Essential Trello keyboard shortcuts: save more time in Trello

Dan Ivory

10th December, 2020

An archery target with three arrows in the bullseye

Dan Ivory

10th December, 2020

Level up your Trello game with these essential keyboard shortcuts. Ready to step up your productivity?

Trello keyboard shortcuts can save you a lot of time. That’s a fact. Take it from a daily user of Trello - if I couldn’t use these keyboard shortcuts, I think I might have moved on from Trello to find a task management tool with a more efficient way to add and edit tasks and content.

However, I’d bet that the typical Trello user doesn’t make use of this simple but extremely powerful productivity feature.

This might not seem like the smooth automation workflow using Butler (Trello’s automation feature) you might have had in mind when thinking of ways to save time in Trello. But if used correctly, keyboard shortcuts can save you just as much time as Butler. Maybe even 8 days per year, depending on how much you use Trello!

If you can train yourself to use these shortcuts as you go about your work using Trello, I promise you’ll step up your Trello productivity to the next level!

Below are some of my favourite Trello shortcuts to get you started. These are the ones I use most often and will have the quickest - and biggest - impact on how you use Trello

If you’ve already read 6 blogs on Trello keyboard shortcuts and are looking for those more rare/powerful ones, skip to the end.

Essential Trello keyboard shortcuts

This first set of shortcuts can be used when viewing your Trello cards at the board level (i.e. when you haven’t opened any cards yet and can see the whole board). This means you don't have to open up a card every time you want to edit it - any experienced Trello user will agree this is a huge time saver!

This gif below shows how easy and fast these are to use.

A gif showing some keyboard shortcuts in Trello

Add a label to a card
- Hover over a card and press L
- You can then press a number e.g. 1 or 2 or 3 to add a label using your keyboard. Alternatively, click on one of these labels using your mouse
Add a due date to a card
- Hover over a card and press d
Add yourself to a card (as a member)
- Hover over a card and press the space bar
Insert a new card
- Hover your cursor over a card and press n
Copy a card
- Hover your cursor over a card and press Control + c
Paste a card
- Hover your cursor over a card and press Control + v
Open the filter function
- Press f
Clear all filters
- Press x
Add a team member to a card
- Hover over a card and press m
See only the cards you are a member of (assigned to)
- Press q
Archive a card
- Hover over a card and press c
Open card ‘quick edit mode’
- Hover over a card and press e
Quickly edit the title of a card
- Hover over a card and press t
Open Menu
- press m (when not hovering your cursor over a card)
Move cards between lists without click and drag
- When a card is open use the “<“ or “>” arrows to move it between lists

Advanced Trello keyboard shortcuts

Add cards anywhere in your list. Not just at the bottom!
- Hover over a card in your list and press ‘n’. Whichever card you hovered over, the new card will be created immediately below that existing card. No more creating a card and then dragging it into place!
Count how many cards are in each list
- Press f to open the filter, then
- Press * in the search box
- A count of the number of cards will appear at the top of each list.
Automatically move a card to the correct position immediately after creating it. Avoid the need to create a card and then click and drag it into position.
- When you create a new card, write the name but before saving the card, add “^” and then press a number on your keyboard to order the card in that list. Alternatively, you can write the name of another list to move the card to that list instead.
- ^Top or ^Bottom can also be used to automatically move the new card to the top/bottom of that list.
- For example, if a new card being created was called “New Task”, you would type “New Task ^1” to move that card to the top of that list. Give it a try!

Save even more time with Time Tracking & Reporting for Trello

If you enjoyed these Trello time-saving tips, then you might be interested in better understanding how you and your team spend time at work. What tasks take longer than expected? Who has worked on which tasks? And for how long?

Answer these questions and more with Time Tracking and Reporting for Trello - available free for 14 days!

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Product Manager

Dan is a Product Manager at Kolekti and is based in the UK. He's passionate about creating apps that boost collaborative work management in Trello and monday.com.

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