7 Best Trello Power-Ups Every User Should Know!

​Trello power-ups can take your boards from basic to amazing! No matter how you set up your Trello cards and lists, there is a power-up that can give you so much more. In this video, Scott Friesen shows you how to use 7 essential power-ups so you can get the most out of Trello.

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Transcript:
​- [Scott] You're not really a Trello user if you're not taking advantage of Power-Ups. So in this video, I'm going to share with you seven of the most helpful Power-Ups so that you can get the most out of all of your Trello boards. So let's dive in. As we take a look at my sample board here, you can notice on the far left that I have a couple of cards that look very, very different from traditional Trello cards. Now, no, I haven't just added a fancy cover graphic here. These are actually dynamic cards called Dashcards and they're showing me some very valuable information. This first one here is telling me that I have three cards on this board that are due this week. So rather than having to scan all of my cards to see what is coming up soon, or having to use the filter option and then put in my specific requirements, this card can tell me right away. And best of all, its dynamic. The one down below is perhaps even more powerful because it's giving me information not just about this board, but about all of the boards on this workspace. It's telling me that I have 12 cards that are assigned to me, not just on this board, but within all of the boards as a part of this workspace. And for example, if I need to add myself to a couple of new cards, in just a few seconds, you will see that this Dashcard on the left will update now to 14, because now there are two more cards in which I am assigned to. Once the Dashcard Power-Up is installed, you will see a button at the top of your board called Track. When we select that option, it will get us started with a number of different defaults, a number of different templates to get us started. And here you can see the assigned to me and due this week, which I've already enabled. But you can not only customize any of the ones that you see here, you can also start from scratch and really apply any filter or criteria that you like. So for example, maybe I want to create a Dashcard which is called Stale. I want to identify the cards that haven't been modified in a while. I'm going to come down here and select more filters. I'm going to say last modified, and then I get to choose the timeframe. So I could say, is there anything this week, this month? What if I want to be even more specific? I'm going to say last modified later than let's say maybe 10 days ago, and immediately it's going to update that Dashcard here as well. 26, there are 26 cards amongst all of my boards, which have not been changed in the last 10 days. And you can just see how granular we can get. I can include just some specific boards if I want, I can include specific labels or assignees and start to layer out this Dashcard. And I can even add the background if I want to change it to a specific color, or I can search for some specific photos. So in this case, I'm going to type in the word stale. Would it be great if I had some maybe moldy bread or something like that to show us that something is stale? Hey, I like that a lot. That's going to stand out. I'm going to say start tracking. Now, this particular Dashcard is going to be added and I can move it around wherever I want. If I want to have it at the top of another list, I can do so. But it gets even better if I click on one of these Dashcards. Let's go on this due cards this week. I can actually see those specific cards. So down below, I can see which of those cards are due this week. And if I want to click on one of them, I can go directly to that card as well. So beyond just seeing those powerful numbers on the front of your card, you can go directly to those cards as well. Now, the next Power-Up on our list makes finding and viewing attachments that much easier. Here, on the right hand side, you will notice that I have a card here that has some very specific, or shall we say interesting looking labels? Well, in fact, they're not even labels at all. They are showing me the specific attachments which are attached to this card. You're probably already familiar with the little paperclip icon, letting us know that there is at least one attachment, and then the number beside it. In this case, it's showing me that there are two attachments, but depending on how you use Trello, you may have several different attachments, and just the number isn't very helpful. You want to know exactly what is attached to that particular card. So with the Show Attachments Power-Up installed, we can do that. Now, if I want to access those attachments, I will still need to have to open up the card and then access or edit them from within the card. If I click on power-Ups and go into my show attachment settings, you can see that I can select a variety of different criteria. So for example, maybe I don't want to see the paperclip icon, maybe I don't care about the name, but I do want to see the number of attachments. Maybe I'm already using an orange label for something else, and instead of being confused with that, I can change it to another color or just make it transparent altogether. But I think it's these next two that are