Supercharging Productivity with Trello E-Book

Brittany Joiner

• Herausgeber: Packt Publishing
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 353

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Managing large projects and teams can be an immense challenge, but having an efficient project management system can make all the difference. Trello is one of the leading project management systems, however, it’s crucial to understand its features to leverage its full potential Supercharging Productivity with Trello is the perfect guide for you to enhance efficiency and do more in less time.

You’ll start by exploring Trello's structure, including cards, boards, and lists, before diving into Trello card basics. Next, you’ll learn to use Trello views and templates to aggregate tasks and organize projects. You’ll then explore automation, including triggers and actions, to create powerful workflows that will help you prioritize tasks and organize your data effectively. Later, you’ll discover Power-Ups, an add-on that extends Trello's functionality. Throughout the book, you’ll find practical tips and real-world examples to gain practical knowledge.

By the end of this book, you’ll be well-equipped to use Trello effectively for task and project management helping you stay on top of your game and deliver quick wins in no time.

Leseprobe

Supercharging Productivity with Trello

Harness Trello’s powerful features to boost productivity and team collaboration

Brittany Joiner

BIRMINGHAM—MUMBAI

Supercharging Productivity with Trello

Copyright © 2023 Packt Publishing

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First published: August 2023

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Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-80181-387-7

www.packtpub.com

To my partner, Vy Tran – thank you for making life not just possible but enjoyable when I add more side projects to our plate. I couldn’t have written this without you cheering me on and being my 90 on days when I could only be 10. And thank you to all the adorable critters in my life (Levi, Lucas, Artie, Melman, Blackjack, and Finn) that snuggled with me and kept me smiling while I wrote more about Trello than any human thought possible.

– Brittany Joiner

Contributors

About the author

Brittany Joiner is a Trello expert with over a decade of experience. An active member of the Atlassian Community, Brittany has answered user questions and helped countless people learn how to use Trello to streamline their workflow and boost their productivity. She’s also a contributor to the Trello blog, writing about how to use Trello to increase personal and team productivity.

After working in marketing for several years, Brittany became a developer. She regularly speaks about Trello, automation, and how to help individuals move into technical careers. Brittany lives with her partner and her pets. You’ll find her nerding out about technology, traveling the world, and making Trello-related puns.

I want to thank my technical reviewers, Lauren Moon, Andy Gladstone, and Robin Warren, for spending almost as much time on this book as I did! And special thanks to the Atlassian CommuniTEAM (Stephanie Grice, Erica Finley, Moonie, Monique van den Berg, and Cassie Mayes, to name a few) that have encouraged and supported me in every way possible on my journey to becoming a Trello super-fan. Also, thanks to Lane Simon, for handling the house while I got away on much-needed airplane rides that forced me to sit down and write!

About the reviewers

Andy Gladstone is currently the chief operating officer (COO) at Fidelity Payment Services, a FinTech company that specializes in the payments space. He is passionate about tools and strategies that increase collaboration, break down information silos, and create efficiencies for groups and organizations. Andy has been a community leader in the Atlassian Online Community for the past two years and is an avid user and ambassador for Atlassian’s global mission and products, especially Confluence, Jira, and Trello. As COO, Andy still wears the hat of Atlassian Admin in his organization due to the deep love and satisfaction he gains from creating a group of users whose sum is greater than its parts.

Robin Warren lives in beautiful Teignmouth on the UK’s southwest coast.

He runs a small software company that builds add-ons (power-ups) for Trello and has previously worked as a software developer and development team lead.

When he’s not doing that, he’s either hanging out with his wife and kids or out doing something on, in, or under the water. 🙂

Table of Contents

Preface

Part 1 – Trello Foundation

1

The Structure of Trello

What is Trello?

But why Trello?

Where can you use Trello?

Via the web

Trello desktop app

Trello mobile app

What kinds of things do people use Trello for?

