The Board view lets you arrange subnotes as cards on a Kanban board.
Right-click an existing note in the Note Tree, select Insert child note, and look for Kanban Board.
When you first create a collection of the Board type, a few subnotes
are created, each with a #status label set. The board then groups
each note by the value of its status attribute.
Notes are displayed recursively, so even grandchildren and more deeply nested notes will be displayed. However, unlike the Table, the notes are not displayed hierarchically.
You can create a new column by pressing the Add column button located after the last column.
Enter the new name (which must not match another column), optionally select an icon by pressing the circle at the start of the text box, and then press the (+) button or Enter. Click or tap outside the text box, or press Esc, to dismiss it.
The order of the columns can be changed at any time. There are several ways to do this:
To change the name of a column, open the column menu and select Rename column, or press F2 while the column header is selected.
From the same menu, you can tint the column with a different color by using the color palette at the bottom of the menu.
A column can be collapsed (minimized) to occupy less space on the screen and make the board look less cluttered. This is particularly useful for columns that are not frequently used, or when you want to focus on only a few columns and keep the rest out of sight.
To collapse a column:
Alternatively, you can use the Collapse column command from the column menu.
Once a column is collapsed, its cards are no longer visible, but the column can still receive cards from other columns:
Collapsed columns can still be reordered, and their menus remain available.
You can restore a collapsed column so that its content is visible again in the following ways:
By default, once a column is expanded, it remains expanded. However, you can configure a column to collapse again after you finish working with it. To activate this behavior, open the column menu and check Keep the column collapsed.
A column configured to remain collapsed will expand like any other collapsed column, but only temporarily, until another column is focused.
You can expand or collapse all columns at once by using the (collapse) and (expand) buttons. On the desktop, these buttons are located at the bottom of the screen; on the mobile interface, they are in the header.
By default, the cards in a column are sorted manually by moving them up and down. You can also keep them sorted automatically, using customizable criteria for each column. To customize the sorting options, open the column menu → Sort. The following options are available:
When cards are sorted by an attribute, they are ordered according to the following rules:
| Attribute type | Sort order (ascending) |
|---|---|
| Text, Multi-line text, URL, Email, Phone | A to Z, 0 to 9 |
| Number | lowest → greatest |
| Date, Date & time | oldest → newest |
| Time | earliest hour (closest to 0) → latest hour (closest to 24) |
| Checkbox | unchecked → checked |
| Select | The order in which the options are declared.
For example, a select attribute declared with “Low”, “Medium”, and “High” options will be sorted as follows: Low → Medium → High. |
| Color | Grays → colors. Colors are ordered by their color-wheel hue angle (from 0° to 360°). |
Relation attributes are ordered according to the title of the target note.
Cards with attributes that have no value set are always sorted at the end of the column, regardless of whether the sort order is ascending or descending. If an attribute holds more than one value, only the first value is used for sorting.
Every new column uses the Board's default sorting option, which is initially set to manual sorting on new boards. However, the default can be changed to any other sorting criterion and direction. To configure it, go to Note menu → Board properties → Default card order (under the General section).
Once the default is changed, all columns set to the Board's default sorting option will follow the new sorting options.
Columns using a sorting option other than Board's default will not be affected by the new default. To override all columns so that they use the default sorting options, use the Reset sorting options to default for all columns command in Board properties.
For each column, you can limit the number of cards it contains (also known as a WIP limit). Once the limit is exceeded, the column displays a visual warning to indicate that it is over its limit.
To enable the limit, go to the column menu → Set limit, and then:
A column that has reached its limit can still accept new cards. Blocking new cards is not supported and most likely never will be, due to the way Trilium works: cards are regular notes, and the attributes used to group them into columns can be set from anywhere in the app, outside the board control. As a result, enforcing the limit would not be consistent.
If you want to hide a column from the board without deleting it, you can archive it by opening the column menu → Archive column. Archiving a column does not set the archived flag (see Archived Notes) on the notes corresponding to its cards.
To show archived columns again, go to Collection options and toggle Show archived notes. Archived columns will appear faded. To restore one, open its column menu and select Unarchive column.
You can delete a column by opening the column menu → Delete column, or by pressing Delete when a column header is focused, and then confirming. This removes the column from the board and unsets the grouping attribute for each note represented by a card in that column. If the column contains cards, the confirmation also offers to delete their notes instead of keeping them.
The inbox column is not deleted this way. Its menu entry is Remove inbox column, and Delete on its header hides the inbox without changing any card.
