Is it possible to automate bar colour to show overdue items in a timeline

[michelle_birch]

I have a timeline with epics and child user stories.  I would like all user stories to have the bar colour change from standard blue to say red, where the start date has past, and the status is still TO DO or IDEA.

[Hashir Ahmed Khan]

Yes, you can definitely automate the bar color to highlight overdue items, but how you do it really depends on which tool you’re using for your timeline. The basic idea is to create a rule that checks if the current date is past the start date and the status is still “TO DO” or “IDEA,” and then changes the bar color to red. Many tools, like Jira Advanced Roadmaps, BigPicture, or Aha!, let you set up these kinds of conditional formatting rules directly on the Gantt or timeline chart. Even in Excel or Google Sheets, you could use conditional formatting formulas to change the bar color based on the date and status. Essentially, as long as the tool allows you to reference both the start date and the status, you can make the bars update automatically to show overdue items, which makes it a lot easier to spot things that need attention at a glance.