Work-related use cases

Non-work-related use cases

Getting started

Creating an account

Workspaces (previously called Teams)

Boards

Creating a board

Finding your boards

Top toolbar options for a board

Lists

Add a card

Copy

Move

Watch

Sort by

Actions for cards within a list

Archive list

Cards

Summary

2

Trello Card Starter Pack

Card views

Name and description

Editing descriptions

Labels

Creating and editing labels

Dates

Start and due dates

Adding start and due dates to a card

Members

Adding members to a card

Watching

Configuring watching on a card

Comments and activity details

Commenting on a card

Activity details

Card actions

Quick actions from the card front

Summary

3

Leveling Up Your Cards

Attachments

Attaching items to a card

Inline attachments

Custom fields

Creating a custom field

Setting a custom field value

Checklists

Adding a checklist

Advanced checklists

Viewing all your checklist items

Viewing the progress of checklists

Locations

Setting a location on a card

Covers

Adding a card cover

Link cards

Disabling link cards

Summary

4

Viewing Cards Your Way

Filters

Dimensions to filter by

Activity

Filter logic

Removing a filter

Accessing alternative board views

Dashboard

Adding a new tile

Editing an existing tile

Calendar

Changing the cadence

Editing dates on a card

Adding a card

Syncing with your calendar

Using the Calendar Power-Up

Timeline

Adding another dimension

Adding a card

Table

Editing cards

Adding a card or list

Maps

Setting a location on a card

Adding a new card

Workspace views

Workspace calendar views

Workspace Table view

Summary

5

Real World Trello Boards

Understanding Trello templates

Viewing template information

Copying a template

Using Trello for Kanban and Agile workflow management

Board structure

Cards represent tasks

Cross-team project management

Board structure

Cards represent objectives

Meeting planner

Board structure

Cards are agenda items

Product roadmap

Board structure

Cards represent features or bugs in your product

Creating your own Trello template

Summary

Part 2 – Automation in Trello

6

Initiating Trello Automations

Getting ready to automate

When are you ready to automate?

Triggers

Actions

Accessing triggers

Pro tip – advanced mode

Card move

When a card is added to the board

When a card is added to a specific list

When a card is archived/unarchived

When a list is created/renamed/archived/unarchived

Automation variables

When a list has a specific number or range of cards

Card changes

When a specific (or any) label is added to a card

When an attachment is added/removed

When you or someone else is added to/removed from a card

When a specific user is added to/removed from a card

When a vote is added to/removed from a card

Dates

When a start/due date is set on a card

When the due date is marked complete/incomplete

When you or someone else enters a card name containing a date, set the due date

Checklists

When a specific checklist is added to/removed from a card

When a checklist is completed/made incomplete in a card

When an item is checked/unchecked

When a due date is set on/removed from an item

When an item is added to/removed from a checklist

Card content

Advanced pro-tip

When the name/description of a card contains specific text

When a comment is posted to a card

When a person is mentioned in a card

Fields

When all custom fields are completed

When custom fields are completed

When a custom field is set

When a custom field is set to a specific value

When a checkbox custom field is checked/unchecked

When a number custom field is set to a specific number/range of numbers

When a date custom field is set

Summary

7

Common Automation Actions

Accessing automation actions

Move

Move/copy the card to the top/bottom of the list

Move the card to the top/bottom of the current list

Archive/unarchive the card

Add/Remove

Create a new/unique card

Add/remove a label to a card

Add/remove a sticker to a card

Add/remove a link

Remove (just about anything) from the card

Dates

Mark a due date as complete/incomplete

Set the due/start date to ___

Move the due/start date to _

Move the due/start date by the same amount of time

Checklist actions

Add/remove checklists to a card

Add an empty checklist

Add/remove items to a checklist

Assigning the item to someone

Set the item due date

Move the item due date

Remove the due dates from the checklist

Remove the due date from the item

Check/uncheck an item

Check/uncheck all the times in a/all checklist(s)

