My quick feedback on the new features

[Jenny Dean]

I'm not technical and I only use Trello myself - but a lot! - rather than as part of a team. I just thought I'd capture my initial thoughts of the Beta functionality in case it is helpful, having received the invite to join the group. 

I love the idea of the Inbox and the Planner in a single view with the Board, but I won't be using that for a while myself. I already have my 1st list in every board as an inbox list and use that in my main board for the same purpose as the new Trello Inbox. However I am able to create custom fields and buttons, add labels and automations in my own list that I can't in the new inbox. In particular I can move cards from my board into the inbox (e.g. if a previously 'done for now' card becomes due according to the due date). 

The planner won't be useful for me until I am able to link more than one google calendar to it. it also takes up too much white space that could be used to view an extra list in the board to the right. In the future it would be incredible if I would be able to link Trello cards to items in my calendar for reference. I currently do that by having my own 'calendar' list next to my own 'inbox' list on my main board. 

What I love with the new beta though, is the ease with which to change boards. And more than anything, the card mirroring, which I have had to create workarounds for for a long time. Can't wait to try that out. 

[DiMaggio Tucci]

I'd like to add that I like that the button to view boards in with these other buttons, but I wish it would still appear as a list on the side instead of as a pop up! The planner and calendar appear side-by-side with everything else when you click on the button, and disappear when you click again. why not do this with the boards list, too?

[Bea V_]

DiMaggio -yes! I loathe the pop up for boards. Plus the boards are so small on the popup making it hard to recognize the image and also requiring weird side scrolling to see them all.

Making the board list open like the planner and inbox as a side by side would make the removal of a much used feature so much more bearable and efficient while staying in line with the UI redesign.

[Victor Dronov]

Thank you for this feedback, @Jenny Dean ! How was your first experience with Mirror Cards? Which use cases you are applying it to?

[Jenny Dean]

Hi Victor. I am still early in giving it a go. My first main use case that I like, is to create an automation that creates a mirrored card in my main board for a card in another board when the due date arrives. Previously my automation created a new card in my board with a link to that board to which I had to navigate to see which card had become due. I am about to start using it to mirror a card in another board for cards that could fit in multiple boards, however, a limitation I have just found is that mirrored cards do not appear in filtered searches. This may limit that use case. I am also limited by the fact that I don't think I can currently create mirrored cards in the mobile app, which is where I do most of my planning unfortunately. I have a final use case that I would love to use it for, but which may not be common enough for the likely development involved. I often have cards that could belong in multiple boards, so mirroring would be great; but the different boards have different card features, particularly labels and custom fields, and I want to keep those separate. So, a mirrored card which has the original card embedded in it, but which has the labels and custom fields of the board in which the mirrored card is in, would be awesome. In the meantime though, I just use a simple workaround by connecting cards.

[Caity]

Hi @Jenny Dean, it's great to hear how you've been using Mirror cards! We're definitely interested in including Mirror cards in filter results and hope to be able to support that very soon. I can definitely see how it would be helpful to have separate labels and custom fields for Mirror cards as well, and I'd love to learn more about how you'd like to use this. Would you mind sharing an example of what types of labels and fields you'd want to show on Mirror cards?

One last thing—it's possible to create Mirror cards on the mobile apps, but it's a more manual process than on the web. To do this, you'll first need to open the card you want to mirror and then copy the link to that card from the "..." menu in the top right corner. Next, go to the board where you want to create the Mirror card and paste that link as the title of a new card, and it will automatically transform into a Mirror card when you save the card.

