Can I create an automation rule or board button that adds a label to all the cards in the board?

Question

My team makes periodical meetings in which we discuss all the cards in the board, one by one. To make meetings faster and more organized we usually add a label titled "done" everytime we finish talking about the card. However, it would be way better if, before each meeting, we could add a label titled "pending" to all the cards in the board so that after discussing each card we could just remove such label. Thus, we need an automation rule or board button to automatically add the label to all the cards in the board but, despite or efforts, we did not figure out how to do it. Can anybody please explain how can I create an automation rule or board button that adds a label to all the cards in the board?

Vongsawat · Answer

Solution 1
Have a card lying around called Meeting Setup or something, create and apply an invisible "setup" label to it.

Then have a Card Button that, when pressed, immediately Finds the card called Meeting Setup. Deletes the "All Topics" checklist on it. Then collects all cards that don't have an invisible "setup" label on it as links in to a checklist called "All Topics".

Then, For each card linked from an incomplete item on the checklist "All Topics", apply the "pending" label to it.

*I'm unsure, but there may be limitations to this solution, depending on number of cards and workspace tier. It used to be that if an automation tried to do too much, Trello would just force end the automation.. but that was way long ago, before the latest revamp in tiers and quotas, so may not be a concern anymore?.. and may not have been one in the first place if you don't have that many cards this is being applied to.

Solution 2
Same as the first solution. But instead of having a card lying around with said checklist until the next meeting, have the automation Create a brand new card to work on instead of Finding one. Then once the automation is complete, manually delete the card. (as there is no way to know when the automation is done via automation)

Solution 3
Same as Solutions 1 or 2. Except as a Board Button. The board button then creates a card or applies a certain label, and set up the above solutions to trigger off of that specific action.

This counts as two command runs every time you use it re: the monthly quota, but chaining the rules together is the only way for Board Button to get access to the Cascade tab of commands.

Solution 4
If the topics are different every week. Have an automation that when cards are added to the board, apply the "pending" label to them. (What Christl was suggesting.)

Solution 5
If the topics are static every week. Just have a template board that you copy for use every time you have a meeting. With the labels already pre-applied on the template board. (note: template is just in how its used, not a specific category like Template Cards). You can even duplicate the board at the end of a meeting, and collect new topics over time til the next meeting, with Solution 4 rule applied.

Then likely archive the boards if you're on a lower price tier with board limits.

Solution 6?
If applying the "Done" label felt annoying. Be aware that there are hotkeys for labels. If a certain colour has only a single label (including light and dark variants) then its a one-click solution in adding/removing the label. I for one keep Green as only for "done", so I can just hit "1" on the keyboard to apply it. You don't have to have the card open to apply it either, just mouse-over the card on the board view and hit the shortcut.

Christl_Email for Trello · Answer

Hi @Luiza Queiroz de Castro , welcome to the community 👋

Christl from SendBoard here - makers of the Email for Trello Power-Up.

That is an interesting question. As far as I know you cannot label all cards on the board at once with a button.

Perhaps an option to consider is to add a label when a card is created and rather than just before the meeting? You can create a rule to automatically add the 'pending' label to any card when it is created. All cards will then be pending until you change the label to 'done', for example.

Hope that helps!