Using Trello for book publishing milestones and print deadline

Question

Hi,

I'm managing a complex publishing project using Trello Premium. There are several components with a number of milestones for each. When we began the project,  a rather large Google Sheet was created, which detailed all the milestone dates and final print deadlines. The sheet includes a formula for how long each element should take with a wildcard so when dates are different, it still shows how the final print date will be affected.

Now that we have migrated the project management of this to Trello, I would like to get some ideas from the community about how we can integrate the schedule (from the sheet) into the boards.

At the moment, we are manually adding the information from the sheet (even though it changes regularly) and this creates room for error. I have found out about a powerup that can import information from the sheet, but this is very costly.

Could anyone share any low cost workarounds that would allow us to manage due dates with a focus on the final print date so that we can always see at a glance if we will meet this deadline or not.

I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas.

Thanks.

Brittany Joiner · Answer

Hi!! I actually just wrote a book about Trello, and I used Trello to manage the process! Four Power-Ups that are going to make your life amazingly easy here...

1. Use Import CSV to Trello Power-Up to import your google sheet to trello.  it's free for your first 10 imports, and even after that it's only $10/mo, so you should max pay $10 to import your google sheet to trello!

2. After that, I recommend adding the Amazing Fields Power-Up. I used this to keep track of details like number of pages for each chapter, and a calculated field for words, which would automatically calculate as soon as I set the page numbers.

3. Next, you need the Calendar Power-Up. This will let you view your cards in a calendar view without requiring Trello Premium. Works very similar to the calendar view, so you can see all your due dates and shift around as needed.

4. Finally, if you have your final publishing date changing a lot and need a way to bulk shift due dates, you'll want the Bulk Actions Power-Up. This will let you select up to 80 cards at a time, and then shift the due date. So let's say we have a begin writing date of Jan 1 and 80 cards with deadlines based off of that. Well if you have to push the date to Jan 8, then instead of going into each card and pushing back a week, you can select all the cards and shift the due date by a week.

Let me know if this helps, or if you need more specific tips about any one of these!

Mike - Dreamsuite Consulting · Answer

Nominate @Brittany Joiner  😂