Board

The board shows the tasks that are being worked on as cards in three columns. Every project has a board, whatever its type. Open it with the Board tab at the top of the project.

Board columns

The columns are To Do, In Progress and Done. The number next to a column name is the number of cards in it. Backlog is not a column: a task whose status is Backlog stays on the Backlog tab until you move it to To Do.

A card shows the name of the task and its assignee, or Unassigned. Cards of tasks that are already part of a release no longer appear on the board.

The board of the Orbit Launch project with the columns To Do, In Progress and Done. Each card shows its name, its assignee and the colour of its epic. — The Orbit Launch board. Cards in a tree project carry the colour and name of their epic.

Open a project and click Board.
Click a card to open its details on the right. Click the same card again, press Esc or click the close button (×) to close them.

In a board-only project there is no tree and no backlog, so you create tasks right on the board: type a name into the Add a card and press Enter field at the top of the To Do column and press Enter.

Changing a status

Moving a card to another column changes the status of its task and nothing else. The order of the cards in a column is never changed by a move. You can move a card in three ways.

With the mouse: press on a card, drag it into another column and release it.
With the keyboard: press Tab until the grip (‿ ) at the left edge of the card has the focus. Its name reads “Move <task>, <column>, <assignee>”. Press Space to pick the card up, press an arrow key to jump to the next column, and press Space again to drop it. Esc cancels the move. Each step is announced to screen readers, for example “Moved Draft the onboarding guide to In Progress.”
In the details: open the card and choose another value in the Status field. This also works on a phone.

A card of the Team Kanban board is picked up with the keyboard and held over the In Progress column, which is outlined with a dashed line. — A card is held over In Progress; the target column is outlined.

You can only move cards if you are on the project team and the project is open. In a closed project, or as a non-member, the board is read-only and the cards have no grip.

Grouping the board

The Group by list above the columns splits the board into rows. The options are:

None: one row, the default.
Colour: one row per epic colour, named after the epic. Cards without a colour go to No colour. Only tree projects offer this option, because only they have epics.
Category: one row per category, and No category for the rest.
Assignee: one row per person, and Unassigned for the rest.

The Orbit Launch board with Group by set to Colour. Each epic colour has its own row with its name above it, and every row has all three columns. — Group by Colour on a tree project: one row per epic, each with its own three columns.

Open the Board tab.
Choose Colour, Category or Assignee in the Group by list. Choose None to go back to a single row.
Move cards as usual. A card can only be moved between the columns of its own row. If you drop it into another row, the board says for example “Payload plan can only be moved within its own colour group. Status unchanged.” and the status stays as it was.

Mabato remembers your choice in this browser. A project type that does not offer the saved option shows the board ungrouped.

Card colours

A card has a coloured edge on its left side. In a tree project the colour belongs to the card’s epic (or to the task itself): a task uses its own colour if it has one, and otherwise the colour of its nearest parent that has one. A label with the name of the item that supplies the colour is shown on the card, so you can see at a glance which epic a card belongs to.

To set or change a colour, open the item (in the tree, or on a card) and choose a swatch in the Color field of its details. Custom color… opens a chooser for any other colour and No color removes the colour. Backlog-only and board-only projects show the edge only, without the epic label.

On a phone

On a narrow screen the three columns sit side by side and the board scrolls sideways: the first column and the edge of the next one are visible, and you swipe left to reach In Progress and Done. Tap a card to open its details, which fill the screen; the close button at the top right returns you to the board.