Reset all the checklists on a card

Remove items from checklists

Member actions

Join/leave a card

Subscribe/unsubscribe to a card

Add/remove a specific user to a card

Add a member at random/in turn to a card

Remove all the members from a card

Content actions

Rename the card to ___

Set the card’s description to ___

Post a comment

Send an email notification to __

Get/post/put to URL

Summary

8

Advanced Actions

Field actions

Clear custom field __

Set custom field __ to ___

Check/uncheck custom field

Increase/decrease the number in custom field __ by __

Set date custom field ___ to ___

Move the date in custom field ___ to ___

Sort actions

Sort list by ___

Sort by custom field ___

Sort by label __

Cascade actions

Find/lookup the first/last card linked in the attachments

Find/lookup a card titled/with link

For each card linked in the attachments

For each card linked from an item in checklist

For each checklist item

Link/unlink the cards together

Link the card with the item

Convert the item to a linked card

Convert items in a checklist to cards/linked cards

Collect all the cards into linked items/links/items in checklist

Other tool actions

Jira

Bitbucket

Slack

Summary

9

Building Automation with Triggers

Accessing Automation

Rules

Creating a rule

Testing your rule

Editing existing automations

Other automation settings

Button automation

Card buttons

Board buttons

Summary

10

Date-Based Automation

Scheduled automation

New triggers for schedule automation

Creating a scheduled automation

Testing your scheduled automation

Due date automation

New triggers for Due date automation

Creating a due date automation

Testing a due date automation

Summary

Part 3 – Power Up Your Boards

11

Power-Ups Built by Trello

What are Power-Ups?

Accessing Power-Ups

Power-Ups for Integrations

Tools Trello integrates with easily

Adding the Slack Power-Up

Viewing notifications in Slack

List Limits

Adding the List Limits Power-Up

Configuring List Limits

Using List Limits

Read Me

Adding the Read Me Power-Up

Previewing the Read Me

Editing the Read Me

Voting

Adding the Voting Power-Up

Voting on a card

Sorting a list by votes

Other Trello-made Power-Ups

Summary

12

General-Use Power-Ups

Approvals for Trello

Adding Approvals for Trello to your board

Creating an approval

Approving or rejecting an approval

Viewing cards by approval status

Advanced features

Amazing Fields

Adding Amazing Fields

Creating a field

Updating a field

Additional features

Bulk Actions

Adding Bulk Actions

Selecting multiple cards to edit

Making changes to multiple cards

Summary

13

Syncing Info Between Boards and Tools

Forms by Blue Cat

Adding Forms by Blue Cat

Creating a form

Sharing a form

Testing a form

Unito

Creating a flow

Testing a flow

Summary

14

Reporting in Trello

Blue Cat Reports

Adding reports to your board

Quick lists

Reports

Placker

Getting started

Mapping a board

Viewing multiple boards together

Default attributes for reporting

Adding widgets and reports

Screenful

Getting started

Insights

CHARTS

REPORTS

Summary

Index

Other Books You May Enjoy

Preface

Why, Tr-hello there! (If you know me, of course you knew I’d be starting this book with a Trello pun.) This book is designed to be your comprehensive guide to understanding and utilizing the true power of Trello.

Trello is a collaboration and project management tool that helps individuals and teams stay organized, productive, and focused. It utilizes a visual interface consisting of boards, lists, and cards, allowing users to create and manage tasks, projects, and workflows in a flexible and structured manner. It’s easy to get started with, and powerful enough to handle your most complicated workflows.

Whether you’re an individual seeking an organized approach to your personal tasks or a team looking for a collaborative project management solution, Trello has got you covered, and I’m going to show you how.

In this book, we’ll explore Trello from its fundamental components to advanced features, automation, and integrations! My goal is to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to maximize your productivity and efficiency with this amazing tool.

Part One lays the foundation by diving into the core components of Trello. I’ll walk you through the basics of boards, cards, and lists and illustrate how they can be utilized effectively. You will discover customizable templates and real-world use cases that provide inspiration to organize your personal and professional projects. Even if you are familiar with Trello, I’ll bet you will still learn a thing or two in this section!

Part Two shines a spotlight on automation within Trello. I’ll unravel the world of triggers and actions, enabling you to streamline repetitive tasks and supercharge your productivity. With practical examples and recipes, I’ll be your Trello sherpa and guide you in automating various activities, such as adding members to cards, creating checklists, and moving cards between lists. You will gain a deeper understanding of how automation can be tailored to your specific needs and be confident to build out your own automations.

