Is it possible to change the color of status (other than to do, in progress, done)

[Charles Delaporte]

Hi,

I have a workflow with statuses (with more statuses than just ToDo, I Progress and Done). I would like to color them differently. 

Is this possible ?

Thanks for your help

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Charles Delaporte 

The status colours refer to status categories - To Do (Grey), In Progress (Blue) and Done (Green)

On classic workflows, you can change the colour of a status between these categories - but this is applied site-wide rather than per flow. To do this you'll need to be a Jira Admin:

1. Go to Jira Settings > Issues > Statuses (on the left-hand menu)
2. Press Edit next to the status you want to change the category for
3. Change the Category and press Save

Next-Gen works differently - as the workflow is based on the board, the first column/status is in the "To Do" category, the last in "Done" and everything inbetween is in the "In Progress" category.

If you want more colours, you'll need to get an app for this - such as New Status Colors PRO for Jira Cloud

Ste

[Lacey McDonnell]

When was this change implemented for Server? I've seen Blue - Amber - Green on most versions until we just updated to 8.5

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Lacey McDonnell 

I don't know which version it was but it wasn't recent - likely an update as part of Server Version 8.

Its been in Cloud for the last 2-3 years.

Ste

[Chrisjir Parkin]

Following your instructions, I'm able to change the category of the status label, say, from "to do" to "in progress". 

I think what people are asking is "Can we have the old color scheme back?"  In particular, can a Jira Administrator edit the color that is associated with all of the "in progress" status categories so that it is the old amber color rather than the new blue color?

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Chrisjir Parkin 

Not natively, you'd need to use an app like suggested in the answer below.

Ste

[Cristhian Benitez]

Its posible to use a custom color to a custom status?

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Cristhian Benitez 

If you want custom colours, you'll need to get an app for this - such as New Status Colors PRO for Jira Cloud

Ste

[Chris Christensen]

Does that add-on work with next-gen? I am trying this out now and cannot figure out how to get it to work.

[Michael Chewning]

Nope, absolutely not. We are already paying for a Jira license, I'm not going to pay more just to have colors. Instead I'm going to look for better more flexible project management software!!!!!!

[Bárbara Rodriguez]

The app New Status Colors PRO doesn't work with Work Management

[Todd Dowty]

Found this thread while trying to figure out how to solve the same thing.

I'm amazed we can't set our own categories and colour schemes for those categories and statuses. I am a bit of a Jira fan, but this might be a deal breaker for me as it stops me getting the boards to flow in same way as our company processes (which are colour orientated)

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Todd Dowty 

The colours are just to differentiate the category names - which do more than just colour the Statuses.

Some alternatives are...

• Use Card Colors on a Board, to highlight each Status
• Use an App - such as New Status Colors PRO

You can also see a good (albeit old) explanation as to why Atlassian won't add custom colouring on JRACLOUD-36241 

Ste

[Todd Dowty]

Hi Stephen.

Thanks for your reply.

Card Colors isn't available and the New Status Colors is not free. I am not inclined to pay for a feature that I expect to be built in. 

I've not decided yet, but I suspect I'll switch over to ClickUp as that provides the flexibility I need. 

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Todd Dowty 

Why isn't Card Colors available? Is it a Team-managed Project?

Ste

[Todd Dowty]

I search for it under apps and nothing comes up.

Yes, a team-managed project. Is that why I can't find it - Does it need to be a company managed project?

EDIT: Just had a quick play around with a company managed sand box project. Nothing doing. Found card colours under board settings, but that's not what I need. Such a shame as I like Jira but, with such limited flex for board layout, I simply can't get it to fit with my processes.

[Michael Chewning]

This is really annoying. I'm blocked from being able to use my own color scheme because atlassian basically says so. Cool well good to know. My company has been evaluating different project management solutions for awhile. I won't be recommending one that doesn't give me the flexibility I need. 

I need to be able to color code the timelines and only have three colors to use is just worthless for my purposes.  

Also, what's with the icons?! How does this help!? They are so arbitrary they make no sense. Not like a color code.

[Todd Dowty]

@Michael Chewning I 100% agree. I've moved away from Jira because of it. Been using ClickUp since April instead.

[Samuel Westen]

I don't understand why Confluence has coloured statuses but not Jira.

[masqu3rad3]

So I can create a 'Rejected' status and it will have the same colour (green) same as 'Done' or 'Resolved'...

I have a hard time believing this.
First of all, this is not a hard thing to implement.

Secondly, colour coding is the 101 basics of project management. How can this be missed or ignored?

