Boards
Boards
Boards are Kanban lists that belong to your workspace: ideas, deals, hiring, a launch. A card holds a description, checklists, files, labels, dates, a cover, a conversation on it and a record of everything that has happened to it — and it can point at an email conversation so the two stay linked.
On this page · 9 sections
Opening Boards
Click the board icon in the rail on the left, or press g then b from anywhere. Boards comes back to the board you left; the first time, it says Pick a board. On a computer the left column lists every board. On a phone the boards are the first screen: tap one and it fills the screen, with ‹ back, and pull the list down to read it again. Inside an open board, tap ☰ or swipe in from the left edge for the list of boards.
Creating and renaming boards
- Click New board at the top of the board list — on a phone, the round button in the corner, or New board in the drawer — or press c. A small window asks how to start: Blank or Template. Press Create and the board is made and opened.
- A blank board is made as Untitled board with an emoji, and opens with its name selected: type the name and press Enter. Names can be up to 120 characters.
- A blank board starts with four columns: Ideas, To do, In progress and Done.
- Template shows a drop-down of ten templates — Job search, Project management, Software sprint, Content calendar, Sales pipeline, Hiring, Customer support, Product launch, Personal tasks and Event planning — with the chosen one's columns written out under it. The board takes the template's name, emoji and columns, and a few of its labels come already named: a Software sprint, for one, names Bug, Feature, Chore and Tech debt.
- The emoji beside the name is the board's mark in the list; click it to pick another.
- To rename a board, click its name in the header, edit it and press Enter (or click elsewhere). Esc puts the old name back.
- On a computer, Delete in the board's ⋯ menu in the list removes the board, every card on it and every file on those cards, after a confirmation. The same menu has Add card, which opens the board and a new card in its first column.
Ordering the board list
- The heading over the list is a menu of what it shows: All boards, Shared (boards with a public link) or Private (the rest).
- A board with a public link has a dot in the workspace's accent at the end of its row, before the ⋯. Point at it and it says Shared board.
- The sort button beside the heading orders the list: Recently edited (the default — a card edited counts as the board being worked on), A to Z, or In the order set.
- In the order set is the workspace's own order, which everyone signed in sees. Drag a board up or down to change it — press and move it with a mouse, or hold it and then move it with a finger. Dragging works only in that order, with All boards showing and no search.
Columns
- Add column at the right end of the board asks for a name; Enter adds it, Esc cancels.
- Drag a column by its name to move it past the others. A vertical line shows where it will land.
- Double-click a column name to rename it, or open the … menu on the column for Rename, Move left, Move right and Delete.
- The number beside a column name is how many cards are in it, and it follows the filter.
- Deleting a column moves its cards to the first remaining column; you are asked to confirm first. Nothing is thrown away. A board always keeps at least one column.
Cards
- Add a card, under the last card in a column, opens a box drawn as the card it is about to become. Enter files it and the box empties and keeps the cursor, so a list of eight things is eight lines and eight returns rather than eight trips through a button. Shift+Enter makes a new line in the title; Esc or the × closes the box. A title the server refuses is put back rather than lost.
- A card shows the labels it wears as small pills, its title, and then a row of marks for what is inside it: lines for a description, an envelope for a linked conversation, a paperclip and a count for files, a speech bubble and a count for comments, a ring that fills as items are ticked and a count for the checklists, and the due date. Marks rather than contents — what any of them says is in the panel, so a column can be scanned rather than read.
- The due mark is the one that carries a color, because it is the one that can be wrong: red once the date has passed, green once it is ticked off in the panel. A finished checklist turns green too.
- A card with a cover shows it across its top: a band of color, or the picture. At full size the color or picture fills the whole card, with only the title on it — the labels and marks are in the open card.
- Click a card to open it over the middle of the board; on a phone it fills the screen. Click outside it, press Esc or use × to close it.
- With a mouse, the card under the pointer is outlined and shows two buttons: an open circle before its title, which marks the card done (and again, not done) without opening it, and a pencil in its corner, which opens the panel. A card marked done keeps a solid green tick before its title; if it has a due date, the due mark turns green instead.
Moving a card
- By name: open the card and press the column's name at its top left. Move to lists the board's columns and puts the card at the end of the one you pick. This is the way that needs neither a pointer nor a steady hand — on a phone the column you want is usually off the side of the screen, and by keyboard it is the only way at all.
- With a mouse: press a card and move it. A line shows where it will land — in another column, or somewhere else in its own.
- With a finger: hold the card for half a second until it lifts, then carry it. A hold is what separates picking a card up from scrolling the column it is in. The card tilts while you carry it, and keeps its marks so you can see what you are holding.
- Carry a card to the top or bottom of a column and the column scrolls; carry it to the left or right edge of the board and the board scrolls across, so a column off the side of the screen is still somewhere you can drop.
- Esc while carrying puts the card back. The move is applied as soon as you let go.
Archiving a card
- While you are carrying a card, a bar appears across the foot of the board: Drop here to archive. Let go over it and the card leaves the board. It is the same gesture on a phone as with a mouse.
- Archive in the open card's ⋯ menu does the same thing without a drag.
- An archived card keeps everything it had — its description, checklist, files, comments and history — and remembers the column it left.
- Once a board has something archived, a button with the archive mark and how many appears in the board's bar, beside the search and Share. It opens the archive: Put back returns a card to the column it came from, and Delete destroys it and its files for good. Empty the archive does that to all of them.
- Only two things in Boards destroy a card: deleting it from the archive, and Delete in an open card's ⋯ menu, which asks first. Everything else — a drag onto the shelf, deleting a column — keeps it.
