Plan mode is a way of working on a tab, made for running work on boards: a Kanban board, a sprint, a bug triage, a retro or a roadmap. A Plan board shows your work as columns of cards. Each card is an item (a task, a bug, a note or an idea) stored with the document rather than drawn on the tab, so moving a card changes the item for everyone at once, and the same item can sit on two boards (a sprint board and a roadmap) and move on both. See Items.
Plan is one of the five editor modes, beside Diagram, Draw, Illustrate and Facilitate, and it is on for everyone: there is nothing to turn on in Settings. Plan works in tabs of its own: a Board, Sheet, Dashboard or Visualisation tab is always in Plan, and a tab in another mode never switches into it.
What Plan Mode Changes
- No palette: boards, sheets and dashboards carry their own tools, so Plan hides the palette. Add a board or sheet from Start Planning, cards from a column's Add card, widgets from the + in a board's header, and metrics, charts and cards to a dashboard with Add to Slot.
- Tools: Plan starts on the Hand tool, because cards take the pointer themselves and a drag on the empty canvas pans. Pick Select to move or resize a board. The Eraser and Format Painter are left out.
- The bottom-right corner gains, where Layers sits in the other modes, one strip of buttons: the Trash (an editor's, not on a phone), New Card, Cards, which finds any card in the document, and Card Types. They show once the tab has a board, a view or a Sheet of your cards; on an empty tab they stay out of the way. The Layers panel and the Quick Style panel are hidden in Plan; a board's look comes from the tab's theme, and its colours are still in its right-click menu.
- Everything else works as in Diagram mode: selection, arrows, text, sticky notes, snapping, undo and shortcuts, so notes and arrows around a board behave as they always do.
Getting to Plan
- A new Plan tab: on a Diagram, Draw, Illustrate or Facilitate tab, press the mode switch (beside the menu button at the top left) and choose Plan. A tab's mode can't cross into Plan, so you're asked Open a New Plan Tab?; press New Plan Tab to add one after your other tabs, opening on Start Planning. Shift+D steps only through the other four modes.
- From a Plan tab: add a tab with the + in the tab bar and it opens in Plan too.
- A new document: pick Blank Plan in the New Document wizard (see Starting a Board).
- A Plan tab stays in Plan. Picking another mode on it asks the same question the other way round and offers a new tab in that mode; the Plan tab itself never changes. On a phone, the tab menu lists no other modes on a Plan tab.
- View-only visitors have no mode switch: they see each tab in its own mode, can open cards to read them, and cannot drag, add or change anything.
Boards, sheets and charts from older documents may still sit on a tab in another mode. There a board is an element like any other: you can select it, move it, resize it and draw around it, and it still updates as cards change. Its cards only take clicks and drags in Plan mode; elsewhere, double-click a card to open it.
Starting a Board
An empty Plan tab shows Start Planning in the middle: its rail on the left lists Recommended, Boards, Spreadsheets, Visualisations (one chart of your cards filling the tab, such as a Gantt chart or a due calendar), Dashboards (rows of slots showing your boards, sheets and charts side by side) and Inspiration (ready-made ways to run real work, such as a Hiring Pipeline or a Content Calendar, set up across tabs), each opening a grid of cards beside it, and Something Else opens the Quick Start. Type in the search box to look across all of them at once, by name, what it's for or the card types a board takes. Pick a card to start. The tab becomes a Board, Sheet, Visualisation or Dashboard tab. See Boards, Sheets, Charts of Your Cards and Dashboards.
- A new document: in the New Document wizard, choose Plan. The document opens on one empty Plan tab, with no board, on Start Planning, whose Inspiration holds the Plan templates, each of which sets up a way of working across several tabs, opening on a worked example of cards you can move, edit or delete (see Plan Templates below).
- Each board (Kanban, To-do List, Sprint, Retro, Roadmap, Bug Triage, Week, All Cards or a blank board) takes the card types its work is made of (a Sprint board takes Stories, Tasks and Bugs; a Bug Triage board, Bugs). The first board in a new document gives it just those card types (a Blank board, the five everyday ones); boards after it bring any your document doesn't have yet.
