I’ve been using Trello Kanban for some time now and have, for the most part, found it to be one of the more user-friendly and flexible kanban systems on the market. However, there’s always been one area I felt could be more accessible, which is the default fields allowed in Cards.
Out of the box, you’re fairly limited to adding the following to a card:
- Members
- Labels
- Checklist
- Dates
- Attachments
- Cover
Of course, if you have either the Standard Plan ($5 per user per month) or the Premium Plan ($10 per user per month), you can also add custom fields. However, if you have the Free plan or the custom fields aren’t efficient enough for you, there’s another option, by way of a Power-Up.
Let me show you how to add this Power Up to your Trello board and how it’s used.
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What you’ll need
The only thing you’ll need to make this work is a Trello account (free or otherwise). That’s it. Let’s extend those cards.
How to add the Power-Up
Log in to your Trello account and go to the board you want to work with. On that page, click the Power-Ups button (Figure A).
From the resulting pop-up menu (Figure B), click Add Power-Ups.
In the Power-Ups page, type Custom Fields in the Search space, and then, click Add for Amazing Fields (Figure C).
When prompted, click Add to install the Amazing Fields Power-Up, and then, click Authorize with Trello (Figure D).
You will then have to grant the Amazing Fields Power-Up permission to access your account. In the resulting pop-up, click Allow, and you are ready to start.
The newly added Amazing Fields Power-Up allows you to add and customize the following field types:
- Text
- Checkbox
- Dropdown
- Number
- Date/Time
- Progress Bar
- Field Header
- Section Tab
Let me demonstrate how I used Amazing Fields to create a call list for characters for each scene in an episode for a sitcom that’s in development. It took a bit of time to figure this out, but I found it to be incredibly useful.
How to add a Section Tab
The first thing we’ll do is add a Section Tab. This is a bit misleading, as it doesn’t actually create a new tab in your cards, but just a section wherein you can then add new fields. So I’m going to name this Section Tab “CALL LIST.”
To create a new field, click Fields in the main toolbar. In the resulting pop-up (Figure E), click +Add.
From the resulting pop-up menu (Figure F), select New Field > Section Tab.
Give the new Section Tab a name (in my case CALL LIST). The field will auto-save, so you don’t have to do anything else.
How to add a Checkbox to the new Section Tab
Now that you’ve added the Section Tab, make sure you select it in the left sidebar, and then, click Add > New Field > Checkbox Field. In the resulting window (Figure G), configure the checkbox as needed.
After creating the first checkbox, repeat that process until you have all the items you need to complete that Section Tab. Once you’ve finished, close the Amazing Fields window, and open a card on your board. You should now see the new Section Tab along with the Checkbox Fields you’ve added (Figure H).
And that is all there is to extend the types of fields you can add to your Trello cards. Give Amazing Fields a try, and see if it doesn’t become a must-use to help empower your project management.
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