The inbox column is a special column containing cards that are not assigned to another column. It is particularly useful when you switch an existing collection containing child notes to a board collection. The inbox column turns all child notes into cards that you can quickly distribute among the other columns. It can also act as a backlog where you can keep new cards that might eventually become part of the board.
The inbox column is hidden by default. To show it, go to Collection options and toggle Show inbox column. The inbox column is distinguishable by its transparent background. It is always the first column and cannot be moved. It does not support a card limit. Otherwise, it operates like a regular column: its title, icon, and color can be changed; it can be sorted manually or automatically; and it can be collapsed.
You can also show the inbox column by applying the #board:showInbox label
(read more about Attributes)
to the board note.
Optionally, the inbox column can also list nested notes from the board collection's subtree. To enable this, open the column menu and check Include nested notes.
There are three predefined widths for board columns: narrow (default), medium, and wide. To change the width, open the Note menu → Board properties → Column width (under the General section). This option applies to every column on the board, except in the mobile version.
The same option is also available through the #board:columnWidth label
(read more about Attributes)
on the board note, which accepts “narrow”, “medium”,
or “wide” as its value.
You can also redefine these three widths by using custom app CSS (read more about Custom app-wide CSS) and assigning the desired pixel values as follows:
#trilium-app {
--board-column-width-narrow: 275px;
--board-column-width-medium: 325px;
--board-column-width-wide: 400px;
}To create a new card, press the New card button located at the bottom of each column. To create a new card above or below a specific card, right-click or hold that card, and then select Insert new above or Insert new below from the context menu. Alternatively, press Shift + Enter to create a new card above the focused card, or Enter to create one below it.
Next, type the title of the new card, and then press the button or Enter to complete it. Tap or click anywhere outside the text box to dismiss it. You can also select a different icon and card template. To learn more about card templates, see Card templates (learn more about Templates).
After the card is created, you can tap or click it, or press Space, to edit the note content.
When using the New card button, cards are always created at the end of the column. To create the card at the top of the column, right-click or hold the button and select Create at top. When using keyboard shortcuts, focus the column header and press Enter to create a new card at the start of the column, or Shift + Enter to create one at the end.
Any note in your knowledge base can be represented as a card on a board. To add an existing note to your board, create a new card but do not enter a title. Instead, press the button. Alternatively, use the Add an existing note as a card command from the column menu.
In the dialog that opens, search for the note by name, and then press the Add to column button to insert it. Alternatively, you can drag any note from the tree and drop it at the desired position on the board.
If the target note is already in the board collection's subtree, it will already be listed in the inbox column.
When working with a board, you may need to perform operations on multiple cards at once, such as moving them to another column, setting attributes or colors, deleting them, or archiving them.
You can select multiple cards in the following ways:
To move one or more cards to another column, use one of the following methods:
Touch and hold the card, or click and hold it with the mouse, and then drag it to the desired column. If the column uses manual sorting, you can also position the card relative to the other cards.
If the target column is collapsed, you can drop the card onto its header to move it into that column (at the end if manually sorted), without expanding it. However, if you want to reveal its cards before dropping, hold the card over the column for a few seconds; the column will then expand.
You can also use keyboard shortcuts to move the selected card or cards between columns:
To quickly move a card to another column, open the card's context menu and select the destination column. The menu lists the first seven columns; on a wider board, the remaining ones are grouped under More….
Cards within a column can be freely reordered unless the column uses a sorting option other than manual. To reposition a card, drag it as described in the Moving cards between columns section and drop it at the desired position.
Alternatively, you can use keyboard shortcuts to move the selected card or cards:
If multiple cards are selected, the keyboard shortcuts work only if the selection consists of a continuous sequence of cards.
Every card on a board is a regular note. To edit the note associated with a card, click or tap the card, or press Space when the card is selected. The note will open in a Quick Edit dialog, where you can modify it. You can also open the note in a new tab, split, or window by using the Open note submenu in the card's context menu. To open the note in a new tab on the desktop version, you can also click or tap the Open note menu item directly, without opening its submenu.
To change the title or icon of a card, use one of the following methods:
You can then enter a new name and select another icon. To move the keyboard focus from the title field to the icon selector, press Shift + Tab. Click or tap anywhere outside the card, or press Enter, to apply the change. Press Esc to discard the changes.
Each card can be tinted with a different color. Open the card's context menu and select the desired color. If no color is assigned, the card inherits the column color.
A card can be hidden from the board without deleting it by using the Archive note command from the card's context menu.
To show archived cards again, go to Collection options and toggle Show archived notes. Archived cards will appear faded. To restore one, open its context menu and select Unarchive note.
