Add Images to Your Timeline

Preceden lets you quickly add a picture to any event, whether it's a photo from your computer or an image you found on the web. If the pictures are the point of the timeline, Make a Photo Timeline covers how to plan one.

Add an image to an event

If you're adding or editing an event, open the event dialog (click Add Event above your timeline, or click an existing event to edit it), select More Options, then click Choose Image.

The event dialog's More Options section, showing the Choose Image button beside the Percent Complete and Connected Events fields

You'll see seven ways to select an image:

My Device - Upload an image directly from your computer.
Link (URL) - Paste the URL of an image on the web.
Web Search - Search for an image.
Facebook, Instagram, Google Drive, Dropbox - Choose an image you've already uploaded to one of these services.

The image picker with My Device selected, listing Link (URL), Web Search, Facebook, Instagram, Google Drive and Dropbox down the left and a Select Files to Upload drop area on the right

Crop, rotate, or edit an image

Once you've selected an image, you can crop it, rotate it, or select just a circle from within it:

The Edit Image screen with Crop, Circle and Rotate tools down the left and a circular selection drawn over a city skyline photo

Click Save to keep your changes, or Reset to put the image back to its original form. When you're done editing, click Upload to return to the event screen, then click Update Event. The image will now appear on your timeline and in the event list below it:

A timeline where the Visit the City event displays its photo cropped to a circle, both on the timeline and in the event list below it

Note that you can't edit the photo (crop, circle, or rotate) once it has been added to the timeline. To change it you have to remove it and add a new photo, so it's worth doing your editing up front.

View an image full size

Click an image, either on the timeline itself or in the event list below it, to open it on its own in a dialog headed with the event name. The copy drawn on the timeline is scaled to fit its event, so this is how you see the whole picture without opening the event.

Clicking to enlarge works in the editor, which means on your own timelines and on any you have been invited to collaborate on. Someone you have only shared a link with sees the images at the size the timeline draws them, with nothing to click.

Replace or remove an image

Each event can have one image. Once you've chosen it, a thumbnail of the image takes the place of the Choose Image button in the event dialog.

To remove the image, click the X on the thumbnail, then click Update Event. To replace it, remove it the same way, click Choose Image to pick the new one, then click Update Event.

Show images only on hover

You can also have the image appear on your timeline only when you hover over its event. To do that, click the Appearance button above your timeline, then open Content Visibility. Under the heading Display on Timeline, uncheck the box next to Images, then click Save Changes.

The image still appears in the hover popup and in the event list below the timeline. To hide it there as well, also uncheck Images under Display in Popup & Event List.

Image limits

Each event can have one image, and there's no separate limit on how many events in a timeline have one.

The maximum file size is 5MB. Images larger than 1000px wide or tall are resized down to fit, so you don't need to shrink them yourself.

If an image won't upload

If the picker won't accept a file, check that it's an image and that it's under 5MB. For a larger photo, resize or compress it on your device first, then try again.

If clicking Choose Image shows a message that the image picker could not load, something is stopping your browser from loading the picker, which Preceden gets from Filestack (static.filestackapi.com). The usual causes are a tracking blocker such as Norton AntiTrack, or restrictions your IT department has put in place, as on some managed Chromebooks. Allow that site in your blocker, or try another browser or network. If you still can't add images, email us at [email protected].