Preceden is a web-based application for creating amazing timelines.
Preceden is pronounced preh-seh-den, like the word precedent (not like the word precedes).
Preceden means “precede” in Spanish (as in “World War I preceded World War II”) and we like the reference to time. It flows well too.
We created Preceden because we were unhappy with the limitations of the existing timeline tools.
A few of the key differences are:
Send an email to support@preceden.com with as many details as possible and we’ll take a look at it as soon as possible.
Bugs are almost always resolved within a few hours. We’ll respond when its fixed or if we need more information.
Preceden is shaped by ideas submitted by our customers.
If you have an idea, you can let us know in one of two ways:
a) Submit it on our UserVoice page: http://preceden.uservoice.com. UserVoice is a service that collects feedback from users and let’s you vote on ideas you want to see implemented. This helps us prioritize your feedback.
b) Shoot us an email at support@preceden.com
A lifetime Preceden memberships costs $29 and it will let you add an unlimited number of events to all of your timelines.
We also offer a no-questions-asked 30-day money back guarantee in case you are not 100% satisfied with your purchase.
PayPal offers an option that let’s you pay with a credit card if you don’t have a PayPal account.
After you click the “Buy Now” button, you’ll be taken to a PayPal sign in screen, where you can find an option to pay with your debit or credit card:
Teachers have been using Preceden mainly in two different ways:
1) Teachers make timelines and use them as a visual aides for their lessons.
2) Some teachers have assigned their students an assignment to make a timeline with Preceden
Students can access their teacher’s Preceden account with a student access password. This let’s them create timelines, but won’t let them change the teacher’s password.
Teachers can set a student access password by going to their Account page, checking the box that says I am a teacher, choosing a password, and clicking Update Account.
Teachers can then give students their login name and the student access password.
If you use a student access password then yes, students can view and edit each other’s timelines.
No. Whether you have one student or one hundred, they can all use your account.
Students have the same access you do, except that they can’t change your password.
How to Make a Timeline with Preceden
A layer is a group of events. Most people user layers to keep their timelines organized by adding similar events to their own layers.
For example, you could have a layer called “Locations” with events called “Boston”, “Florida”, and “California”. You could have another layer called “Jobs” with events called “IBM”, “Apple”, and “Microsoft”.
You add one the same as you do a normal event, except that you don’t include an end date.
This will make the event appear as a small colored circle on your timeline.
If the name of event can fit within the colored box, it will be placed there.
If it’s too long or if its close to being too long to fit, it’s placed to the right of the colored box.
Below your timeline, click the “Layer Order” link.
This will take you to a page that lists each of the layers. You can drag them around to reposition them. When you’re done click “Update”.
There are three ways to share your timeline:
1) Only me – This means that (you guessed it) only you can view the timeline while you’re signed in to your account.
2) Everyone – Everyone has access to view your the timeline. If you want to share your timeline with the world, this is the option for you.
3) Everyone, but not listed – Share and embed your timeline, but don’t list it on the “Shared Timelines” page part of Preceden.
4) Restricted – Sometimes you’ll want to share a timeline, but not with everyone. With this setting, you can specify a password that others will need to access the timeline.
Example restricted timeline:
Hey Tim, I’ve been working on this amazing timeline you need to see.
Here’s a link: http://www.preceden.com/timelines/….
The password you need to access it is “mysecretpassword”. Let me know what you think!
Click the “Print to PDF” link below your timeline.
Note: We use a third party service called PDFmyURL to convert your timeline to a PDF file so that it can be printed. Since this service needs to access your timeline, the timeline must be shared with everyone in order to be able to print (privacy setting must be set to “Everyone”). If you want to print a private timeline, you can temporarily change the privacy setting to “Everyone”, print it, then change it back to “Only me”. We are currently looking into ways so that you can print private timelines without having to change the privacy settings.
How to Import Events to Your Timeline
If you click the “edit” link next to an existing timeline, layer, or event, you’ll see a “delete” link next to it’s name.
If you click the “delete” link, you’ll be asked to confirm whether you want to delete it, and if you click OK, it will be removed from your timeline and our database.
Preceden won’t throw any errors if you make an event end before it starts, but it will not be displayed on your timeline.
How to Add Milestones to a Timeline
Preceden will make an educated guess at what you want your timeline to look like when you load it, but you may prefer something different.
When you click ‘Load Timeline at This Location From Now On’, whatever you see on the timeline at that moment will also appear next time you load it.
If its a public timeline, other people will also see however you did when you set the default view. It will may differ slightly depending on their screen resolution.
Due to WordPress.com’s security settings, our embed feature will not work on their service.
Note that if you self-host a WordPress blog via WordPress.org, you shouldn’t have any problems embedding.
