Merge Timelines

To merge two timelines, download one as a spreadsheet and import it into the other:

1. Open the first timeline and download it as a CSV or Excel file: click the Share button above it, then Spreadsheet, and pick your File Type in the dialog that opens.
2. Open the other timeline and import the file you just downloaded.

Step 2 needs a paid plan, since the free plan cannot import spreadsheets.

To move only some of a timeline's events instead of merging the whole thing, see Moving Events from One Timeline to Another.

You can merge any timeline you can edit, including one shared with you as a collaborator. You cannot merge someone else's public timeline into your own, because visitors can't download a timeline as a spreadsheet.

Back Up Before You Merge

Merging doesn't delete anything from the timeline you import into. The imported events are added alongside the ones already there.

There is no undo, though. To reverse a merge, delete the imported events yourself, which is quickest in the Bulk Editor.

If you are unsure about a merge, duplicate the timeline you are importing into and merge into the copy instead. You keep the original if the result isn't what you wanted, and can delete whichever timeline you don't need.

What Carries Over

The spreadsheet holds each event's layer, name, notes, dates, icon and color, and the other timeline receives those as new events. Each one goes into the layer with the same name on the other timeline, and Preceden creates any layer that isn't there yet. Names have to match exactly, capitalization included, so events from a layer called "events" go into a new layer rather than an existing "Events" one.

The import can also change the order of the other timeline's layers. Layers that both timelines have are reordered among themselves to follow the first timeline's order, while the rest keep their places and any new layers are added after all the existing ones. You can reorder the layers afterwards.

Anything the spreadsheet has no column for stays behind on the first timeline:

• Images
• Connected events and percent complete
• Milestones, event shapes, and the Hide name, Hide dates and Hide duration settings
• Dependencies. A dependent event keeps the start date it had when you downloaded the file, but it no longer moves when the event it depended on changes.

The merged timeline also has to fit within the 1,500-event limit. If the two timelines hold more than that between them, the import is rejected before any events are added.