You can remove one or more cards from the board and delete their associated notes by using the Delete note… command from the card's context menu, or by pressing Shift + Delete. On mobile, hold the card until the side toolbar appears, and then tap the button.
To remove a card from the board's columns while keeping its note, open the card's context menu and select Remove from column, or press Delete. On mobile, hold the card until the side toolbar appears, and then tap the button.
This command is not available when the inbox column is enabled. Instead, drag the card to the inbox column to achieve the same result.
The note remains in the board collection but is not assigned to any column. To see it on the board again, enable the inbox column.
By default, the face of a card displays a minimal set of information: the title, icon, and color. In some cases, this may not provide enough useful information at a glance. You can extend the card to display extra information, called card attributes, such as a due date, priority, completion status, or any other information you need. Card attributes use the same principles as Promoted Attributes.
To create a new attribute, follow these steps:
Here is an example of the attributes you can define for a typical Kanban board used to track tasks:
| Attribute name | Attribute type | Attribute display name |
|---|---|---|
| dueDate | Date & Time | Due date |
| priority | Select (options: Low, Medium, High, Urgent) | Priority |
| done | Checkbox | Done |
To set the value of a custom attribute, click or tap the card, and then enter or select the desired value in the dialog header.
For attributes of the “select” or “checkbox” type, you can quickly change the value by using the card's context menu under the Attributes section.
Go to Note menu → Board properties. Under the Card attributes section, you can:
Attributes that the cards get from a template or another parent note can be reordered and hidden here, but not modified or deleted. Edit them on the note that defines them.
If cards define an attribute with the same name but a different type or different select options, for example through two different templates, or if a card overrides the board's definition with its own, the attribute is marked Multiple definitions. Such an attribute is sorted as text and does not appear in the card's context menu.
When you create a new card, Trilium offers four templates by default: Text, Markdown, Canvas, and Spreadsheet. You can customize this list to include other note types or custom templates with predefined placeholder content and prefilled card attributes.
To customize the card templates, go to Note menu → Board properties and find Card templates. Here you can:
On a board, cards are grouped into columns. The column to which a card belongs is determined by the value of the grouping attribute, which is a regular attribute of the card's note.
By default, boards use the Status attribute as the grouping attribute. When you move a card to a column called “Waiting on Customer”, the card's Status attribute is set to “Waiting on Customer”.
To quickly create a new grouping attribute:
Switching the grouping attribute lets you view your cards by priority,
category, or any other custom grouping attribute. You can switch the grouping
attribute at any time by using the Group by dropdown
in the board header. You can also change it using the #board:groupBy=<_attribute name_> label.
To delete a grouping attribute, go to Note menu → Board properties, find the attribute under the Card attributes section, and press the corresponding button.
A more advanced use case is grouping by Relations.
In this mode:
Using relations instead of labels has several benefits:
To use relations for grouping:
Create a Kanban board from scratch rather than from a template.
Assign #viewType=board #hidePromotedAttributes to emulate the
default template.
Set #board:groupBy to the name of a relation, including the ~ prefix (for
example, ~status).
Optionally, use Promoted Attributes to make changing the status within the note easier:
#relation:status(inheritable)="promoted,alias=Status,single"You can search for cards using the search box at the top of the board. Enter your keywords, and then press the button in the search field or press Enter. Only cards whose titles, content, or attribute values match the query will be displayed. Columns without results will be temporarily collapsed to make room for the matching cards. Press the button in the search field to clear the search and display all cards again.
If you need to refine the view to display only cards matching specific criteria beyond a regular text search, you can use Trilium's search query syntax. Here are some example queries:
Display only cards whose Priority attribute is set to “Low”:
#priority=LowDisplay only cards whose Issue Category is set to “Software” and whose Site is set to either “Office” or “Factory”:
#issueCategory="Software" AND (#site="Office" OR #site="Factory")Display only cards with a Due Date in the next seven days that are not yet marked as Done:
#dueDate >= TODAY AND #dueDate <= TODAY+7 AND #!doneThe filter persists even after you close the tab. When you reopen the collection, the filter remains active until you clear the search query by using the button.
You can create a link that opens the board and points out a specific column or card. Open the column menu or the card’s context menu, select Copy reference, and then paste the link where you need it.
In a text note, the pasted link displays the title, icon, and color of the column or card it points to. In a Markdown or code note, the plain link address is pasted instead. Opening the link scrolls the board to the column or card and focuses it. If the column belongs to a different grouping attribute, the board switches to that attribute first.