Views Overview

Views give you different ways to look at the same sheet data — without touching the data itself.

Instead of rows in a table, you can display your records as a Kanban board, a calendar, a Gantt timeline, or a card grid. The view changes. The underlying sheet doesn't. Move a card on the board, drag an event to a new date, resize a bar on the timeline — the sheet updates instantly, and every other view connected to that sheet reflects the change.

One sheet can power as many views as you need. A project plan might have a timeline for tracking phases and a Kanban board for tracking status. Both read from the same records.

Kanban

A Kanban view organizes records into columns based on a status or category field. Each record appears as a card. Drag a card between columns to update its status — the underlying record changes automatically.

This layout works well for anything with defined stages: tasks moving from To Do to Done, deals progressing through a pipeline, support tickets flowing from Open to Resolved, content pieces moving through an editorial workflow.

Obvious detects which field to use for columns — typically an enum or status field. You can configure which fields appear on each card through the sidebar, so you see the right information at a glance without opening the record.

Kanban Boards — full setup and configuration guide

Calendar

A Calendar view places records on a monthly, weekly, or daily grid based on a date field. Each record appears as an event block on the day it falls on.

Use a calendar view for deadlines, publishing schedules, appointments, or any data with a time dimension. If your sheet has both a start date and an end date, events span across multiple days.

Obvious infers the date field from your sheet schema. If you have multiple date fields, you choose which one the calendar uses through the configuration panel. Without a time field, events appear as all-day items. Drag an event to a new date to reschedule it — the record updates immediately.

Calendar Views — full setup and configuration guide

Timeline

A Timeline view arranges records as horizontal bars on a Gantt-style chart. Each bar spans from a start date to an end date, making it easy to see how tasks, phases, or projects overlap in time.

Timelines work best when duration matters: project plans, product roadmaps, event schedules, sprint planning — anything where you need to see how long things take and whether they conflict with each other.

Records appear as labeled bars in the main area, with a sidebar listing each item by name. Scroll left or right to move through time, or zoom to adjust the scale from days to weeks to months. Resizing a bar changes the end date. Dragging it shifts both dates.

Timeline / Gantt Views — full setup and configuration guide

Gallery

A Gallery view displays records as a visual card grid. It's useful for image-heavy datasets, product catalogs, portfolios, and anything where seeing records as cards is more useful than seeing them as rows.

Gallery view is available in some workspaces.

Gallery View — browse records as visual cards

Checklist

A Checklist view renders records as a completion-focused list. It's useful for step-by-step workflows, onboarding tasks, and anything where tracking done vs. not done is the main job.

Checklist view is available in some workspaces.

Checklist View — track completion across records

Dashboards

Dashboards connect to sheet data differently than views do. Instead of reshaping individual records into a board or calendar, a dashboard lets you combine charts and text blocks into a single view — useful for summarizing trends, tracking metrics, and sharing high-level snapshots.

Dashboards — how to create and configure dashboard artifacts

Creating a View

When you're looking at a sheet, the creation bar at the top of your project includes options for Kanban, Calendar, and Timeline alongside other artifact types. Select one and Obvious infers the relevant fields from your sheet schema — you can adjust the configuration afterward.

You can also create views from chat:

Create a Kanban board from the Tasks sheet, grouped by status

Show me a calendar view of the Content Calendar sheet using the publish date

Build a timeline from the Project Plan sheet

Choosing the Right View

Kanban when status matters most — you need to see where things stand and move them forward.

Calendar when timing matters most — you need to see what's happening on specific dates.

Timeline when duration and sequence matter most — you need to see how long things take and where they overlap.

Gallery when visual scanning matters most — you need to browse records as cards rather than rows.

Checklist when completion matters most — you need to track done vs. not done across a set of records.

Dashboard when summary matters most — you need charts and metrics rather than individual records.