Part Three explores Trello’s integrations; we call them Power-Ups. I’ll explain the concept and purpose of Power-Ups and show you how to discover and leverage the vast array of options available. With examples of my favorite Power-Ups developed by Trello, as well as other Power-Ups addressing common use cases, you will have the tools to customize Trello to suit your unique requirements. I’ll even talk about special integrations and Power-Ups to help you navigate the reporting landscape, comparing the different options available. You will gain insights on how to measure progress, track performance, and extract meaningful data from your Trello boards.

Throughout this journey, I’ll empower you to harness the full potential of Trello’s capabilities, enabling you to become a professional of organization, collaboration, and automation. And I’ll even show you how to dive deeper and find the answers to anything else that may come up as you go.

I hope that this book will be your companion, providing inspiration, guidance, and practical solutions to enhance your Trello experience. And I hope it even makes you laugh in a place or two.

So, without further ado, let’s embark on this adventure together and unlock the true power of Trello! I need some more nerds to chat about this stuff with.

Happy Trello-ing!

Who this book is for

This book is meant for individuals and teams seeking a comprehensive guide to harnessing the full potential of Trello. Whether you are new to Trello and eager to learn its fundamental features, or already familiar with the platform and looking to explore its advanced functionalities, this book is your go-to resource. It caters to a wide range of readers, including professionals in various industries, project managers, entrepreneurs, students, and individuals aiming to enhance personal productivity. Regardless of your background or level of Trello knowledge, this book will equip you with the knowledge, tips, and strategies necessary to effectively utilize Trello and optimize your workflows, allowing you to stay organized, collaborate efficiently, and achieve your goals with ease.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, The Structure of Trello, helps you discover the fundamental structure of Trello – a digital whiteboard adorned with sticky notes and versatile LEGO-like components. Explore boards, lists, and cards as the building blocks of efficient organization and collaboration. Learn how to create an account, navigate boards and lists, and customize essential settings, forming a strong foundation to harness Trello’s potential.

Chapter 2, Trello Card Starter Pack, explores the core elements of Trello cards, from names and descriptions to labels, dates, members, and comments. Discover essential actions such as copying, archiving, templating, sharing, and moving cards, enabling efficient organization and collaboration in Trello.

Chapter 3, Leveling Up Your Cards, dives into more useful card features, such as attachments, custom fields, checklists, and the location feature, showcasing how these elements enrich your Trello boards and cards with enhanced functionality and customization options.

Chapter 4, Viewing Cards Your Way, teaches you how to utilize filters to narrow down by attributes and explore Trello’s various views, including calendar, map, table, and dashboard views, for better organization and productivity.

Chapter 5, Real-World Trello Boards, unlocks the versatility of Trello as we explore specific use cases and templates. From finding relevant templates in the gallery to employing Trello for Kanban, cross-team project management, meetings, and product roadmaps, this chapter provides practical guidance to maximize Trello’s capabilities.

Chapter 6, Initiating Trello Automations, start the journey of automation in Trello, showing you what you need to know before automating in Trello. Learn how to find the automation section in Trello and understand the various sections. Then, you’ll deep dive into triggers, which are activities that Trello can monitor to initiate automation. This chapter comprehensively covers every available trigger, offering practical guidance, instructions, and real-world examples to utilize them effectively.

Chapter 7, Common Automation Actions, shows you how to leverage Trello’s automation capabilities to perform actions on your behalf. Learn how to move cards, modify fields, set dates, manage checklists, assign members, and so on. With comprehensive explanations, recommended triggers to pair with these actions, and real-world examples, this chapter equips you with valuable insights and practical knowledge to make the most of Trello’s automation features, maximizing efficiency and productivity within your workflow.

Chapter 8, Advanced Actions, dives deep into more advanced Trello automation actions and how you might use them to unlock powerful possibilities to streamline workflows. Learn how to modify custom fields, sort cards or lists, and cascade actions to automate processes across multiple items. You’ll even jump into actions with Slack and Jira. With detailed explanations and practical examples, this chapter equips you with the knowledge and tools to take your Trello automation skills to the next level, making you an expert and allowing you to build just about anything you can dream of.

