Copying templates vs a "workspace-level template"?

[Vladimír Marček]

Hello, I'm new to Trello, but enthusiastic about all the possibilities :) Unfortunately, there seems to be serious limitations on copying templates between boards (even at premium price plan).

I plan to set up one board for each of my colleagues in our team (each card in the board representing one specific order). Not surprisingly, I need custom fields for orders, so I made a template card at my board. The tricky part begins when I want to use this template in other boards:

1) I have to copy the card template manually to each of the boards (not a big problem with 10 people, and maybe it can be automated, but still a nuisance to do this each time I update the template) 

2) copied template somehow becomes a card (which can be reversed, but again I need to update it in 10 boards)

3) the worst thing is, all custom fields disappear - this makes Trello nearly unusable for me. 

I thought that "Workspace-level templates" are supposed to fix this - that maybe I will get a card template usable across boards - but even after upgrading it doesn't seem to be that case.

Then again, maybe I'm just overlooking some way how to populate all boards with one template, with custom fields preserved? Thanks a lot for any ideas.

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_ · Accepted solution]

Hi @Vladimír Marček and welcome to the community,

Based on the official documentation (https://support.atlassian.com/trello/docs/using-custom-fields/):

When you move or copy a card that has values stored in Custom Fields, the data will be moved to the new board. When the card is moved/copied, Trello checks to see if you already have a field on the new board with the same name and field type. If so, the card will use the existing field definition on the new board. If it doesn't find a matching field, it will create a new field.

A card that has an empty value for a custom field will not create the new field on the board to which it is copied or moved.

In addition to the above, please read this post which may have the solution you want https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Trello-questions/How-can-I-copy-a-custom-field-I-created-using-the-Custom-Fields/qaq-p/1141307

[Vladimír Marček]

Oh thanks Alex, this works - custom fields are indeed copied too, when they have non-null content on template cards.

[Alex Koxaras _Relational_]

Good to know it works!