Systems and methods for dynamic display of hierarchical data (e.g., a tree) are provided. Dynamic display enables a user to navigate the hierarchical data by dragging, without having to select expand/contract icons. The systems and methods use a tree spacing structure to determine relative spacing of nodes based on a focus line and to automatically expand and collapse visual representations of nodes in the tree. Nodes on the focus line may be evenly spaced along the focus line, and all of the other nodes in the hierarchy not on the focus line may be positioned based on their relationship to nodes on the focus line, using the tree spacing structure. Ancestor nodes of nodes on the focus line may be positioned between their direct first and last child and children of focus level nodes may be positioned directly behind the focus level node.