Chapter 9, Building Automation with Triggers, explores the synergy of triggers and actions within Trello to build comprehensive automation rules. Learn how to bring together triggers and actions to automate actions behind the scenes. You’ll also learn how to create board and card buttons to engage automation. With practical insights, examples, and step-by-step guidance, you’ll bring everything together to build the automation you need.

Chapter 10, Date-Based Automations, examines date-based automation in Trello, including scheduled automations and actions tied to card due dates. Discover how to automate recurring tasks and leverage dynamic actions based on a task’s due dates. This chapter provides practical examples and guidance to optimize your workflow and ensure timely task management.

Chapter 11, Power-Ups Built by Trello, starts the section of the book dedicated to add-ons for Trello. Explore a variety of Power-Ups built by Trello, including integrations with popular tools such as Twitter, Zendesk, Google, GitHub, and Slack. Additionally, we will delve into commonly used Power-Ups that facilitate tasks such as card counting, documentation creation, and feedback gathering through card voting.

Chapter 12, General-Use Power-Ups, explores Power-Ups that offer broad utility across various use cases, enhancing nearly every Trello workflow. Discover Power-Ups that facilitate seamless approval processes, enable the creation of custom and styled fields within your cards, and give you the ability to make bulk edits across multiple cards.

Chapter 13, Syncing Info between Boards and Tools, discusses Power-Ups specifically designed to help you get info in and out of your boards. These Power-Ups enable seamless integration of content from external sources, such as forms hosted in URLs. Additionally, learn how to use Unito to sync cards between Trello boards and other platforms such as GitHub, Jira, and Google Sheets! With practical examples and insights, this chapter equips you with the knowledge to streamline information flow, enhance collaboration and let each person do their work where they work best.

Chapter 14, Reporting in Trello, discovers the options for reporting in Trello and how to use them. This chapter guides you through the process of effectively managing and analyzing your data in Trello and how to choose from three common reporting tools. Gain insights into the features and capabilities of each tool, empowering you to make an informed decision based on your reporting needs. From generating progress reports to tracking performance, this chapter provides practical guidance to ensure accurate and insightful reporting within the Trello platform.

To get the most out of this book

It will help to have a basic understanding of Trello and to have used it to have more context for the examples and content provided, but even if you’ve never heard of Trello, I’ll bring you up to speed in the first chapter!

Software/hardware covered in the book

Operating system requirements

Trello

Windows, macOS, or Linux

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see on screen. For instance, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in bold. Here is an example: “Select System info from the Administration panel.”

Tips or important notes

Appear like this.

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Part 1 – Trello Foundation

We start our Trello journey by exploring what Trello is and its core components – boards, lists, and cards. We’ll dive into all of the fields on cards and how to use them in productive (and even fun) ways so that every individual contact, task, or item has all the information you need. Zooming out, we’ll learn how to see all your cards in useful views that highlight what you need when you need it and demonstrate some of the most common ways people use Trello.

This part has the following chapters:

Chapter 1, The Structure of TrelloChapter 2, Trello Card Starter PackChapter 3, Leveling Up Your CardsChapter 4, Viewing Cards Your WayChapter 5, Real-World Trello Boards

1

The Structure of Trello

Before you can start using Trello, you’ll need to understand what it is and how it works. In this chapter, we’re going to walk through what you need to know to get started with Trello.

We’ll talk about the following:

Analogies to help you understand TrelloWhere you can use TrelloWhy it’s preferred over other toolsCreating a Trello accountMaking your first board and list

Ready? Let’s get started!

What is Trello?

I’ve talked to many people about Trello – more than I can count. I always return to one metaphor to explain Trello and a second metaphor to explain how it works: a digital whiteboard.

I bet you’ve used a whiteboard to keep your projects organized. And you likely put sticky notes on that whiteboard to help you keep track of items for that project. You use squeaky dry-erase markers to create stages or lists under which your sticky notes fall.

