Preceden

What is Preceden app?                                       

Preceden recognises the usefulness of visually depicting time and overlapping but separate events in the form of timelines and planning roadmaps. Other software produces good results but often at the end of a sharp learning curve. In response, Preceden has distilled the tools and output to what is most useful and wrapped them in an intuitive and great looking web app.

The app's case studies page is not only a place where you can view the happy customers of the service, but you can gain ideas for how to use Preceden.  Novelists have kept track of their narratives, historians have visually organised the order of events, and history teachers have used it as a teaching tool. 

The timelines have various export options, including image, pdf, PowerPoint and more, making Preceden's output impressively multi-purpose.

What we love about Preceden app.

Preceden makes what we produce look good! Technically, a timeline doesn't have to look especially good, but clarity, motivation, and pride all improve when they do. It is effortless, too, as the creation process guides you and the selection of templates makes the output suit the purpose.

You'll notice the word 'easy' is used a lot in this review because the straightforward way you can create timelines is fantastic, and it sits at the heart of Preceden's excellence as a tool.

Defining, ordering, and embellishing the events that make up the timeline is straightforward. Clicking and dragging to move and expand is intuitive, and each event's details are straightforward to enter. Those embellishments include adding other media, such as images, which can make each timeline a tremendous presentational tool and a thought organiser.

Students often argue that the time they spend planning could be spent doing. Often, of course, this means doing something else entirely, but by having the planning produce something that looks professional and is genuinely useful, it will be easier to get reluctant planners planning.

It is a rare tool that is genuinely useful for both teachers and students.

What skills does it improve?

Preceden for most users will be a time management and planning tool. This will help students develop these skills and ensure they make the most of their time engaged in learning projects.

Of course, users could create any timeline in Preceden. Creative writing students could use it to track events in stories, history students could look for cause and effect in historical periods, and drama classes could use it for playwriting.

What age is it appropriate for?

Preceden's terms of use and privacy policy do not refer to children's age. As neither the free nor pro versions include advertising, targeted or otherwise, and the content is user-produced, teachers and parents can use their judgement as to whether kids could make use of the tools and be responsible with the collaboration features.

Is Preceden app easy to use?

Ease of use is a stated aim of Preceden, and it succeeds. The user interface is clearly laid out and logical. The resulting timelines are visually appealing and convey the information effectively.

When creating a timeline, you can start with a blank timeline, an empty template, or a template with example events already in place. Each of these supports users of different levels of experience and hoped-for outcomes.

Sometimes apps, especially web apps, where users don't have to consciously update, make improvements, and users don't notice. Preceden's main screen has a messages option that highlights new tools and refinements. The messages avoid users realising months down the line that something they could have used has been available for a while.

How will students benefit?

Mismanaging time comes with consequences: poor outcomes and stress. 

Poor Outcomes:  Spending too much time on one aspect of a project harms the rest of it, and poorly managing time can result in the work being rushed. These will lead to kids not carrying out adequate research or poorly demonstrating their understanding. 

Stress:  Nobody likes the late-night pressure of trying to meet a deadline the day before it is due. It is tiring, stressful, and usually has sub-par results.

Having a clear timeline will help kids avoid these negative consequences. Either teachers could use Preceden to give kids a ready-made plan, or kids could produce their own.

How will teachers benefit?

Teachers will be able to make use of Preceden in a few ways. It makes a great way to demonstrate the importance and purpose of planning how to use time in a project. Projecting an example to a class display will help teachers convey this easily.

Schools often have ongoing projects to develop or improve themselves. Time management and communication of the ongoing roadmap are important, but teachers need to focus on teaching rather than learning road mapping or Gannt chart making software. Teachers will quickly learn to use Preceden as they develop their first timeline, so it is an efficient way to establish the foundations of their school-improving projects.

If Preceden is allocated to kids, they can put what they have learned into practice and turn it into improved learning. 

The attractive outcome of working with Preceden and its ease of learning will make it easier for teachers to get kids to use it. A lesson on why, how, and when to use it could improve students' future organisation and planning. In turn, this will lead to less conflict between teachers chasing up assignments and kids falling behind.

How will parents benefit?

If parents make Preceden available for their kids, they will be more able to monitor how their kids are progressing with essential assignments. At any time, they can ask their kids where they have reached and compare it to where they planned to be.

Without the structure of a clearly defined plan, neither student nor parent can know whether they are on target or not. Preceden makes creating a clearly defined plan easy.

What can Preceden app improve on?

The existing timeline templates have clear purposes, but Preceden titles them with business-like phrases. An option to change these titles and events to reflect more typical student uses would help guide kids to the best choice for their needs. Even better would be specifically created templates.

For example, a Revision-titled timeline would form the logical starting point for kids approaching exam time, while an Assignment-titled timeline would suit students who have been set a project. 

A clear starting point can make all the difference between a student engaging or not, so this extra support would remove a little of the friction.

Going further, some example school-subject based templates would help inspire teachers and guide kids. An example of a historical event or period presented as a timeline or a classic text broken down into a timeline would help with English and History lessons.

These aren't criticisms, though. The uses suggested above are all possible with Preceden as it is. It is such a useful tool that we would like teachers and students to see that from the outset rather than work it out as they experiment.

How much does Preceden app cost?

There are two tiers you can use to access Preceden. The free version does not require you to input any payment details, so it is risk-free to try out. It lets you create a single timeline with up to ten events.

The pro version expands your options to unlimited timelines and events, and it has collaboration features. 

Your final choice is whether to go for monthly or annual. Monthly will allow you to start and end your subscription payments whenever you choose, but annual offers a 60% discount over monthly. If you find Preceden useful, we'd recommend the annual version as just four months per year at the monthly rate is more expensive than annual.

A couple of other valuable points to note are that the app promises to notify you in advance of subscription renewals and offers refunds within 15 days of any payments. Together, these should reassure anybody choosing to commit to Preceden.

Is Preceden app safe to use?

Preceden is a content-production app, so what it contains and displays will result from what the user inputs. The Premium version of Preceden has collaboration facilities based on email addresses which, obviously, allows communication, and so younger students should be reminded of the importance of using the features responsibly.

Preceden stores your timelines and the data you enter into them in the cloud.

The app does not display advertisements.

Overall rating of the app.

Preceden's intuitive design and visually appealing output make it a superb timeline-producing app for students and teachers. Its web-based tools ensure students' best possible access. We've emphasised Preceden's ease of use because it makes the app a joy to use, but its effective planning and presenting features make Preceden superb for time and thought organisation. 

Preceden has many uses applicable to schools and students. Try out the free trial of this five-star app and see how easy it is to use and the clarity it brings to marking out time.