# Hide topic timeline
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [February 6, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265 "2023-02-06T19:37:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@bquast](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bquast)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 7:37pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/1 "2023-02-06T19:37:23Z")
Apologies in advance, this feel like a user error, but I did try and search several times before posting.
Is there a way to hide the “topic timeline”. I think it is really nice, but I would like to try out a minimized version of of the interface.
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 7:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/2 "2023-02-06T19:41:02Z")
I’m afraid there’s no way to hide it through the UI, though you could add a theme component to hide it with a little CSS.
However, it is a really useful navigation feature and moving around longer topics without it will be quite difficult.
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### Author:  [@bquast](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bquast)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 7:45pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/3 "2023-02-06T19:45:45Z")
Thank you, I’m starting to accept the idea that I need to work on my CSS familiarity with discourse (which is high time anyway).
On my forum, I have post voting installed. The plugin does a nice job of transforming the timeline, but in this context, I think it will be less needed than in a chronological topic.
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 7:51pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/4 "2023-02-06T19:51:09Z")
It’s often remarkably easy to hide things.
Get used to the browser’s inspector.
In the browser on desktop, right-click somewhere on the element you want to hide, select “inspect”.
This will open the developer tools and the html view.
Find the outermost `div` you want to hide, remember its class.
Then simply put this into a Theme Component:
```plaintext
.my-class {
display: none
}
```
In this case the class I believe is called `topic-navigation`
this might hide too much as you lose all these controls, but experiment.
you can preview the effect by modifying the CSS in the middle box area, get rid of changes you’ve made by refreshing the page.
Learning these basic skills avoids a lot of noise on Meta.
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### Author:  [@bquast](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bquast)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 8:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/5 "2023-02-06T20:03:13Z")
Thank you, that is very helpful.
This seems like a good project to get over my CSS FOFO.
I will try and do this tomorrow. I do intend to learn these basic skills (and more hopefully), this will help me do so! 🙂
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### Author:  [@merefield](https://meta.discourse.org/u/merefield)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 8:05pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/6 "2023-02-06T20:05:05Z")
Yeah, messing with stuff here will not damage anything, so go for it.
Just be aware that sometimes you can create a Theme Component that breaks the interface so badly you can’t remove it 😅 , so be sure to read about `safe mode`:
> [@Using Safe Mode to troubleshoot issues with themes and plugins](https://meta.discourse.org/t/use-safe-mode-to-troubleshoot-issues-with-themes-and-plugins/53504):
>
> bookmark This guide explains how to use Discourse’s [Safe Mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true) to troubleshoot issues with themes and plugins. person_raising_hand Required user level: All users Discourse offers a “JavaScript [Safe Mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true)” that allows any user to isolate the root cause of JavaScript issues caused by plugins, themes, or theme components. This feature is particularly useful for troubleshooting problems on your Discourse site. Accessing [Safe Mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true) To access [Safe Mode](https://meta.discourse.org/t/53504?silent=true), follow these steps: Open a new browse…
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### Author:  [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 8:09pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/7 "2023-02-06T20:09:24Z")
> [@bquast](#):
>
> This seems like a good project
It sure is, and I understand you want Discourse’s interface to go easy on new users in some extent if you think they need it.
However, since you’re new to Discourse, I’d suggest you make a list of every feature you want to hide for new users. Some features may be too useful to be hidden, like, as Jammy said, the timeline which is a very important part of Discourse and definitively a core feature regarding the navigation through topics.
When you have a list of things you’d like to hide, you can share it here to get opinions about how useful a feature is regarding the use of the forum. 🙂
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### Author:  [@bquast](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bquast)
#### Post date: [February 6, 2023, 8:10pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/8 "2023-02-06T20:10:21Z")
That definitely sounds like me, as it happens, I just read about it and thought how it would come in handy
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### Author:  [@bquast](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bquast)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 12:41pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/9 "2023-02-26T12:41:37Z")
Thank you @Canapin I appreciate the kind offer. (I had written back 3 weeks ago, but it seems my buggy internet messed something up)
Indeed, making the UX have fewer elements for new users is exactly what I have in mind. I had posted separately on this, a great suggestion was to implement this with themes based on Trust levels.
At the moment my only other item is something I posted about yesterday:
> [@Repurposing collapsibles in sidebar](https://meta.discourse.org/t/repurposing-collapsibles-in-sidebar/256244):
>
> Hello, In pursuit of an ever simpler design (especially for new users), I was wondering if it wouldn’t be possible to combine the elements a bit, specifically the collapsible headers. [I have in mind here a forum for people quite experienced with ICT] We now have collapsible “Categories”, which includes a selection of categories and the item “All categories”. Since the sidebar is not that full, I don’t really see the need to collapse it. Instead, I’d like to use the header “Categories” as…
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### Author:  [@bquast](https://meta.discourse.org/u/bquast)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 1:29pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/10 "2023-02-26T13:29:45Z")
Thank you @merefield this worked perfectly.
I ended up trying it out with the custom CSS setting in the default theme. (simpler then a component I thought)
This made me wonder why there is not general custom CSS option (applied across themes), I posted this here: [Custom CSS/HTML in non-default theme (without component)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/custom-css-html-in-non-default-theme-without-component/256301)
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 2:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/11 "2023-02-26T14:08:44Z")
3 posts were merged into an existing topic: [Custom CSS/HTML in non-default theme (without component)](https://meta.discourse.org/t/custom-css-html-in-non-default-theme-without-component/256301/5)
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### Author:  [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [February 26, 2023, 2:08pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/hide-topic-timeline/254265/12 "2023-02-26T14:08:59Z")