Plan Templates
Every Plan template but Blank Plan makes several tabs, each with its board set up for the job (columns, rows, card fields and widgets), charts of your cards and, where a session is run, a how-to note, a timer and other tools beside it. Every tab opens in Plan mode.
| Template | Tabs | Card types |
|---|---|---|
| Project Planner | Roadmap (projects on Now, Next, Later with a Gantt chart), Backlog, Sprint, Daily Standup | Project, Story, Task, Bug |
| Kanban Board | Board (with WIP limits), Requests, Flow (charts of where the work stands) | Task, Request |
| Bug Tracker | Triage (a row per priority), Fixing, Health | Bug |
| Team Retro | Retro (notes hidden until you reveal them, then a vote), Actions, Archive | Note, Idea, Action |
| Weekly Planner | This Week, Inbox, Calendar | Task, Action, Note |
| Content Calendar | Ideas (voted on), Production, Calendar | Content, Task |
| Hiring Pipeline | Roles (with a Gantt chart), Pipeline (a row per role), Onboarding (a row per new starter) | Role, Candidate, Onboarding Task |
| OKRs | Objectives (with a Gantt chart), Key Results (on track, at risk or off track) | Objective, Key Result |
| Product Launch | Timeline, Checklist (a row per workstream), Launch Day (go or no-go) | Project, Task, Launch Check |
| Feedback Board | Feedback (voted on), Delivery | Request, Task |
- Cards move between tabs. Boards on different tabs share some columns: move a task to This Sprint on the Project Planner's Backlog and it is on the Sprint board too. A card's Status in its panel lists the columns of every tab, so you can send it anywhere.
- Each board takes only its own kinds of card, and the document has only those. A template brings just the card types its boards need, with the fields the work needs: a Candidate names its Role (so the Pipeline has a row per role), a Key Result has a Baseline, Target and Current, a Request says who it is Requested By. They are your document's card types, to change like any other; Add Default Types there adds Project, Task, Note, Idea and Action if you want them too.
- Charts read every card, whichever tab its board is on.
- Picking a template from Quick Start on an empty tab fills that tab and adds the rest straight after it.
- Every board opens on a worked example: a small team's cards (Maya, Sam, Priya, Leo and Ana's), dated from today, so the boards, charts and calendar show how the template runs. They are ordinary cards: move them, change them, or delete them as you start on your own work.
Four more Plan templates are a spreadsheet instead of boards, each a Sheet already filled in for you from one of the Sheet templates, with no cards and no card types:
| Template | The Sheet | Fills the Tab |
|---|---|---|
| Budget Planner | Planned and actual amounts by category, totals, a summary and a spending chart | Yes |
| Timesheet | This week, Monday to Friday, by project and task, billable hours and the amount | Yes |
| Contact List | Names, companies, roles, stages, when you last spoke and who to follow up | Yes |
| Task Tracker | Tasks with an owner, status, priority, dates, progress and a status chart, beside a how-to | No |
The first three fill their tab, as the sheet is the whole job; the Task Tracker sits on the canvas so you can add notes, a diagram or a board around it. Change either from the Sheet's Fill Tab setting.
Working on a Board
- Add a card: every column ends in + Add card. It opens Add a Card: press a type (Project, Task, Note, Idea, Action, or any your document adds) to add a card of it. The new card opens straight away with its title selected, so just type to name it. See Cards.
- Move a card: drag it to another column, or up and down its column. On a board with rows (by assignee, priority, type, project or any field), dropping it in a row also sets that field: drop it in Sam's row to give it to Sam.
- Open a card: click it. Its panel opens over the canvas, with the title and the card's tabs on the left and Details (status, assignee, priority and the rest) on the right. Every change saves as you make it. On a phone the panel rises from the bottom, with Details as its first tab.
- Colour code a project: a Project has a Colour in its Details: pick any colour, or None. It never replaces the Project colour on the card; it shows as a small dot beside it, before the project's name on its cards' Parent, in a board's rows by parent, and on the Gantt Chart, where the project's bar takes its colour. Any other card type can add Colour in Card Types.
- Right-click a card to Open or Duplicate it, Add to Slides, Move to another column, Flag it, Archive it, or move it to the Trash.