perhaps the most powerful options here. So for example, maybe I only want to see the specific attachments on cards that are assigned to myself. If other people have attachments assigned to their cards, maybe I don't care so much about seeing them, but I would like to see them for myself. The other option we have here is to filter out just specific attachments. So in this case, you can see that I have a YouTube link video and then I have a JPEG image. Maybe I don't care to see about the video attachment, so I'm going to select this option and hit Save. And now that other attachment is not shown on the front of the card. It's still there, it still exists, but maybe I only care about the images themselves or some specific file type. So show attachments can be most helpful if you're managing a large number of attachments and you want to see that level of detail on the front of the card. Now, the next Power-Up in our list is all about safety and helping us from making a major mistake. How often have you shared your Trello board with a new coworker, a freelancer, or someone else and only to have them come in here and make a lot of changes that you wish that they wouldn't have, or maybe even for your own personal boards where you've gone in and made a few changes and saying, "Oh, I wish I could go back to the way I had this yesterday morning?" Well, that's precisely why I use Rewind Backups for all of my Trello boards and why it's one of the top three most installed Power-Ups right now. If you want to back up all of your Trello data, if you want to go back in time in case you make a mistake, you can do so with Rewind Backups for Trello. And if you're not already using Rewind for your Trello boards, you can go to rewind.com/scott-friesen and get $50 when you subscribe on this page. Be sure to see the link in the description for more details. Now, when it comes to managing all of your cards in Trello, you're probably already familiar with adding a due date. That's because many cards represent a task, a project, or include some other deadline. But sometimes these dates, such as July 7th or July 14th, can get lost, and we often gloss over in terms of how soon is something coming up, or maybe one of these cards is more important than the other and we would like it to stand out in relation to that due date. Well, here you will notice I have a couple of cards that have a little timer beside it. In this one. it's letting me know that it's due in just two days time. And this one, titled A Major Problem, is due in just 19 hours. It's coming up very, very soon. That's because I am making use of the Countdown Power-Up. And the great thing about the Countdown Power-Up is you don't have to apply it to all of your cards, you can apply it to just very specific cards. So for example, let's take a look at this one here saying July 7th, and maybe I want to make it stand out for both myself and for my colleagues that this is coming up soon, or to be notified when something is coming up soon. I can click on this particular card, and on the right hand side, when I have the Countdown Power-Up installed, I can select this and I've got a variety of different options available to me. Now, by default, and I would think in most cases you're going to set it from the card due date. So if I select this first option, it's going to add that countdown. And, yes, it is one day from now. But you will notice that a target time is added. And in this case, the target time is in sync with the due date, but it doesn't have to be. So for example, if I click on the target time now that I've added it here, I can change that target time. I could have added this from the first step if I wanted to, but now I get the calendar, but maybe I have to say, you know what? This is actually coming up earlier than we thought, or at least the first stage is coming up earlier. I'm going to hit Submit. So now we're only 22 hours away from the target time, even though the due date is about a day later. So you can have a lot of flexibility here with that countdown. Some other helpful features, if I go over to this major problem, which is due in less than 19 hours, if I select this card, and I can either select the target time, or I can come down and select the Countdown button, I can say pin this countdown. If I select this, what it will do is actually add it to the bottom of my Trello board. So now it's really hard for me to ignore this card. The title of the card will be listed and then how much time is left due. So in order to make sure that I don't get distracted with other things and other cards, this can be a powerful feature as well. Now, the next Power-Up on our list is going to save you so much time, even if you only use it once in a while. How often have you needed to come into a Trello board and make changes to multiple cards, such as adding yourself to maybe seven different cards at the same time, or maybe pushing out the due date by, I don't know, let's say three days for every single card in this list? Well, in order to do so, I'm going to have to click on every single card and change the due date, even if I'm using the Quick Edit here, I've got to click there, and then I've got to click the date, and then I've got to select the date, and then I got to hit Save, and then I've got to hit Save here. And I got to do that all over again for each card in this particular list. Well, with the Bulk Actions