When a sticky note changes, you move it to another whiteboard section. You jot down extra notes on it or add a sticker to it. You use specific colors of sticky notes to differentiate between them. You might use different colors based on who is working on those tasks or what team is responsible for them.

Because of this whiteboard process, you have the big picture of your project and can see what is completed, what’s in progress, and what’s still left to do. And any time you need to zoom in, you refer to a sticky note.

The whiteboard is fantastic and a classic approach. But there are a couple of problems with it.

One – it’s not portable.

Whiteboards only work well when you and your team are all working in close physical proximity. After all, the whiteboard is only as effective as the people updating it. If no one can see it, check its status, or move items as they have changed, the whiteboard isn't functional.

If you use one at your home office, it’s only useful when you’re sitting at home, and you can’t check it on the go. You can’t reference and update it while you’re traveling, and no one on your team can edit it.

And two, sticky notes are only so powerful!

You can change colors, add stickers, and sort sticky notes differently. But there’s only so much you can do to help them stand out and keep information about their task. They won’t hold any data, such as relevant files or images. They’re small, so you can only add a little detail to them.

Enter Trello... the digital whiteboard.

Imagine a whiteboard, but better. That’s what Trello is. It’s a digital whiteboard with super-charged sticky notes.

It’s a whiteboard but without the problems. It’s more powerful for collaborating with your team and keeping track of everything.

A Trello board holds cards (sticky notes) organized by lists – no dry-erase marker is required. You move your cards around and between the lists, as you would your sticky notes. And it takes up less room than a massive physical board with sticky notes!

The cards are customizable too, but we’ll discuss those in greater detail in Chapter 2.

Now that you understand what Trello is, let’s talk about how it works.

It’s like LEGO bricks!

While Trello has much in common with a whiteboard, it also has much in common with something else we’ve all used (although, maybe it’s been a few years).

How does a project management tool have anything in common with a kid’s toy?

It’s because you can build just about anything you want with Trello. It’s a highly customizable platform that is flexible and can be more than just a whiteboard. There are a million different things you can build with it – just like LEGO.

How many different LEGO kits exist in the world? Hundreds, thousands? Maybe more? You can build a Hogwarts Castle, a Death Star, racecars, dinosaurs, villages... you can even build the Titanic!

Because LEGO bricks are versatile, you can shape and mold them to be whatever you like. You only need a creative person to plan where they need to go. Lucky for you, I just happen to be that creative person!

But why Trello?

You’re not sitting here reading this book because I’m an expert in Asana or Monday.com. There’s a reason I chose Trello over those tools, but I won’t get into bashing other tools in this book, probably. They all have their place, and in some cases, other tools do work better for some folks.

The magic of Trello is that it’s extremely versatile yet powerful.

We’re going to get technical in this book and explain all the ins and outs of how to use Trello, and as I’m writing this, I realize there’s just so much to say because you can customize it and perfect it to work just the way you want it to.

It integrates with just about any software you can think of and is one of the most well-known tools on the market. It’s owned by Atlassian, a massive company focused on producing quality tools for improving workflows.

How to tweak the experience to make it exactly what you need it to be might not be super clear from the moment you open a board, but everything you need is there. Just like a sculptor, you need to carve and work it to make it a beautiful work of art for you and your team.

Where can you use Trello?

You can use Trello in a few places. This makes it more powerful than other tools that can only be accessed in the browser.

Via the web

You can use Trello from any browser as a web-based application. Head to trello.com and log in, and you’ll have access to all features, keyboard shortcuts, and more from Chrome.

Trello desktop app

If you prefer computer apps, you can access the Trello desktop app for Windows and Mac computers. The app provides notifications, access to Power-Ups, and more keyboard shortcuts.

Trello mobile app

Trello is perfect for use on the go, and this can be done via its Android and iOS apps. It’s a great way to create and access cards while away from your computer.

What kinds of things do people use Trello for?

Many teams use Trello for more than just project management. Let’s take a look.

