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"#" to add a label while adding a card

carsonevans

I believe we used to be able to type "#label" when adding a card to create a new card with a label. I think there were other "shortcuts" too. Unfortunately "shortcut" is also what we call the hot-keys so searching for how to enable this is not finding much.

I have been out of pocket for a few months and when I came back this isn't working. Did I miss a update that got rid of this feature. I really hope this is still a thing.

Accepted answers

Andrea Crawford

Hi all,

Thanks for your question. Trello has recently decided to remove the Card Composer Options feature. The Card Composer Options feature allowed people to add members and labels to cards before they were created. While this feature was certainly useful for some users, it also represented pretty significant technical complexity and maintenance effort that didn't match up with how much it was being used.

By removing the Card Composer Options feature, we are streamlining card creation and laying the foundation for better card creation improvements in the future. There are still a few ways to use shortcuts to add members and labels to cards that we recommend:

1. You can use the 1-0 keys or the L key to apply labels to a card while hovering over it in the board view, or while a card is open.

2. The M key will let you add members to a card, also while hovering in the board view, or while the card is open. If you'd like to add yourself, the spacebar key does this.

3, When creating a new card, type the card title then press Shift+Enter to create it (instead of Enter by itself). It will create and open the card at the same time. This makes the L and M shortcuts a bit more accessible!

Last, it may be worth having a look at our Automation tool to see if any of your regular label or member workflows could potentially be done automatically: https://trello.com/guide/automate-anything

I recognize that's not entirely ideal, but hopefully these options give you a few different ways to speed up your workflows in Trello without those Card Composer Options.

Daniel Stock_tdvkvf

(reposting as an answer)

Apparently the hashtag functionality was just removed.

That said, it looks like it's possible to approximate the feature as an Automation rule:

Add an automation rule, with a Card Content trigger: when the name of card contains #label1
The first action for the rule, under Add/Remove, will be add the label1 label to the card
The second action for the rule, under Content, will be rename the card to {textbeforematch}

Now, any time you make a new card ending in #label1, it will add the label, and remove the extra hashtag text. (If you want to put the hashtag at the start of a new card and not the end, use {textaftermatch} instead.)

Note that you'll have to make a separate rule for each label, which is a bit annoying but fine. You can also change to trigger to be anything you want, e.g. #L1 instead of #label1 .

PS it didn't seem possible to find the {textbeforematch} trick in Trello's automation rule-maker -- I got it from here instead: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Trello-questions/Remove-matched-text-using-Butler-powerup/qaq-p/1054365

All comments

Brittany Joiner

I think they changed some of the shortcut keys! Labels is now "L" key. You can see some updated keyboard shortcuts in this post!

carsonevans

Hrm. I believe that before it was not a "shortcut key" but something that happened during card creation. If I typed "#label" and hit enter, or (at)name and hit enter it just worked. Similar to how typing (at)name in this message box works. Now if I type "#label" and hit enter I get a new card created with the description "#label". It is such an ingrained habit for me that I end up opening and changing a lot of cards. I am sure I can get used to hitting "L" and selecting a label eventually, but that is way less efficient than the old way.

Lyn Wildwood

I agree. Being able to add #1, #2, etc. to label cards as you create them was a lot more efficient than having to open each one to label them.

Brittany Joiner

@Lyn Wildwood i think you can still do the numbers, although admittedly i dont entirely understand how they're set. But rather than pressing the #, try typing 1 or 2 and seeing what happens. It applies labels/searches for them on my cards

Andrea Crawford

Hi all,

1. You can use the 1-0 keys or the L key to apply labels to a card while hovering over it in the board view, or while a card is open.

2. The M key will let you add members to a card, also while hovering in the board view, or while the card is open. If you'd like to add yourself, the spacebar key does this.

Last, it may be worth having a look at our Automation tool to see if any of your regular label or member workflows could potentially be done automatically: https://trello.com/guide/automate-anything

I recognize that's not entirely ideal, but hopefully these options give you a few different ways to speed up your workflows in Trello without those Card Composer Options.

Daniel Stock_tdvkvf

This is a bit disappointing, I constantly used the hashtag to add labels as I created a card. I understand that maintaining the card composer must have been a real headache, but maybe this one feature could be brought back as a standalone? (Maybe with the @ as well, though I didn't use that one myself.)

Daniel Stock_tdvkvf

That said, it looks like I can mostly replicate my workflow with the Automation tool, as suggested. Posting my steps here, in case it's useful to anyone else.

Add an automation rule, with a Card Content trigger: when the name of card contains #label1
The first action for the rule, under Add/Remove, will be add the label1 label to the card
The second action for the rule, under Content, will be rename the card to {textbeforematch}

Note that you'll have to make a separate rule for each label, which is a bit annoying but fine. You can also change to trigger to be anything you want, e.g. #L1 instead of #label1 .

Daniel Stock_tdvkvf

(reposting as an answer)

Apparently the hashtag functionality was just removed.

That said, it looks like it's possible to approximate the feature as an Automation rule:

Add an automation rule, with a Card Content trigger: when the name of card contains #label1
The first action for the rule, under Add/Remove, will be add the label1 label to the card
The second action for the rule, under Content, will be rename the card to {textbeforematch}

Note that you'll have to make a separate rule for each label, which is a bit annoying but fine. You can also change to trigger to be anything you want, e.g. #L1 instead of #label1 .

carsonevans

@Andrea Crawford Thanks for the information. It is disappointing and my use of Trello has gone down significantly without this feature, but there is nothing better on the market and the switching costs are too high so I'll just deal with it.

@Daniel Stock Thanks for the automation suggestion. It is definitely not ideas as I have a lot of labels, but it is a workaround.

Ali Aslam_mo31bn

Agree with the comments above - this change has been disruptive and not being able to add labels during card creation is annoying. My workflow for creating cards feels much more clunky now

Brian Krupp

Thank you for posting this workaround, it does work but I really do miss this feature of just using a #. I do hope Trello brings it back.

Richard Dekker_bqldca

The 'L' workflow used to be a lot more easy. When that was changed last year I had to do multiple 'tabs' before continuing my workflow. Found the hashtag flow to be a good upgrade. Now that that's gone I have to start all over again. Too bad it's gone. I like it. It's also part of my workflow in google keep. Greenshot 2023-08-22 15.11.24.png

Bartek_zqr1nc

I miss this function either. Maybe You can add a simple action for automation, that will bring this function back, so we can #label something. Now it's far more complicated to use Trello. I have many labels so the solution with parsing each of them is overkill.