The open card
- Column
- The column the card is in, as a chip at the top left. Press it for Move to and the board's columns; the card goes to the end of the one you pick.
- Title
- Edit in place. Enter finishes it; Shift+Enter makes a new line. Saved 0.6 seconds after you stop typing; an emptied title keeps the previous one. Up to 1,000 characters.
- Done
- The circle before the title marks the card done, and again not done, with or without a due date. It is the same done as the due date's box. Once the title scrolls out of sight, a bar at the top keeps it in view with the circle and + Add.
- + Add
- Opens Add to card: Labels, Dates, Checklist and Attachment. The first three open their own panel in the same box, with ‹ back to the list; Attachment picks files. Each also has its own button beside + Add.
- Labels
- What the card wears shows under those buttons as small square blocks, with a + beside them; any of them opens Labels. There you search the board's labels, tick one to put it on or take it off, and use the pencil to rename it, recolor it or delete it. A label belongs to the board, so naming it once names it on every card that wears it.
- Dates
- Dates shows Start and Due as two tiles over a month to pick from, with quick days above it and Clear under it. A start after the due date moves the due date with it. Once there is a due date, the box beside it marks it done, and the date says Complete, Overdue or Due soon.
- Description
- Free text in the same Markdown as a note: headings, lists, quotes, links and the inline marks. With none yet it is one slim row, Add a more detailed description…; click it, the words or Edit to write, and click away to read it again. A long one folds behind Show more. Saved 0.6 seconds after you stop typing. Up to 20,000 characters.
- Checklists
- A card holds as many as you need, each with a title. Checklist opens Add checklist: a Title, and Copy items from… to start from another checklist on the board. Each shows how far along it is as a percentage and a bar, and has Hide checked items and Delete; click its title to rename it. Add an item opens a field that stays open for the next one: Enter or Add adds, Esc or Cancel puts it away. Click a box to tick it, and the words to edit them, with Save and Cancel. Drag an item up or down by the grip at its left (not while checked items are hidden), or use Move up, Move down and Delete in its ⋯. The count on the card covers every checklist and turns green when everything is ticked.
- Attachments
- Drop files anywhere on an open card, paste a copied picture or file anywhere outside a text field, or use Attachment. Any type of file, up to 10 MB each and 20 per card; a file over either limit is refused before it is sent. The Attachments block appears once the card has a file: images show a thumbnail, and every file has a link that opens it, an arrow that downloads it and a × that removes it. Deleting a file, a card or a board deletes the stored file too.
- Cover
- The picture button beside ⋯ opens Cover: Size (a band over the top, or the whole card), Remove cover, ten Colors, the card's own pictures, and Upload a cover image. The cover shows on the board and across the top of the open card.
- Linked email
- The conversation the card came from — the card itself only shows an envelope, so no address goes on the board. Click it, or Open the email in Mail in the ⋯ menu, to go to it in whichever folder it is in now; Unlink keeps the card but drops the link.
- Comments and activity
- Write in Write a comment… and press Enter or Save to post (Shift+Enter makes a new line; Markdown works). Each comment shows the writer's initials, the name they go by, from Settings — and when. Only your own offer Edit and Delete under them, and a deleted one leaves a line saying it was deleted rather than a gap. The count shows on the card.
- History
- Show details lists everything that has happened to the card under the comments, newest first: who created it, who moved it and between which columns, what it used to be called, which labels went on and off, which boxes were ticked, which files came and went. The latest eight show; Show all opens the rest. Cards filed by your assistant say so by name.
- ⋯ menu
- Open the email in Mail when the card is linked, Copy link, Archive and Delete, with when the card was last updated at the foot. Archive takes the card off the board and keeps everything until you put it back or delete it. Delete asks first, then the card, its checklists, files and comments are gone for good.
Labels
- Every board starts with seven labels — gray, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple — unnamed on a blank board, with a few already named on a template board. A card can wear as many as it needs.
- An unnamed label is a colored bar on the card. Give it a name and the name is what the card shows, so a board can say Bug or Waiting on a reply rather than asking everyone to remember what orange meant.
- Labels belong to the board: renaming or recoloring one changes it on every card at once, and deleting one takes it off every card without touching the cards themselves.
- Create a new label at the foot of Labels adds one; a board holds up to 30.
Finding a card
The magnifier in the board's bar opens Search cards, which narrows the open board to cards whose title, description, checklist items, file names, linked subject or linked sender contain what you typed. The column counts follow it. ×, or Esc in an empty field, closes it.
Sharing a board
The Private button at the right end of a board's bar opens the choice: Anyone with the link makes a read-only public link, with Copy link; Only me takes it away again, after asking — the link stops working for everyone who has it, and sharing again makes a new one. The link shows the board's columns and cards with their labels, due dates and checklist counts. A shared board is marked with a dot in the list.
Filing a conversation on a board
- Open a conversation in Mail and press b, or click the board icon in the conversation toolbar.
- Pick a board from the list, then click the column to file it in.
- A card is created with the conversation's subject as its title and its AI summary (or the first lines of the message) as notes, linked to the conversation. A toast confirms Added to Board › Column.
- If you have no boards yet, the popover offers New Follow-ups board, which makes the board and files the conversation under its To do column in one go.
- Back in the conversation, a chip such as Launch › To do appears under the subject for every card that links to it; click it to open the board.
- Ayoh Agent works on boards too. Ask it in Chat to file a conversation on a board, add or change cards, tick checklist items, comment, archive, or sort a whole board into new columns. Its steps say what it did in words — Filed a card, Organized a board — and its tools are listed under What it can do.
- Boards belong to the workspace, so a card can link to any conversation in its inbox.