Work-related use cases

Here are some examples of work-related use cases:

Customer support teams use Trello to create an organized flow for responding to customer requestsSales teams use Trello to keep track of leads through a pipeline as they convert them into deals and revenueMarketers use Trello boards to plan content calendars and track the content creation processEvent planners use Trello to ensure nothing falls through the cracks and to create a timeline of tasksEngineering teams use Trello to track bugs and features throughout the development cycleProduct teams use Trello for roadmapping, and often publicly share what new features are coming out in apps via their boardsSmall businesses use Trello for managing operations and coordinating with stakeholders.Agencies use Trello for collaborating with clients and keeping track of deliverables.Law firms use Trello for managing pleadings for clients, while keeping track of billable hoursNon-profit teams use Trello to organize internal operations and coordinate fundraising effortsChurches use Trello for organizing worker schedules and tasks to be completed for Sunday services

Now, let’s look at non-work-related use cases.

Non-work-related use cases

People also use Trello outside of work for a myriad of personal uses, some of which are as follows:

Organizing books to readMeal planningHousehold chores and productsTrip planningStoring addresses and contact recordsWorkout planning and trackingSaving articlesOnline shopping cart with links to products

And more!

The possibilities are endless. So, now you see why it’s like LEGO!

It’s exciting but also intimidating. When I only see a bunch of bricks and a picture of Hogwarts Castle, I have no idea how I will get there. How do these little bricks combine to make something so cool?

That’s the purpose of this book. Imagine this as your instruction manual that comes with your LEGO. I’ll help you make your Hogwarts Castle. But before we can start building, you need to understand what the bricks are.

So, let’s examine the contents of this LEGO kit we’ve opened and see what we have to work with.

Getting started

Before you can dive into the elements of Trello, you’ll need to create an account and create your first workspace.

Creating an account

Go to trello.com and click Sign up. You’ll be directed to an Atlassian login page. You can use your existing Atlassian login if you use other Atlassian products (such as Jira, Confluence, or Bitbucket). This makes it extremely easy to get started and keeps everything under one login if you use multiple tools. Otherwise, you’ll need to create a new account.

You can do that by typing an email address or choosing one of the social account options, such as Gmail:

Figure 1.1 – Trello sign-up modal

Workspaces (previously called Teams)

The wizard will walk you through the sign-up flow and help you create your first workspace. Think of a workspace as your department or organization, or a type of project:

Figure 1.2 – Form to create a Trello workspace

Each workspace is charged by the number of members in that workspace. You can have free workspaces, and you can have as many workspaces as you wish. Select your team type you are to get specific template recommendations. Next, invite team members via email address, or skip this process for now and invite them later.

Now that you’ve got a Trello account squared away, you’re ready to start playing around and getting your hands dirty. It’s time for the rubber to meet the proverbial road because we’re going to start creating boards and lists and understand what those things are, as well as how to use them.

Let’s dive into what Trello is most known for... its boards!

Boards

The first principal component of Trello is the digital whiteboard – that is, “the board.” You can have several boards in Trello (up to 10 per workspace in the free plan and unlimited boards in paid plans).

A board is a collection of cards, but we’ll get to those later. Think of a board as a topic or a goal. It could be a specific project you’re working on, or it could be a team.

Don’t worry too much about what your board should be, as it will likely change over time, and you’ll find yourself operating on multiple boards. It’s easy to adjust as you go.

Are you ready to put your fingers on the keyboard? It’s time to start digging in.

Creating a board

To help you explore boards, we will create one so that you have a visual as I explain what’s going on inside the board.

From the top toolbar in Trello, click the Create button and choose the first option that appears – that is, Create board:

Figure 1.3 – Create options in Trello

Name your board. You can call it To Do or Team Tasks.

Next, confirm the workspace you want the board to be in. You can leave the default option or click the name of the board to select another available workspace.

Lastly, you’ll choose a level of visibility – that is, who has access to view your board. For now, stick with the default option, which is Workspace visible. If no one else is part of your workspace, this is effectively the same as private visibility. If you aren’t sure and would prefer to hide this board, you can set the visibility to Private.

Once you click Create, you’ll go straight to your new board.

