Add or Update Timeline Event

Events are the key component of any timeline. They represent anything from an upcoming project milestone to the building of the pyramids.

To add an event, click the Add Event button above your timeline or press Ctrl/Cmd + A on your keyboard.

To update an event, click the Event in the timeline.

The event name and start date are the only two required fields. Once they are entered, click either Add Event or Update Event to save your changes.

If clicking Add Event brings up our plans instead of the event form, the timeline has reached the number of events your plan allows: 10 on the free plan, 1,500 on a paid one.

Name

The name is a required field. Every event must have a name to display on the timeline.

Names can be up to 100 characters long. The field lets you keep typing past that, but a red note under it, such as Shorten the name from 112 characters to 100., stays until you trim it, and the event won't save with the longer name. A spreadsheet import accepts names of up to 200 characters, and an event whose name is already longer than 100 characters keeps the 200-character limit when you edit it.

The position of the event name varies:

• If an event has a start date only, then its name will always be placed to the right of the icon.
• If an event has a start date and an end date, then its name will be placed within the color bar, if the name fits. Otherwise, the name will be placed to the right of the bar. You can change this behavior with the Bar Content Layout setting (Appearance > Events) to have Preceden always display the name to the right of the colored bar for the timeline that you are editing.

Color

Click the color to open the color picker and choose a color for the event bar.

A new event usually starts with the next color in your palette that isn't already on your timeline, so each event you add gets a different color. Once every palette color is in use, Preceden picks one at random. If you've just given several events in a row the same color, the new event gets that color too.

The color picker shows a palette of colors to choose from as well as a set of Standard Colors, Legend Colors, and Recent Colors.

Click the swatch under Custom Color Picker to open your browser's color picker, where you can set an exact color using a spectrum, sliders, or a hex value.

Icon

Click the icon image to open the icon selector, then click the desired icon.

When an event only has a start date, its icon is always displayed to the left of the event name on the timeline.

When an event has both a start and an end date, the icon is displayed to the left of the name whenever there's room for it: inside the color bar when the name fits there, or to the right of the bar when the name is placed there.

Either way, the icon also appears when you hover over the event and in the event list below the timeline.

You can also request additional icons: Request a New Icon.

Shape

This option overrides the default event shape, which is set under Appearance > Events > Default Shape.

Click the shape image to open the shape selector, then click the desired shape. The selector holds the same ten shapes as that setting, and a new event opens on whichever one the timeline's Default Shape is set to. The shape appears in the timeline when the event has both a start and an end date.

Start Date

Every event must have a start date. Use the date picker, or type a date in one of the many supported date formats. The date picker only covers 100 AD onward, so type anything earlier, including BC dates, into the field. If you have multiple events on the same day, you can enter a time after the date to organize the events in their proper order (e.g., November 23, 2019 7:30 am). When two events start at the same time they will be ordered alphabetically. You can also change the order by dragging an event to a new location.

Dependent Start Date

You can set one event to start when another event ends. We call these events dependents because they depend on another event for their start date. When you check the Dependent box, the Start Date field becomes a dropdown list of the timeline's other events, and you pick the one this event should follow. The box only appears once the timeline has at least one other event.

For details, see Make an Event Start When Another Event Ends.

Approximate Start Date

For events where you don't know the exact start date, check Approx. next to the start date. The color bar then fades in to show that the start date is approximate.

An event with only a start date is drawn as an icon rather than a bar, so there is no bar to fade, but marking it approximate still changes its label: the date reads Approx. March 3, 2021 rather than March 3, 2021. Under Appearance > Date Formats you can switch that prefix from Approx. to ~.

End Date

The end date is optional. Leave it blank when the event happens on a single date; fill it in when you want the event to span a range of time on your timeline.

Besides a date, this field accepts two shorthands:

• A duration measured from the start date, such as 3 days, 9 months, or 10 weekdays, which skips weekends. Preceden works out the end date for you.
• Present, Now, or Ongoing for an event that has not finished yet. Preceden keeps its bar running up to the current day, so you never have to come back and extend it.

See supported date formats for the full list of both. Note that the end date is inclusive, so an event ending May 8 covers all of May 8.

Single-Day Events: Icon or Bar

An event that happens on one day can be drawn either way, and the end date is what chooses between them.

