Boards: Projects, Pages and Tasks

Boards show your work as cards in columns, with a tab each for Projects, Pages and Tasks. Dragging a card into another column moves the work along: it can change a task’s status or priority, set a page’s status, or start a project’s clock in a new stage. This article covers the three kinds of board, moving cards, building your own boards, and working through tasks in bulk.

Three kinds of boards

Boards has three tabs at the top, and each tab has its own boards. The cards, the built-in boards and what a column can do all depend on the tab.

Every board on the Pages tab has a Backlog, including Page status, where pages with no status wait. Dragging a page back to the Backlog clears its status.

Instructions:

1. Select Boards in the left navigation. It opens on the Tasks tab.
2. Select the tab for what you want to see: Projects, Pages or Tasks.
3. Pick a board from the board picker at the top of the left panel.
4. On Pages or Tasks, choose a project in the project selector, or All Projects to see every project at once. All Projects only appears if your role allows it. The Projects tab always shows every project.

Moving cards

Dragging is how work moves on a board. Every drop saves straight away, so there is nothing to save afterwards. What a drop changes depends on the board.

Instructions:

1. Drag a card to another column and drop it where the gap opens.
2. On the Tasks tab, to move several cards at once, select them first (see Updating many tasks at once), then drag one of them.
3. If a task on Task status or Task priority has subtasks with it, Atarim asks Move the subtasks as well? Choose Move all to move them together, Just this card, or Cancel.

Changing a task’s status or priority from a board, and a page’s status, needs a plan that includes them. Without it, an upgrade prompt appears and nothing changes.

Changing the order in a column

On a board you built, drag a card up or down within its column to change its place. The new order is saved for everyone. On Task status and Task priority, use Sort Tasks instead: Latest Activity First, Newest Task First, Oldest Task First, by priority, or by status.

Task status and Task priority

The Tasks tab comes with two built-in boards that show the same tasks two ways. Switching between them changes what the columns mean without touching a single task. Pick one in the board picker at the top of the left panel.

Building your own boards

Besides the built-in boards, Owners and Administrators can build boards with their own columns. A board belongs to the whole workspace, so everyone who opens it sees the same columns, and each board sits under one tab.

Create a board

Instructions:

1. Select Boards in the left navigation, then the tab for what the board shows: Projects, Pages or Tasks.
2. Open the board picker at the top of the left panel and select New Board. On a tab with no boards yet, the same form appears in the middle of the screen as Create your first board.
3. Name the board and pick an icon. Tick Set as default board if you want it to open first on this tab.
4. Select Create Board.

A new board starts with no columns. Once you add the first one, every card that isn’t on the board yet waits in the Backlog in the left panel, with a count beside it. On the Projects and Pages tabs, the Backlog also has a search box.

Add columns

Instructions:

1. Select Add a Column at the end of the board.
2. Enter a Name, then pick an icon and a color.
3. On a Tasks or Pages board, under Assignment, choose what a card dropped into this column should change, such as a status or a priority. Leave it as None to group cards without changing anything.
4. On a Projects board, set a Countdown instead: pick 3d, 7d, 14d or 30d, or set your own number of days under Custom. Tick Count working days only to skip Saturdays and Sundays. Skip the countdown for a column projects should rest in, such as Live or Done.
5. Select Add column.
6. Drag cards from the Backlog into your columns.

A column without an assignment only holds the card, so the same task can sit in different places on different boards. On a Pages board, a status assignment needs a plan with page approvals. Without it, the column only holds cards.

To rename a board, hover over it in the board picker and select the pencil icon. To remove a column, open its menu and select Delete column: its cards go back to the Backlog, and nothing else changes. To remove a whole board, select ⋮ › Delete Board. Its columns go with it, and the cards keep their status. The built-in boards can’t be renamed or deleted.

Choose the board that opens first

Select ⋮ › Default Board and pick a board. Each tab has its own default, and it is your own setting, so teammates can choose differently. Until you choose, the Tasks tab opens on Task status and the other tabs on their first board.

Countdowns on a Projects board

On a Projects board, a column’s countdown is how long a project should spend in that stage. Each card in the column shows how far along it is, such as 3 of 7 days. The chip turns orange as time runs short and red once it runs out, when it reads, for example, 2 days over. Moving a card to another column starts its clock again, and a column without a countdown shows no chip. Nothing about the project itself changes.

The chip shows when Milestone Progress and Screenshot are on in Customize View, which they are by default.

Updating many tasks at once

Bulk actions are the reason Boards beats a list when work arrives in volume. Rather than opening forty tasks after a client review, you select them on the Tasks tab and change them together.

Instructions:

1. Hover over a card and tick its checkbox. Once one card is selected, selecting other cards adds them too.
2. Apply a change from the toolbar that replaces the top bar. It applies to every selected task.
3. When you’re finished, select the count, for example 12 selected, to clear the selection.