- Trash a card: drag it onto the Trash button at the start of the bottom-right strip (it opens out as you drag), choose Trash from its menu, or press Delete with it focused. Open the Trash to restore a card or delete it for good.
- Find any card: the Cards button in the bottom-right corner lists every card in the document, with a search, and a Not on a Board view for cards no board shows.
- Assign a card: pick yourself or a teammate as its Assignee. Until it is done, the card shows up on that person's Inbox in the Explorer, under Assigned to You, so they can find it without knowing which document it is in. They need to be able to open the document, so assign cards on a team document or one shared with them.
- Take a card off the board: drag it out onto the canvas to leave a Plan card there, for example beside the part of a diagram it is about. The item stays on the board as well. Drag a Plan card onto a board to file it in the column you drop it in. Drag a card from one board onto another to move it there.
- Present a whole board: press the ⋯ in the board's header and choose Add to Slides. The slide frames the live board, so it shows the cards as they stand when you present. See Slide Deck.
- Undo: Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) undoes your item changes in the same order as your canvas edits: a moved card goes back, a trashed card comes back. Votes and comments are not undone.
On a Phone or Tablet
A finger on a card picks the card up; a finger on a board's empty space (between cards, or a column's background) pans the canvas. A board's columns don't scroll under a finger, so make a busy board taller, or scroll it with a mouse or trackpad.
With the Keyboard
Tab to a card, then:
- Arrow keys move between cards.
- Enter opens the card.
- Shift+Left and Shift+Right move the card to the previous or next column; Shift+Up and Shift+Down move it within its column.
- N opens Add a Card for the card's column.
- Delete moves the card to the Trash, where you can restore it.
Screen readers hear every move ("#12 Fix login moved to In Progress, position 4 of 4").
Setting Up a Board
A column is set up from the column itself: hover its head and press the cog at the far right (on a touch screen it is always there). You can rename it, give it a colour, set a WIP Limit (its count turns amber when it holds more than that), choose its Width, mark it Counts as Done, move it left or right, add a column after it, or remove it. Removing a column with cards asks where they should go.
The board is set up from the Board section of its right-click menu, or the cog in its header. Its settings come in four parts, one open at a time:
- Board Setup: its Title, Setup Board and Fill Tab.
- Swimlanes: none, or one per assignee, card type, priority, project or status, or any field your card types have, your own included.
- Supported Cards: the card types the board shows and takes (a card of a type you turn off is hidden there, not deleted).
- Card Layout: the Card Size (Minimal, Compact or Detailed). Which fields a card face shows comes from its card type's display, set in Card Types.
Every board shows every card whose status is one of its columns, of the card types it shows. Items whose status matches none of the board's columns stay off it; add the Not on Board widget to the header to count them ("3 not on board") and open the count to move them to a column. A Retro board comes with voting and hidden writing on: everyone else's cards show face down until someone presses Reveal in the header, so people write without reading each other. More in Boards.
Widgets in the Header
A board's header holds widgets: small read-outs and controls such as Completion, Filter, People, Card Types, WIP Alerts, Due Soon, Points, Priorities, Unassigned, Top Voted and Stale Cards. Each board type starts with a few that suit it (Points on a sprint, Unassigned on a bug triage, Top Voted on a retro), and Completion only where the board has a done column. Press the + at the end of a board's widgets to open Add a Widget, a gallery of the widgets the board doesn't have yet, each shown live with your board's cards, grouped by what it's for. Press one to add it to the end of the header.
- Reorder widgets by dragging them left or right along the header, or focus one and press Alt+← or Alt+→.
- Remove a widget with its × (select the board first to show it), or focus it and press Delete.
Widgets narrow the board: press a person in People, a type in Card Types, a priority, Unassigned, or the overdue count in Due Soon to see only those cards, and press it again to see everything. The narrowing is yours alone and isn't saved. While the board is narrowed, Item Count reads "3 of 14 · Show all". Top Voted opens the leading card, and a Completion widget on a board without a done column offers Set Done Column.
Metrics and Visualisations
Metrics are the read-out widgets, free on the canvas: place Completion, Due Soon, People or any other beside your boards, and each counts every card in the document, whatever board it is on. Archived cards and the Trash are left out. A metric only reads: pressing a person or a type in it narrows nothing.