Leave the end date blank and Preceden draws an icon with the event's name beside it. Enter the same date in both fields and it draws a colored bar one day wide instead, because the end date is inclusive: May 8 to May 8 covers all of May 8.

Coarser dates work the same way. An event running from May 2026 to May 2026 is a bar covering that whole month, and one from 2026 to 2026 covers the whole year.

One thing to watch for: a single-day bar on a timeline spanning years is narrower than a single pixel. Preceden still draws it, at a minimum width of one pixel, but there is no room for the name and icon inside it, so they sit beside the bar instead. Zoom in to see the bar at its real width.

Approximate End Date

For events where you don't know the exact end date, check Approx. next to the end date. The color bar then fades out to show that the end date is approximate.

Checking Approx. next to an empty end date does nothing, because there is no end of the bar to fade. When the one date you have is the uncertain one, mark the start approximate instead.

Notes

This field is for any additional notes about the event. By default, these notes are displayed when you hover your cursor over the event on your timeline and within the list of events below your timeline. Under Appearance > Content Visibility, you can hide them from the popup and event list, or display them on the timeline itself.

You can also add links to the notes.

See our guide on markdown formatting for examples and answers to common questions and issues with editing notes.

Layer

When your timeline contains multiple layers, use this dropdown to specify which layer you want to associate with the event.

When you open the form with Add Event, the dropdown starts on the layer you worked in most recently: the one whose events you last added or edited, or the layer itself if you edited it more recently than any event. Hidden layers are skipped (unless every layer is hidden), so a new event doesn't land in a layer you can't see. To add an event to a specific layer instead, hover over the layer's name on the timeline and click the + button next to it.

To add a layer, click the Add Layer button above the timeline (see Layers for more details).

More Options

Click More Options to show or hide the additional event fields.

Image

Click the Choose Image button to add an image to the event. Each event can have one. Learn more here: Add Images to Your Timeline

Percent Complete

Track progress for the event by choosing a percentage from the dropdown. The dropdown starts on N/A, which is what new events use and which shades nothing, then runs from 0% to 100% in steps of 5%, with 33% and 67% included for thirds. Preceden shades in that percentage of the bar on the timeline for events with a start and end date. Percent complete values are displayed on the timeline by default, but you can hide them under Appearance > Content Visibility.

Connected Events

Type and select a name in the Connected Events field to have a relationship line drawn between the current and the selected connected event. Click the X next to a previously chosen Connected Event to remove the relationship line. The line style dropdown next to the field offers a Solid Line or a Dashed Line, and starts on Solid Line.

Connecting needs at least one other event on the timeline. Until there is one, a short note appears in place of the field.

Make This Event a Milestone

A milestone represents an important event that you want to stand out on your timeline. Preceden draws a faint vertical line at the event's start date, spanning the full height of the timeline, and the event keeps its name and date label beside it:

Checking Make this event a milestone hides the End Date field, so you can't give a milestone an end date while the box is checked. It doesn't clear a date that is already there, though. An event that had an end date before you checked the box keeps it, so it still draws its bar and gains the vertical line on top of it. To get the line on its own, uncheck the box, clear the End Date, then check it again.

A few milestones make the dates that matter easy to pick out, and a lot of them turn into clutter. See Limit the Use of Milestones for a side by side comparison.

Content Visibility

Use the Hide name, Hide dates, and Hide duration checkboxes to keep displaying the event bar while hiding those details on the timeline. Each one overrides the timeline's own Content Visibility settings for this event only. Any associated image or percent complete will continue to be displayed.

Duplicate an Event

When you're updating an event, click the Duplicate button at the bottom of the form to create a copy of it as a new event.

The copy is made from whatever is in the form when you click, so you can change the name, dates, layer, or anything else first and the new event will be created with those changes already applied. Those changes apply only to the copy: the original event keeps the details it was last saved with. Changing the dates before each duplicate is also one way to add a recurring event, such as a weekly meeting. See Duplicate an Event for the full steps.

The Duplicate button doesn't appear once the timeline has reached your plan's event limit.

Create Several Events in a Row

When you're adding an event, check Create another next to the buttons at the bottom of the form. After you save, a blank Add Event form opens right away so you can enter the next one, as long as your plan's event limit leaves room for it.

To add a lot of events at once, the Bulk Editor or a CSV import is usually faster.