Activity Timeline User Guide

The Activity Timeline gives you a comprehensive, chronological view of the activity that has taken place on an Intake, Matter, or any other type of record. Use it to:

• Spend less time reviewing everything that has been done on a case.
• See what's coming up next.
• Jump around in time without scrolling through multiple pages or hundreds of records.
• Search and filter the timeline to quickly find what you're looking for.
• Dive into details without losing the context of what happened before and after.
• View and edit records in a responsive sidebar without leaving the Activity Timeline.

Purpose

The purpose of this guide is to act as a comprehensive overview for navigating and using the Activity Time. For more information on setting up and configuring the Activity Timeline, please see our Activity Timeline Setup Assistant article.

Due to the length of this article, we encourage you to use the Table of Contents below to navigate to the desired section. We've also added "Back to Top" tags at the end of each major section to make it easier to jump back to the Table of Contents.

Activity Timeline Sections

Main Sections

Below is an image, and corresponding key, that describe the main sections found within the Activity Timeline.

1. Global Filters (set using the Filters menu in the Activity Timeline Setup Assistant)
2. Search bar
3. Filter menu
4. Print Timeline Button
5. Activity table
6. Mini-timeline

 

Additional Sections

The image below provides information on more detailed sections found within the Activity Timeline.

1. Table options
2. Month/year header
3. Activity record row
   • Name
   • Body
   • User
   • Date
   • Additional fields
   • Activity actions menu
     • View
     • Edit
4. Activity record sidebar
   • Record actions icons
     • Delete
     • Edit
     • Open in new tab
   • Record fields

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Navigate the Timeline

You can navigate the timeline by scrolling up and down, or by clicking any month in the "mini-timeline", to jump to that time period.

 

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View Activity Records in the Sidebar

To view more information about any record in the timeline, click the blue Subject field to open the sidebar.

 

You can also choose the View option from the action menu within the record row.

 

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Edit a Record in the Sidebar

To edit an activity record in the sidebar, click the pencil (edit) icon at the top of the sidebar, or within any editable field. You will need to Save any changes you make.

 

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Open a Record in a New Tab

To open any activity in a new tab, first open the record in the sidebar. Then click the Open in New Tab icon at the top of the sidebar.

 

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Delete an Activity Record

To delete an activity record, first open the record in the sidebar. Then click the trash can (delete) icon at the top of the sidebar.

You will be asked to confirm that you want to delete the activity record.

 

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Switch Between Records in the Sidebar

To focus on another record with the sidebar already open, click the Up or Down arrows within the sidebar. This will shift focus to the record above or below the current record within the timeline.

 

You can also simply click a different record within the timeline.

 

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Close the Activity Record Sidebar

To close the sidebar, click the X icon.

 

You can also click the blue Subject field within the currently focused record row.

 

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Search for Records

To search for records, enter a search term in the Search Timeline bar at the top of the component and hit your Return key.

The timeline table will then show you only records where that search term appears. All fields which are mapped to the table will be searched. (Fields that are not mapped to the timeline table will not be searched.)

 

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Clear a Search

To clear your search and show all records again, click the X icon within the search bar.

 

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Filter (Show/Hide) Records

In addition to searching for specific words or phrases, you can also filter the records within the timeline by a combination of criteria:

• Date
  
  • All records
  • All past records
  • All records from the past X days
  • All future records
  • All records in the next X days
• User
  • All users
  • Current user
• Activity Type

Apply a Filter

To apply a filter, click the filter menu icon to open the menu. Then select the filter values you wish to apply, and click the Apply button.

 

Change or Remove Filters Within the Filter Menu

To change or remove filters using the filter menu, click the filter menu icon to open the menu. Then select the values you wish to change/remove, and click the Apply button.

 

You can also click the Restore Defaults link within the filter menu to restore the filter options to their default state. You will still need to click Apply to apply this change.

 

Remove Filters Using the Filter Pills

Remove individual filters while leaving others in place by clicking the X button within individual filter pills.

 

You can also click the Clear All link within the filter pills section to remove all applied filters.

 

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Expand Activity Rows to Show the Body Field

The Body field for activity records is shown below the other values within the same row. By default, this field may be either expanded or collapsed, depending on how your admin has configured the Activity Timeline.

Expand/Collapse an Individual Row

To expand or collapse the Body for any individual activity record, click the caret icon to the left of the row.

 

Expand/Collapse all Visible Rows

To expand or collapse the Body field for all activity records within the timeline table, click the Expand All or Collapse All link within the table options section of the Activity Timeline.

 

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View More Activity Records

The Activity Timeline will load either 20, 50, or 100 records initially, depending on the settings your admin has chosen. 

If there are additional records that can be shown, you will see a blue View More link at the top and/or bottom of the timeline table. Click this link to load more activity records.

 

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Switch the sort order of activity records

The Activity Timeline initially sorts activity records from newest to oldest. To reverse the sort order and show the oldest records first, click the Reverse Sort Order icon () within the table options section.

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Refresh the Timeline Table 

To refresh the timeline table and check for new activity records, click the Refresh icon () within the table options section.

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Wrap/clip text within the timeline table

The Subject of any activity record may be longer than the available space within the timeline table. In this case, the Activity Timeline will either clip the extra text (hiding it), or wrap the text.

Your admin will set either Wrap Text or Clip Text as the default setting. You can switch this setting by clicking the link within the table options section.

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Exporting the Timeline as a PDF

A PDF version of the Activity Timeline can be downloaded directly from the timeline. Just click the Printer icon near the top of the Timeline to download a PDF copy to your local machine. 

Some things to keep in mind when generating these PDFs:

• The PDF will include everything within the Activity Timeline.
• The PDF will respect (display) fields that are expanded within the Activity Timeline.
  • Keep in mind that this includes if you have clicked "Expand All" to view all nested content, and can lead to some very long PDFs.
• If you collapse a full month then it will some the month header but not the records within it.
• The PDF will strip out HTML tags, making it easier to read.
• The PDF will respect filters and will hide those results from the PDF. 

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Create Records From Within the Timeline

You can determine which records, if any, are able to be created directly from the Activity Timeline. After doing so you can create new records directly from the the Activity Timeline.

1. First, you will need to add these objects (if not already added) to the Activity Timeline using the Activity Timeline Setup Assistant.
2. After they are adding, you can configure which objects can be edited or added. 
3. Once everything is configured correctly, you can click the New button within the Activity Timeline.
   
   
   
   
4. After clicking New, you can select the Record you would like to create. 
5. Fill in the necessary information in the box that appears. 
6. Click Save. 

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View Chatter Comments on the Activity Timeline

Chatter is a powerful communication and tracking tool offered by Salesforce. The Activity Timeline takes advantage of Chatter (similar to other objects) by allowing users at your firm to comment on tasks and track their progress. 

Within the Activity Timeline you can click on a Chatter post, recognized by the speech bubble icon, and a preview window will appear. 

Within the preview window you can view the main post, any replies/comments to that post, or any attachments to that post.

You can also configure the Activity Timeline to display Chatter Comments separate from Chatter Posts. Chatter Comments will appear with the filled speech bubble icon, while Chatter Post will have the open bubble (see image below for examples).

If Chatter Comments are configured to appear as separate objects, then clicking on them will display the entire conversation with the selected comment highlighted.

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Related articles

• Activity Timeline FAQs
• Activity Timeline Setup Assistant