Visualisations chart the cards. Each one charts every card type it can to start with; pick which under View, Card Types in its right-click menu (only card types with the fields it reads are listed, a Due field for the Due Calendar, say). Metrics take a Card Types pick the same way.
- Gantt Chart: a row per card with a Start and a Due date (every card type that has both fields, your own included; pick fewer under View, Card Types in its right-click menu, and add both fields to a type to put it on the chart), a bar from its Start to its Due date in the card's Colour (or its type's colour), filled to the share of its cards done, with a line for today. A card with only a due date is a diamond. Drag either end of a bar (or a diamond) sideways to change that date, or drag the middle of a bar to move both dates together; the days show as you drag. Press Add Card under its last row for a new card of one of its types, starting today and due a week on. Its cog sets its card types, swimlanes and row order. A card with no dates can be drawn straight onto its row: click for a week, or drag across the days. Pick Month, Quarter or Year in its header to see more or less time, step with the arrows, scroll sideways or drag the timeline to move along it, and press Today to come back to now. The view is yours alone; others keep their own.
- Due Calendar: this month, each day listing the cards due then. Step through months with the arrows, and Today comes back. To change a due date, drag a card onto another day (any day you can see, last or next month's included); press Escape mid-drag to leave it where it was. With a card focused, Alt+← and Alt+→ move it a day, Alt+↑ and Alt+↓ a week. If the card has a start date and its new due date would come before it, the start date moves back by the same number of days. Anyone who can edit cards can move them; viewers can only open them.
- Start Calendar: the same month, each day listing the cards that start then. Dragging a card (or Alt and the arrows) moves its start date, and its due date moves on with it if the start would otherwise pass it.
- Cards by Field: a bar per person to start with, split Not Started, In Progress and Done. Pick another field under View, Group By: a priority, a type, a state, labels or any field of your own.
- Priority by Status: how many cards of each priority are not started, in progress and done. Like Cards by Field, it grows to fill the space you give it, so a whole tab reads at a glance. To leave some cards out, open its cog and untick statuses under Statuses (Cards by Field has the same).
- Card Search: the cards matching filters you add along its top, laid out side by side as a board draws them (smaller in a small slot), such as Card Type: Project, State: Done or Assignee: No assignee. Add Filter offers only the fields the remaining cards have, and only the values some of them hold (with how many), so a filter never leaves you with nothing. The filters are saved with it, so everyone sees the same search; press a filter's cross to take it off.
A card counts as done when its status is a board's done column. In Plan mode, press a row or entry to open its card; in other modes, double-click it. Resize a visualisation like any element. Exported images (PNG, SVG and PDF) draw a metric or visualisation as its chart, as it looks in the editor. A chart can also fill a tab of its own: see Charts of Your Cards for Visualisation tabs, swimlanes, reordering Gantt rows and Maximise View.
Together
Everyone with the document open sees cards move, appear and change as they happen. A card someone is dragging or has open shows their colour and name. Voting and hiding writing are in the board itself, so a retro needs no other tools: write, reveal, vote, then turn the top votes into actions.
A tab with Plan boards or cards can't be added to another document with the tab menu's Add to Document, because its cards belong to this document's items.
Good to Know
An older Plan tab, from before boards, sheets and dashboards had tabs of their own, is updated to the new layout the first time someone who can edit the document opens it, if it holds only boards, sheets and charts. A tab with one board or sheet becomes a Board or Sheet tab. A tab with more gives each board and sheet a tab of its own, named after it and placed straight after, and becomes a Dashboard showing them, with its metrics and charts below. A toast says This tab was updated to the new Plan layout.
- Undo (Ctrl+Z, or Cmd+Z on a Mac) puts the tab back as it was for the rest of your visit; it is updated again the next time the document is opened.
- Your cards are untouched: only where the boards and charts sit changes.
- A tab with anything else on it (a shape, a note or a loose card) is left as it is. Participants and Viewers see an old tab unchanged until an editor opens it.
New to Plan? The Plan Tour walks you around your own board or sheet in about a minute.
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