What determines task colours in timeline view, when colours are set to Asana Default?

[David_Ruder]

Need some help here!

We run our busy little agency through Asana, and we’re reorganising how we do that.

I’m trying to make sense of the timeline view. Each client job appears in the All Client Jobs project as a task, which is also in the [client name] jobs project. Each client jobs project has a different colour allocated to it.

In the timeline view of all client jobs, each task appears coloured for each client - Great!

But I’ve noticed that sometimes it colours the task according to the tag. But with other tags it retains its client colour.

What are the rules for colouring tasks in the timeline view - does anyone know - it would be really useful to know!

thanks for reading.

[Emily_Roman]

Hi @David_Ruder, thanks for reaching out!

The best way to set colors on Timeline is to create custom fields and set colors for each field. Then, when you set a custom field value on tasks, that color can be viewed on your Timeline.

You can choose “Asana Default”, which pulls from other colors you have set in Asana, or you can set your color logic based on custom fields. Once you’ve chosen which custom field you’d like to use, you can save that view for everyone, so your entire team will see the same color logic when they view the project in Timeline.

To set colors on your Timeline, click on the Timeline menu icon in the top right corner of your Timeline, then click on the “color” drop down to choose your color preferences.

I also suggest you to check this tip:

Pick the right color scheme in Timeline

Hi , If you are using the Timeline in #asana, you might have missed the settings allowing you to choose the color scheme used! You can choose to display no color on tasks, or use Asana scheme colors, or finally use a color from one custom field! Also make sure to check out my study about how Asana prioritizes colors in calendar and timeline If Van Gogh used Asana: a study about colors on Asana Remember: colors are really important. Not having a color strategy is a mistake that will pr…

I hope this helps!

[David_Ruder]

Hi Emily - thanks for your answer. Yes - we already use a custom field, and we use that to colour the bars in the timeline view. But there is also a tag colouring algorithm when the view is switched to Asana default colouring - when you do this the task picks up the colour of some tags but not others, or it chooses to remain the same colour as the project the task is created in.

What are the rules governing the task colour (in the timeline) when the timeline view is set to default colours rather than to custom field?

If we knew how this worked it would be a great help.

[David_Ruder]

Oops, my bad - didn’t check the tip you linked to. It says “nobody knows”!