From Waterfall and Collapsed to Drag and Drop

In December 2018 we changed how Preceden positions events on timelines.

The Old Way: Waterfall vs Collapsed

Preceden used to offer two layouts: Waterfall and Collapsed.

In a Waterfall layout, every event is placed on its own row:

A Waterfall layout, where Kickoff Meeting, Development Phase 1 and Development Phase 2 each sit on their own row

In a Collapsed layout, every event is placed as high in the layer as possible:

A Collapsed layout, where Kickoff Meeting and both development phases are packed onto a single row

Many customers asked for arrangements that neither layout allowed, like this one:

A layout that is neither Waterfall nor Collapsed: Kickoff Meeting sits alone on the first row while both development phases share the row below it

This timeline is neither Waterfall (two events share a line) nor Collapsed (the two development events have empty space above them).

The Current Way: Drag and Drop

To allow layouts like this, we replaced both options with drag and drop positioning. Here's how it works:

Events are positioned in a waterfall layout by default.
You can drag and drop events within a layer to reposition them.
To pack as many events per row as possible instead, check Appearance > Layers > Automatically compress layers. You can still drag compressed events into a different order.
For step-by-step instructions, see Reposition Events with Drag and Drop.

An animation of Development Phase 2 being dragged up onto the same row as Development Phase 1, with Kickoff Meeting left alone on the row above

With it you can recreate the old Collapsed layout, or place events in positions that were never possible before.

The change also let us simplify the interface: there is no longer a Reorder Events link above the timeline, and the layout settings no longer include the Waterfall and Collapsed options.

The one downside is that the new system is not backward compatible. Timelines that had a Collapsed layer, or events reordered with the old Reorder Events feature, no longer reflect those settings. You can drag the events into whatever arrangement makes the most sense instead.

If you run into any issues or have feedback, we'd love to hear from you at [email protected].