Learn how to create calendar views for your tables.
In addition to displaying tables in card or chart views, you can also choose to view Coda data as a calendar. Now you can easily visualize project plans and out-of-office schedules in an intuitive way.
Within this article, you’ll find...
Create a calendar view
There are two ways to create calendar views. You can either create a new calendar view from scratch, or you can convert an existing table or view into a calendar.
Create from scratch
If you aren’t already starting with a table and just want to start with a calendar view, follow these steps:
On any blank line in your doc, type /calendar. Choose the Calendar option from the dropdown.
Choose either Start blank if you want to start with brand new data, or choose from the existing tables in your doc to create a connected view.
You’ve now created a calendar view. You can simply double-click into any date on the calendar to start adding rows. Jump to the Configure your calendar view section to learn more.
Convert an existing table
If you already have a dataset in your Coda doc that you’d like to view in calendar form, you can convert an existing table or view to a calendar.
First, ensure you have a date column in your table. This date column will serve as the “start date” for displaying your table rows in calendar form. If you have multiple date columns, you can choose which column to use as the start date after completing the following setup process.
-
In the top-right corner of the table, click on Options
- Note: If you are filtering a tabbed view, just make sure you've selected that tab before opening the Options menu.
Select See all options from the menu
At the top of the options panel, select Calendar
If you missed step #1 and your table doesn’t have a date column, you will see a prompt to Set up calendar. Click this button and follow the prompts to add the necessary date columns to your table. Otherwise, if your table already had the necessary date column, Coda will automatically use this date to set up your calendar.
That’s it - your table is now a calendar view. You can click on any of the items on the calendar to expand them and see more, or double-click on a date to add a new row. Continue reading to learn about configuring your calendar.
💡 Tip: You can now even change the date values of rows by simply clicking and dragging the row onto the updated date.
Configure your calendar view
Once you’ve created a calendar view, there are a number of different ways to customize and configure it to fit your needs.
Adjust the start (and end) date columns
All calendar views require a start date column. Optionally, you can also assign end date or duration columns for your calendar view.
If you already had date columns in your existing table - or if you created a calendar view from scratch - Coda will have automatically assigned columns for your start date. But if you need to, you can always change which columns are used as the start date and end date columns. To do so, just follow these steps:
Hover over your calendar view, and select Options in the upper right
Select Calendar setup from the menu
Click into the Start date/datetime column field to choose from other date columns in your table. Note that columns will only show up here if they explicitly have the date or datetime format.
Optionally, you can also select an End date or duration column. Note that only columns with the date, datetime, or duration format will show in the options here.
Change the display column
Want to change what information is displayed on each event in your calendar view? Maybe your events currently show the event owner, but you instead want them to show the event name. All you need to do is change the display column of your table. Whatever data is in the display column will be displayed on the calendar view. To learn about changing the display column, click here.
Add color and formatting
Want to add some color or formatting to make your calendar events pop? That’s where conditional formatting comes in. Simply hover over the calendar view, click Options in the upper right corner, then select Conditional format. Then you can start adding rules to add color, bold text, and more. Learn more about conditional formatting here.
Other customizations
Within the display options of the calendar view, you can make other adjustments, including...
Respect working days: Toggle this setting on to respect any custom working days that are set in your doc. Learn more about custom working days here.
Default view: Choose whether you want this calendar view to default to a month view, week view, or day view. Note that viewers can still change the view using the dropdown in the upper-right corner.
Default view date: Choose which day the calendar view should start off with, ranging from the day of the first event, today’s date, or the day of the last event.
Working hours: Set working hours for your team, if relevant. For instance, maybe you have an entirely West Coast team working the hours of 9am PST to 5pm PST. You can set these hours here, to change which hours are visible in the week or day view of the calendar.
People display column: Want to show people's avatars along with the display column when viewing calendar events? You can choose the correct people column to display here. For instance, if you have a table of tasks, you can display both the Task Name column (the standard display column) and the Task Owner column (the people display column).
Time zone: Choose whether the calendar view should go by the doc’s time zone or by the current user’s local timezone.
First day of the week: Much like custom working days, you can also set a custom first day of the week for your doc. Your calendar view will then respect this customization.
At the very bottom of the calendar display options, you can also choose whether to show the calendar title, include a New event button, or include the search bar.
Examples and tips
In this section, we’ll walk through some common scenarios for calendar views and how we suggest setting each one up.
Use the calendar for day-long events
If you want to see events on specific days without a start time (for example, a birthday or holiday), you’ll just need a single date column. Since you don’t care about the time of these events, you can leave the calendar’s default view as Month.
If you want to move an event from one day to another, simply drag and drop it. Like other views in Coda, the row for that item will be updated too.
Use the calendar for multi-day events
Maybe you want a calendar with events that span more than one day. For instance, you might have a calendar to track your team’s PTO, which can span multiple days. In addition to your start date column, you’ll want to add a second date column to your table to record the end date of each PTO request. Then, add that column as the end date in your table display menu.
Use the calendar for meetings
Now, let's set up a calendar to track meetings. Since we care about both the date and the time for meetings, you’ll need a slightly different setup. We suggest creating a date and time column, which will record both the date and the time of each meeting.
Since we need to know how long the meetings are, we also suggest creating a duration column (another column type in Coda) to record the duration of each meeting. Then, be sure to add this duration column under the End date/time or duration field of your calendar display options.
Additionally, you may want to change the calendar’s default view from monthly to weekly via the display options.
Show the person associated with an event
In the calendar display settings, navigate to the people display column dropdown to choose the name of the column that shows the person associated with each event. This will show the corresponding avatars on each event in the calendar. If no options appear in the dropdown under people display column, add a people column to your table.
FAQs
How can I change what information is displayed on each event in the calendar?
Whatever data is in the display column is what will appear on the event when viewing the calendar. So all you need to do is change the display column of your table to whichever column you want displayed. Learn about changing the display column here.
Can I change the calendar row color from white to something else?
Yes, you can do this by adding conditional formatting to your calendar view.
Can I make a calendar showing different colors for different people?
Yes, you can do this by adding a column to your table with the owner and then adding conditional formatting to your table with a different color for each person.
What time zone does a calendar view use?
In the calendar’s display options, you can choose for the calendar to either show the time zone that has been set for the doc, or to show the current user’s timezone. Learn more about adjusting this setting in the Other customization section above.
Can I resize the calendar or see multiple months at once?
It’s not currently possible to resize a calendar view. However, you can use the dropdown in the upper right corner of the calendar to change the view from month, to week, to day as needed. Note that changing the view in this way will only temporarily change it for yourself and won’t affect what others see.
How do I add a new event to the calendar?
You can add new events by double-clicking in any cell of the calendar. This will open an expanded row view, where you can fill in the row details as needed. Additionally, depending on the calendar’s settings, you may see a New event button in the upper-right corner of the calendar.
Can I change how a row appears when I expand it?
Absolutely - you can configure the appearance of the expanded row via our row layouts feature. You can hide or unhide columns, change the order of columns, and more.