Finding your boards

Go to trello.com to see the boards you have joined or created:

Figure 1.4 – Trello board home page

View all boards, starting with starred ones, then your recently viewed ones, and finally the remaining boards. You can view only boards from a specific workspace by selecting a workspace name on the left-hand side.

To go to a board, click on its tile.

Top toolbar options for a board

Though boards can look very different, navigating them is the same. They all have a top toolbar with items for personalizing your board.

Although other tools have the “board” concept, did you know Trello was the first to promote this type of organization? Trello also offers the best customization and set of features at a board level that I’ve seen across all other similar tools.

Starring a board

The first item you will see is the board’s name; immediately next to it will be a star. If it’s filled yellow, this means that the board is “starred” and will show up at the top of your Trello Boards page.

You can also access these boards from the Starred menu in the very top toolbar in Trello.

By default, the starred field will be unselected. Click it to star it, and click again to un-star it:

Figure 1.5 – Board title with star icon for favoriting

Setting board visibility

The next option you’ll see is your board’s visibility. When creating a board, by default, it will be set to Workspace visible. This means that anyone who is part of your workspace can view the board and join it.

To change this, select the current visibility option – a menu will appear with options to change it:

Figure 1.6 – Board visibility options

You have at least three visibility options, and a fourth one if you are on an Enterprise version of Trello.

Private means that only you and the people who you invite can see the board and its contents, with one exception – workspace admins are also able to see the contents of any board (so make sure not to say anything about your boss in your boards 😅).

You can find your workspace admins by opening the panel on the left-hand side of the board and selecting Members:

Figure 1.7 – Board member settings

If you want others to view your content and engage in a board, you can invite them to the board, even if its visibility is Private. Click the Share button in the top-right toolbar of your board to see a modal appear:

Figure 1.8 – Board sharing and invite options

Here, you can type a member’s name or email address. If they’re not on Trello, you can send an invite to their email address.

You can also click the Create link button below the text field to create a link that you can send to someone to join the board. This link is not public, but anyone you send it to will be able to join the board. You can revoke this link any time after you create it.

Workspace visible means that anyone who is part of your workspace can see the contents of your board. They’ll also be able to join it and edit. This is great for any information that is relevant to your wider group of colleagues and doesn’t contain sensitive information.

Public visibility means that anyone can see this board, even if they don’t have a Trello account. Sometimes, this is actually kind of useful! For instance, perhaps you want to distribute information, such as a roadmap or resources. Although anyone can see this board, they can’t edit it.

It’s also important to note that as of 2022, Google does not index Trello boards, so they will not appear in Google search results. Bummer for folks who had Trello boards with links that were getting tons of traffic!

Organization visibility is only available to Trello Enterprise accounts. It means anyone using Trello with the same company email domain (for example, [email protected] and [email protected]) can view this board.

Next to the visibility settings, you’ll see options for board views. If you want to learn about them now, skip to Chapter 4.

There’s another button called Power-Ups, but once again, we won't cover these until a later chapter because we’ve got a lot of ground to cover there. These add-ons super-charge your Trello board to do even more powerful things. It’s best to start with Trello’s native features before diving into the extras. We will discuss those in Chapters 11, 12, 13, and 14.

You’ll also see a button for Automation, which allows you to customize rules for managing items in Trello. You will learn more about this in Chapter 6.

Filtering a board

One more button you’ll see in your top bar is the Filter button. If you don’t have any cards on your board, it won’t be very useful, but once you add cards, you can select which cards you want to see:

Figure 1.9 – Board filtering options

Here, you can filter to only show your cards (or another member’s) or filter by due dates. You can even filter by keywords, labels, or recency of activity. It’s a great tool for drilling down to exactly what matters, and helpful when you have a busy board.

Adding members and setting roles

You’ll also notice avatars on the top right-hand side of your board, which indicate who has joined the board. Click on an avatar to view that member’s information. If you need to change their role, click the Share button. You can also see a list of all the members and their roles here.

By default, everyone is a member, which means they can edit the content on a board, such as creating cards, lists, and more.

Admins have superpowers and can rename a board and close a board.

If you’re on a Trello Premium or higher plan, you’ll have access to another role type: Observer. These