Timeline

Timelines show aggregated data as a histogram.

See Timeline Data for data guidance.

Panel Overview

The following image gives an overview of the anatomy of the timeline panel.

The Timeline Overview will always span the entire date range of the Microreact Project's data, regardless of what filters are applied.

The Filtered Timeline will only show the portion of the data that has been selected (by defining a date range or by selecting data in another way, such as using a data slicer)

Timeline configuration

Click on the configuration icon to change the timeline type (bar chart or normalised bar chart) .

Area charts

TIP: To create an area chart over time, you can create that using a Chart panel instead of the timeline panel. Use an Area Chart as a secondary timeline.

Area chart as secondary timeline

Bar Chart

Shows number of samples per date unit, stacking each colouring category

Bar Chart example

Normalised Bar Chart

Shows proportion of samples per colouring category, regardless of the total number of samples in each date unit.

Normalised Bar Chart example

Defining the Date Range

Silent short video showing Timeline filtering options

The date range can be set by typing the start and end dates, or clicking on the calendar icons and selecting a date, or by dragging the Timeline Overview endpoints.

Using the calendar icons

Using the Timeline Overview endpoints

Dragging the window

Once a date range has defined, the selection window on the Timeline Overview can be moved around to look at the same size window over different timeframes. To drag the window, hover the mouse over the bottom part of the timeline overview until a dark box appears, and drag that box to the left or right.

Units

The units of the timeline features can be changed using the unit button in the panel configuration menu. This can be used to adjust the width of the bars when either of the bar chart types are selected in the type menu.\

Playback

The timeline can be played to show changes over time. The unit of time can be changed, and the speed (number of seconds each unit is displayed) can be changed. If the endpoints on the Timeline Overview have been set, then the playback will continue from the endpoint onward. To begin midway through the timeline, select only the first unit of the region you wish to play.