Power-Up installed, you can do this and so much more, making your Trello life that much easier. By selecting the Bulk Actions button, you're going to see the same Trello board. The only difference is that you'll notice there are now check boxes beside each of your cards, including the list. So going back to this example, if I wanted to push out the due date for every card in this list, I don't have to click on all four, I could just click on the list at the top of the screen, but I can also click them individually. So if I want to go here and say that we're going to change the due date of these three particular cards, I've selected them, and now, in the top right hand side of your screen, you can see that we can change, well, pretty much anything that we could within an individual card. In this case, I'm going to select due dates and I'm going to say we are going to modify the date. I can either choose to change them all to a fixed date, or what if I want to push them out by a certain period? So in this case, maybe I want to push them all out by one week. I'm going to do so. It'll even give you a quick preview down below before you make the change, just to make sure which cards are going to be applied to and what is going to happen next. I can either select change due dates, or I can say change due dates and keep selection. Maybe on top of changing the due date, I also need to add a specific label. So you don't always have to go back and change or select all of those cards. In this case, I'm going to select change those due dates, and now they've all been pushed out by one week. When I'm done using Bulk Actions, I just need to hit the X in the top right hand corner and I'm returned to my default view. Bulk Actions is something that I do not use on a daily basis, but when I need it, it is so, so valuable. So make sure that you take advantage of the Bulk Actions Power-Up. Now, I know from experience that it can be difficult and frustrating if there's a particular stage, if there's a particular list in your Trello board where things tend to bottleneck, or you want to make sure that you don't have too many cards at any given time. Well, that's precisely where the List Limit Power-Up comes into play. Here, on this board, you will notice that one of my lists is not like the other, and in this case, it's the testing list. I have a two out of three, I've got a fraction here telling me that I have two cards within this list, but I only ever want a maximum of three. So if I add a third card to this list, that's fine. But as soon as I add a fourth card to this list, the entire list turns to a shade of yellow. This makes it very visible to myself and to others to say wait a minute, we've got too much going on here. Can we move something into complete, or do we need to push something back to development? The great thing about List Limits is that, again, you can only apply them to specific lists. You don't need to apply them to all of your lists. And I would say, in many cases, there were probably only one or two where this is most valuable. Let's say I want to make sure that the queue never gets too large. All I need to do is select the more option here, and with the List Limit Power-Up installed, I can come down and select set list limit. Maybe in this case I'm going to say seven and hit Save. So I can quickly see what that limit is and I can also quickly see how many cards are currently in that list. A very simple but yet very powerful Power-Up to use as a part of your Board toolbox. Now, the next Power-Up on our list makes it so much easier to reference specific cards, especially when we are collaborating with others. Here, you can see that I have a unique number on every single one of my cards. So instead of having to describe or list the full name of a card, I can just tell my teammate, "Can you please go look at card number 16 and give me your feedback?" These two cards in particular are rather similar. They're in the same list, they are both removing something, and I'm assigned to both of them, but there's a pretty big difference between 16 and 19. So if I'm telling or collaborating with someone and say I don't mean 19, let's take a look at card number 16, we can do so. Now, everyone is going to be a unique identifier. And you can tell that this card was obviously created before this one over here, which is numbered as 21, but you can make sure that every single one of your cards has a unique identifier. And when you open up that card, that card number will be front and center as well if you want to see it there. In addition, if we go into the card number settings, we can edit and add a prefix to the front of that number. You can see that by default, it's going to add the number sign, but maybe I want it to say case number. Maybe this is a ticketing type of system. So now you can see, we have case number as the prefix in front of all of our unique identifiers. A very simple but very helpful Power-Up nonetheless. Now, if you've watched this far into the video, I'd love for you to prove it by adding the phrase, "Trello Power," to your comments down below. And while you're there, why not tell me what are some of your favorite Trello Power-Ups that make your days that much easier? And if you enjoyed this video, you'll love my other Trello videos and playlists right here on the Simpletivity channel. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.