# Timeline View Usage

The Timeline View is a powerful way to visualize and manage your events by category and sub-category, making it ideal for complex schedules, project management, and resource planning.

## What is Timeline View?

Timeline View organizes your calendar into horizontal lanes, each representing a category or sub-category. Events are displayed as blocks along the timeline, grouped by their assigned category. Parent categories can aggregate child events, and you can expand/collapse groups for clarity.

## Key Features

- **Hierarchical Organization:** Events are grouped by category and sub-category, allowing for multi-level organization.
- **Shadow Events:** Parent categories can display shadow events that aggregate child sub-category events for better visual context.
- **Drag-and-Drop:** Easily reassign events to different categories or sub-categories by dragging them between lanes.
- **Expandable Groups:** Collapse or expand categories to focus on specific areas of your schedule.
- **Custom Colors:** Categories and sub-categories can be color-coded for instant recognition.

## How to Use Timeline View

1. **Enable Advanced Categorization:**
   - Go to Full Calendar plugin settings and enable "Advanced Categories".
   - Configure your categories and colors as desired.

2. **Switch to Timeline View:**
   - In the calendar toolbar, click the "Timeline" dropdown and select "Timeline Week" or "Timeline Day".
   - The calendar will reorganize events into lanes by category/sub-category.

3. **Interact with Events:**
   - Drag events between lanes to change their category.
   - Click on events to edit details, including category and sub-category.
   - Expand/collapse categories for a focused view.

## Example

```
Event Title: Work - Project Alpha - Kickoff Meeting
Category: Work
Sub-Category: Project Alpha
```

This event will appear in the "Project Alpha" lane under the "Work" category in Timeline View.

## Tips
- Use sub-categories for granular organization (e.g., "Client A - Design Review").
- Parent categories show shadow events for quick overview of all child events.
- Timeline View works with local, remote, and Google Calendar events.

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For more details, see [Advanced Categories](../events/categories.md) and [Calendar Settings](../settings/fc_config.md).