Narrowing what the board shows

Filters make a busy board readable and bulk changes safe. Each tab has its own, and they need a plan that includes them. To clear one, select the × on its chip, or Clear filters inside it.

The More Actions menu

The ⋮ button at the top right of the board, labeled More Actions, holds Customize View and Default Board on every tab, Import Tasks and Export Tasks on the Tasks tab, and Delete Board on a board you built. What you see depends on your role: Team Members and Collaborators don’t see Import Tasks or Export Tasks by default.

Customize View chooses which details the cards on a board show, for everyone in the workspace. It is for those who can manage boards. On the Tasks tab it needs a plan that includes it.

Importing tasks

Import Tasks brings a task list in from a project management tool you have connected. It needs a plan that includes native integrations. Only tools that are connected and switched on in Settings → Integrations are listed. With none connected, the board offers Connect an integration instead.

Instructions:

1. Select ⋮ › Import Tasks, then the tool, for example Import from Trello.
2. Choose where the tasks come from. The pickers are named after the tool, as in the table below.
3. Under Projects, choose the Atarim project to import into.
4. Under Assign User, choose who the imported tasks are assigned to. The list shows the people on that project.
5. Tick any options you want (see below), then select Import Tasks. The button stays greyed out until every picker is filled in.

• Create all tasks as Internal Tasks (not visible to clients) keeps the imported tasks away from clients. Tick it for an internal backlog.
• Sync tasks (for future changes) is for keeping the imported tasks linked for future changes. Not every tool supports it yet.

Exporting tasks

Export Tasks saves your tasks as a spreadsheet. Board filters don’t carry over, so you choose what to include in the export window.

Instructions:

1. Select ⋮ › Export Tasks. The Export Tasks to CSV/Excel window opens.
2. Under Export File Type, choose Excel or CSV.
3. Under Task Status and Task Urgency, deselect anything you want to leave out. Everything is selected to start with.
4. Select Export.

With one project open, the file downloads straight away. With All Projects, Atarim prepares the file in the background and emails you a download link when it is ready. Only Owners and Administrators can export all projects at once, and each workspace can start one all-projects export every 30 minutes.

Working with a task card

Selecting a card opens the task in a panel beside the board, with the same conversation and details as the Inbox, so you can make changes and carry on without navigating away.

Go To Task takes you to the page the task was raised on, in a new tab, so you can see the thing being described rather than reading about it. For email tasks it opens the project instead.

Page reviews on the board

When a page review produces several findings, they do not scatter across the board as unrelated cards. They stay grouped under the review they came from, so a single review reads as one item with its findings beneath it rather than twenty separate tasks.

Selecting the review opens its findings together, which keeps the board readable after an AI review has run across a site. Findings that sit in a different column from their review show as their own cards, marked Subtask.

Known limitations

• Undo lasts a moment. The Undo button goes when the message after a drop disappears. After that, drag the card back.
• Bulk delete cannot be undone. You are asked to confirm first, but once confirmed there is no way back.
• Selecting several cards works on the Tasks tab only. Page and project cards move one at a time.
• Built-in boards keep their columns. On Task status, Task priority and Page status you can’t add or remove columns. Build your own board for different ones.
• Boards are workspace-scoped. You cannot see another workspace’s projects, pages or tasks here.

FAQs

Common issues

• Boards is missing from the sidebar. Your role doesn’t include Boards. Ask an administrator about your role.
• The board is empty. Check the tab and the project, then clear your filters. A filter left on from an earlier session is the usual cause.
• A task is missing. It may be filtered out, in another project, or in another workspace. Clear filters first.
• Columns are named Low, Medium, High, Critical. You are on Task priority. Choose Task status in the board picker if you wanted progress.
• Dragging changed the wrong thing. Check which board you are on. Task status sets status, Task priority sets priority, and a board you built sets whatever the column’s assignment says.
• A drag did not stick. If an upgrade prompt appeared, your plan doesn’t include changing status, priority or page status from a board. If you saw Could not move the task, reload the board and try again.
• There is no checkbox on a page or project card. Selecting several cards works on the Tasks tab only.
• Cards are waiting in the Backlog. On a board you built, every card starts in the Backlog. Drag it into a column to place it.
• A project card shows no countdown. Its column has no countdown, or Milestone Progress or Screenshot is switched off in Customize View. Turn both on to see the chip.
• A bulk change applied to more than you expected. Check the count, for example 12 selected, before applying a change. Narrow the filters before selecting.
• Many similar cards appeared at once. A page review has run. Its findings are grouped under the review rather than being unrelated tasks.

Conclusion

Boards are where work moves: projects through your delivery stages, pages through review, and tasks from open to complete. Build one board for each way your team works, and let the columns do the reporting.

How tasks themselves are created, assigned and tracked is covered separately.

Explore Tracking Task Progress