[Todd Dowty]

@masqu3rad3 Yes, I know, it's mind boggling. 

I'll be honest enough to admit that I've moved back to Jira.

I had moved to ClickUp as that is way more flexible in letting you set up your boards how YOU want them not how THEY want them. But....

The free plan didn't support story points after X number of points. And that was completely useless. Worse than a lack of colour co-ordination. And I wasn't prepared to step up to a paid plan without being sure it was the right choice (which I wasn't at that stage). 

So, for the sake of decent story pointing and reporting, here I am back on Jira bitching about the [lack of] colours! LOL.

[masqu3rad3]

I will be also honest enough to say I wasn't thinking to move somewhere else :)
My company (and many other companies I have worked for and heard) uses Jira so I am familiar with it and willing to keep using it for my personal projects.

The only thing I am having a hard time understanding is that it looks like a really simple thing. I would understand if they were limiting this colour-coding functionality for non-subscription users but apparently, it applies to paid plans too.

I can only hope if we complain enough they may fix it.

[Jared Pittman]

This is one of the more frustrating limitations in Jira Cloud. Custom cards are an alright solution in boards, but that doesn't help at all in Plans. The recommended plugin would be almost $10K a year for the number of users we have, and 90% of the reviews say it doesn't work anyways.

The fact that it's not immediately apparent which of the items on this list in Plans are in an "exception" state is a big problem.

[Ste Wright]

What about a coloured dot based on the Status?

Not the same I know, but possible using Automation and emojis.

Ste

[Jared Pittman]

Hmm.. yeah that has the potential to be a really clever workaround! We use Emojis all over the place in Jira to help make things pop (Menus, Epic Names, etc...). Will run this by our team to see what they think. Might be a little challenging to implement at scale, but better than nothing at all. Thank you for the suggestion!

Still hoping Atlassian sees this thread and makes things a little more flexible out of the box too 🤞

[Ste Wright]

Let us know if you need help to implement :)

Ste

[Zaldy Parian]

Hi @Ste Wright ,

How do we implement the coloured dot base on Status? Or the use of emojis? Preferably wiith the use of automation rule.

Cheers,

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Zaldy Parian 

You'll need to...

• Create a custom select list field to house the coloured dot values
• Set the option values to be emojis - eg. a green dot can be found here: https://emojipedia.org/large-green-circle

Notably, you cannot set the emojis as options when creating the field, you need to modify the context post-creation. So at creation add a dummy value instead (eg. Test) - which you can delete once you add the emoji-based options.

---

You should then be able to set the values through Automation like any other field.

If you get stuck at any point above, feel free to reach out and I can provide more specific instructions. It may also be beneficial if you can explain your specific need in this circumstance.

Ste

[Zaldy Parian]

Thanks. I will play around this and let you know soon. Cheers.

[Zaldy Parian]

Hi @Ste Wright ,

I set up custom single select field (issue_colour), with options as:

- yellow
- orange
- blue
- red
- green

I also made the field read-only - ie., available only on view screen.

I wanted to assign a colour to the field as the issue is transitioned to the next status: for example from Analysis to Work in progress, the colour should be "blue". And I want to set the colour as Post function of the workflow.

How can I identify or select the colour in Post function action?

[Ste Wright]

Hi @Zaldy Parian 

You'll need to use the Option ID when using an Emoji as the option.

To get the Option ID:

1. Go to Settings > Issues > Custom Fields
2. Locate the "Issue Colour" field
3. Press the breadcrumbs (...), and select the option Contexts and default value
4. On the next screen, select the hyperlink Edit Options
5. Under the Actions column, select Edit for the first option
6. Scroll to the end of the URL, and locate the Option ID - the URL end should look like this - &selectedValue=10123. 10123 would be the ID
7. Repeat steps 5-6 for each option

These Option IDs can then be used in the Custom Field Value box, when using the Update Issue Custom Field post-function in a Workflow.

Ste

[Kitty Conlin]

Hi @Ste Wright 

I've been following this along but I wondered if you might be able to help me as I've reached a bit of a dead end of my JIRA knowledge :) 

I'm looking to do a similar thing, I have a custom field (single select) for "RAG Status" on my project, which has the following options: 

I'm trying currently pulling this field through into a confluence report and so I'm trying to use the coloured emojis for this instead of the text. This is also because my status for JIRA tickets are also coming through as the following colours - 

Which has to do statuses in blue, in progress as yellow, and done comes through as green. Which makes things a little hard visually. 

So! If you could help me with how to set up the automation to switch the RAG status fields to use coloured emojis instead, that would be a huge help. 

Thank you! 

Kitty