you rely on.
It’s also not a one-size-fits-all solution for organizations. The timeline cards are not particularly accessible or customizable, which means users who rely on screen readers or vertical organization may prefer the default spreadsheet view. This will not replace the need to keep your data clean, sorted, and meaningful. (Sorry!)
Let’s go back, Marty! Back… to the spreadsheet!
Will the Chronological View revolutionize the way you work? Maybe not. But it serves as a reminder that a spreadsheet is often much more than it seems on the surface. When done right – meaning with clear intention, rigorous testing, and descriptive values – it can be a vision of the past, present, or future that we want to build for ourselves and others.
Creating a spreadsheet is not just about putting numbers in a grid. It’s a way of telling a story, whether it’s the story of your business, your profits, your projects, or your dreams. And even though the Chronological View is just another canvas to tell that story, I’ll take all the canvases I can get.
