Focalboard Developers

Focalboard is an open source, self-hosted alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana.

View project on GitHub

Manage boards

Access your boards

Open the Boards tab via the product menu in the top left corner of Mattermost to view all the boards for your team. You can select the Focalboard icon in the Apps Bar to open the right-hand panel, and display boards linked to the channel or message that you’re in.

If you don’t see the Apps Bar and your boards layout looks different to what’s described, you may be using an older version of Mattermost and/or the Focalboard plugin.

Find a board

From the top of the boards left hand sidebar, select the Find Boards field (CMD+K/CTRL+K) to open the board switcher, and start typing the name of the board you’re looking for.

Manage sidebar categories

From Focalboard plugin v7.2, you can organize your boards in the left-hand sidebar using custom categories. By default, all boards will appear under the Boards category. To manage your categories, open the Options menu next to the category to create, delete, or rename a category. With the exception to the default Boards category, all other categories can be renamed or deleted.

After creating categories, you can move your boards to those categories by opening the Options menu next to the board and selecting Move To… to select the category where you want the board to be moved.

If you delete a category with boards in it, then those boards will return to the default Boards category.

Categories are organized per-user, so you can arrange your boards under categories that make sense to you without impacting boards or categories for other users. If a board is moved to a custom category, then the board will appear under that category for you only. Other users who are members of the board will continue to see the board in their own categories.

Organize using drag and drop

You can organize both sidebar categories and boards to change the order of both to suit your preference. You can:

  • Set the position of a board within a category.
  • Drag a board out of one category and drop it into another category.

To do this, select and hold the cursor over the category or board name. Then move the category or board around as needed. Boards moved into a category are sorted to the top of the category by default unless you specifically position the board before releasing the cursor.

Manage boards in the sidebar

In addition to moving boards to other categories, from the Options menu next to each board name, you can perform the following actions:

  • Delete board: If you’re an admin of the board, you will see an option to delete the board. Deleting the board permanently removes the board from the sidebar of all board members.
  • Duplicate board: Creates a copy of the board and all the cards on the board. The duplicated board will appear under the same category as the original board. Board members and comments from the original board aren’t migrated to the new board.
  • New template from board: Creates a custom board template of the board and all the cards on the board.
  • Hide board: Hides the board from your sidebar only. The board will still remain visible on the sidebar for other board members. You can add the board back to your sidebar using the search box (CMD+K/CTRL+K).