Get Shift Done: Tips and Tricks
Trello is such a powerful way to keep your projects organized, but it can also get a little unwieldy. With Trello’s powerful search features and operators you can quickly find boards and cards, see what’s assigned to you (and others) and even get a quick glance at what’s due, when.
Using Search to Find a Board or Card
That little search box at the top of your Trello window is a powerful thing. Start by clicking in the search box.
Trello immediately drops down a help and search results window below the search textbox. As you’ll see, when you type into the search textbox this area will update with further help, tips, auto complete suggestions and search results.
To find a board or a card in Trello, start typing its name into the search box. Let’s say I’m looking for a card called “Update onboarding documentation”. I’ll start typing by typing the word “onboard.” Before getting far, Trello shows me results as I type. I can see both the card I’m looking for and a board called “Onboarding and hiring.”
Clicking on the name of the card takes me directly to it.
Search for Cards assigned to You or Someone Else
Finding a card or board you know is there is handy. Getting a quick look at what’s assigned to you is even better. Do this using the “@me” syntax in Trello. This will show you the list of cards that you’re a member of.
Clicking on a specific card will take you to it.
Want to find cards assigned to someone else? Just use the @ syntax and their name. Trello will suggest auto completed names that match what you’re typing. Here I’ve started typing “@dawn” and I see myself and my alter ego, who also belongs to my Trello boards.
Selecting a user will show the cards they are members of. In this case I clicked on my alter ego and see she’s got a few things she needs to get done, too.
Search for Cards by Due Date
This is probably one of the handiest of the search operators. Using “due:” followed by a keyword will show you all cards due in the next day, week or even month.
Start with “due:day” and see all cards that are due in the next day, across all boards and all members. This is really handy if you’re managing a team or project.
“Due:week” will show all cards that are due in the next seven days, again, across all cards and all members.
Lastly, “due:month” will show everything due in the next 28 days.
And there is one more modifier for the due operator that’s super helpful for project managers and management — the overdue modifier. Typing “due:overdue” into the search bar will show all of the cards that are past due.
Putting it All Together — Combining Search Operators
Now we get to the coolest stuff. You can use operators together to really narrow your search.
For instance, let’s say you want to see all the cards you’re a member of that are due in the next week.
Start with “due:week”, and then type a space.
Next, type in “@me”. The results shown are the cards you’re a member of that are also due in the next week. Slick, right?
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