Explore data in the timeline

You have many choices when exploring your data using the timeline.

Navigate through the timeline

Once you create a timeline, you have options, outlined below, for zooming in and out of different temporal extents.

• With the timeline view active, click Full Extent on the contextual Timeline tab to see the full extent of your data. The labels used for this full extent are dynamic and depend on the temporal length between the first and last time stamp on the timeline. You can also select the Full Extent option in the Time Scale drop-down menu on the contextual Timeline tab to navigate to the full extent of your data.
• In addition to the full extent, you can use the Time Scale drop-down menu to view your data in fixed units of time. For example, the Week view shows one week on the timeline. When you choose a time scale from the drop-down menu, the temporal extent begins just before the first time stamp in the data.

  The time scale options are as follows:

  • Minute
  • Quarter-Hour
  • Hour
  • Day
  • Week
  • Month
  • Year
  • Decade
  • Full Extent

• To zoom to a specific temporal subset of your current view, click Rectangle Zoom on the contextual Timeline tab. Then, click and drag in the timeline to zoom to a specific extent. Time scale labels update dynamically as you zoom.
• If you have a scroll wheel on your mouse, you can use it to zoom in and out in the timeline. Unlike the Time Scale drop-down menu, this function zooms based on the location of the pointer. Time scale labels update dynamically as you zoom.

In addition to zooming in and out, you can also navigate horizontally along the timeline, as follows:

• To pan horizontally in the timeline, click Pan on the contextual Timeline tab. Then, click and drag to the left or right in the Timeline pane to pan forward or backward in time.
• If data exists beyond the current extent of the timeline, click Previous Feature or Next Feature to skip to the time stamps of these features.

Investigate data in the timeline

In addition to navigation, you can investigate details and query features in your timeline using the following controls:

• Click Select on the contextual Timeline tab to select features in the timeline. Click and drag the pointer to select features. The selection is dynamic across all views of your data in your project.
• Click Clear on the contextual Timeline tab to clear any current selection in the map.
• Click Pan and click any feature in your Timeline to view the pop-up for that feature.

  Learn more about configuring pop-ups

• Hover over a feature in the timeline to view the ToolTip for that feature. You can configure which field is displayed in the ToolTip on the Timeline Layer Properties dialog box.
• To select features in the timeline using attribute and spatial queries, click Select By on the contextual Timeline tab and click the appropriate query. Click Select By Attributes to select features based on their attribute values; click Select By Location to select features using the location of features in another layer or stand-alone table; or click Select By Date and Time to select features based on date and time ranges or parts. For the Input Rows parameter, choose the layer or stand-alone table from which you want to select features. Specify all the appropriate parameters and click OK to execute the query.

Note:

Timelines honor any active definition queries set for a layer or stand-alone table.

Expand and collapse lanes

Timelines provide an alternate mode in which you can expand the timeline into multiple horizontal lanes that are stacked on top of each other. Features are split into different lanes in a variety of ways. First, features are split into lanes based on their layer. Additionally, you can create lanes that are based on unique values in the field of a layer or stand-alone table. Follow the steps below to split your timeline into multiple lanes.

1. Click Enable Lanes on the contextual Timeline tab to split features into lanes.
2. Right-click the timeline layer you want to split into lanes and click Properties .
3. In the Category field drop-down arrow, select the field to use to split lanes.
4. Click OK.
The timeline is updated to display data in separate lanes.
5. Optionally, click Show Lane Names on the contextual Timeline tab to label each lane with the timeline layer name and category field value if applicable.