[Jenny Dean]

Hi @Caity Here's with some examples that spring to mind on how I would use mirror cards (how I currently use my workaround equivalent). I have a main board that I use for 'getting things done' - this is the main board I work from. I then have different boards e.g. for different customers. In a customer board I may use labels on cards to organise on different projects or products for that customer etc. But on my main board I may just use simpler higher level labels such as the customer's name. So I'd love it if the mirror card on my getting things done board just has the customer label so that I can filter all my current cards for that customer when I'm working on current projects for them. At present if I move a card from my customer board, it brings across all the detailed labels assigned to it into my main board and I'm constantly having to tidy up my labels. It would be great to see the original mirrored card, including it's specific labels within a mirrored 'wrapper' card in my main board that has its own labels available from the board the mirrored card is in. I could then create an automation of when a card in a customer's board is due, it creates a mirrored card in my main getting things done board, with the label of that customer assigned to it. The start and end dates may also differ between boards. A project for a customer may have a certain timeframe which I want to keep in the original board/card, but I may want to work on that project on a specific day in my main board that I have carved out to work for that customer. I do use custom fields quite a bit. I use them almost entirely for automations. E.g. one field may have a list of 'lists' and when I select one it moves that card to that list. It's therefore a bit more complex but ultimately I would love to be able to use the fields and automation from the board I'm in, to move the mirrored card to the appropriate list etc. So the same concept applies as with the labels. Finally it is likely that I would want to have mirrored card specific description field too, but to be honest, at this point I'm probably veering well away from the intended purpose of a mirrored card and I could just create a link to the original card in the description of the 'mirrored' card. As I write than then, perhaps what I am envisaging is the same as what I currently see in a mirrored card, but instead of it being the whole card, the content of the original card that is currently in a blue box, sits within a new box within the mirrored card like a new 'Description' Box. But I'm not sure if mine would be a typical use case. At the moment my main barrier is the inability to filter the cards. Thanks for letting me know about the way to mirror in the mobile app. That will be useful for creating mirrored cards. It will be better in the longer run when I can actually see the mirrored card in the app, as I notice at the moment it just provides the link, so I have to click on each mirrored card to see what is mirrored. Finally apologies for all the text, last time I tried to add line breaks etc it wouldn't let me post my reply and I wanted to get it posted before I forget!  

[Caity]

Thanks for sharing those examples!

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

@Jenny Dean Thank you for all the feedback, really appreciate it! 

Glad you are enjoing the new way to switch boards. Pro tip - hit "b" wanting to open the new board switcher and then immediately start typing the name of the board you want to switch to. If you then hit enter, it will immediately open the first board in your search results. If you are looking to navigate to a different board in you search results you can first use your arrow keys to select that board and then hit enter. Let me know what you think! 

On Planner - we will have an update in the next few weeks that allows you to schedule cards to Planner as well as create generic focus times! Looking forward to seeing what you think. We are also in the process of exploring the ability to add multiple accounts. In the meantime, one workaround is to actually share 1 Google Calendar (with edit access) with another Google Account and then only connect that Google Account that you shared with. 

[Jenny Dean]

Thanks Alexandros. I love the "b" and typing shortcut to switch boards. I find that really useful already. I tried the approach with google calendars but couldn't get it to work. But that might be my naivety with Google Admin. One calendar (the main one I want to add), doesn't allow me to share with edit access unfortunately, so that didn't work. Another calendar does allow me to share it with edit access. I have done this and I can see the shared events in my google calendar. But I can't see the events from that shared calendar in the Trello planner. 

[Alexandros Mathopoulos]

@Jenny Dean awesome, super glad you are enjoying the "b" and typing shortcuts for switching boards! 

Ah, I am sorry that sharing calendar did not work for your particular calendars. The team is hard at work building support for multiple accounts. Will let you know as soon as that is available. 

[Kate Bolton]

I was using mirror cards in a very similar way to Jenny but today when I tried to mirror from one board to another, it wasn't available as a function and prompted me to upgrade my workspace. Has the mirror function been removed from the Beta test?

[Caity]

Hi @Kate Bolton! Card mirroring was released alongside the beta features but is not in the beta program itself. Mirror cards are only available within Workspaces on a paid plan. You can still create a Trello link card on a free board by copying the URL of the original card and then pasting it as the title of a new card on the board you want to add it to.