Bulk move multiple cards?
Asked by Doug Abel:

I'd like to move groups of cards around to different lists and retain their order. Moving one at a time seems to be the only method. I wish there was a way to select several cards to move them, and/or "group" them together.


Answers:
author: Doug Abel
body: I decided to give Trello another chance after a few years of being too frustrated with this limitation, I see now that [the Bulk Actions Power-Up does just what I needed. Fantastic.](https://trello.com/power-ups/5e4464985fd190825d164de3)

comments: author: Stacy Duncan
body: Thanks for the tip. I second this, worked exactly like I wanted it to. Nice!


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Doug Abel](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3634591) The best way to select multiple cards and move them in order to another list is just to create a list next to the list you want to select cards from, move the cards to that list then move all cards at once from the temporary list to another list, then archive the temporary list.

When you think about it, the act of "selecting multiple cards" is really no different from the active of moving cards to a list. I think the reason people don't like doing this is because they're used to other software where the creation of a list or a project or folder other type of container is an "expensive" operation, but in Trello it's so quick you can just create throwaway lists and archive them just as quickly whenever you need to.

comments: author: Doug Abel
body: Not understanding this. If I have a 5-act TV show, for example, and each act is a list with a dozen or so 'scenes' (cards), and I want to move scenes 4 through 8 from Act (list) 3 to act 4. using your technique I'm still moving (or archiving) cards one at a time and having to manually keep track of their order. Would be so much easier/intuitive if I could shift-click a bunch of cards and just move them as a unit to a different list on the screen.


author: Doug Abel
body: To me this would be a basic functionality of any kind of index card simulator.


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Doug Abel](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3634591) what I mean is that the act of "shift clicking" to select multiple cards, then moving them to some other list, is almost identical to what you can already do by creating a separate list although arguably it's much less finicky to create a separate list, especially when selecting multiple cards from a long list or from multiple lists because it's much easier to scroll your temporary list to see what's already selected. Here's a video demonstrating what I mean, I'm sure you'll see how quick this is, I don't see why Trello would bother introducing additional interface complication to allow people to do something that's so easy to do anyway:

<https://www.loom.com/share/761245c4f95b42cc916560a68e0c3eaf>


author: Doug Abel
body: [@Iain Dooley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1416112) Thanks for the video! You moved them to an unpopulated list, but if you want to move the cards to a spot in the middle of a series of cards already in the target list, can you do that in one step like dragging would accomplish? Seems like a lot of clicking (and mental gymnastics to remember the order as you place them). I'm mildly dyslexic so your method wouldn't work well for me.


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Doug Abel](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3634591) The cards are just appended to the end of the list when moved. The operation you're referring to which is to select multiple cards and then move them in the same order to a common insertion point in a different list is so specific I can't imagine any software interface ever implementing it unless it was far more specific than Trello.

The number of interface interactions required to move cards from one list into a temporary list is comparable in time and complication my opinion to holding down the shift key or control keys, scrolling through a list of cards and selecting them individually then dragging them somewhere else, and if you can imagine the level of complication if one wanted to select cards in, say, 2 or 3 different groups, from a long list, and then move them into different spots in a different list. You'd have to move through the list multiple times or still use a temporary list to do the moves.

If it were my money I'd put the "move multiple cards" feature at priority 1,000,000 on my list of potential features to get the team to work on :)


author: Doug Abel
body: [@Iain Dooley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1416112) It's a pretty common functionality in writing software, to be able to move a block of cards around. Scrivner can do it. I think Final Draft can, too. There probably are others. Here's how it works in Scrivner: <https://vimeo.com/373736461> The difference is it's not shared online. I guess I could do a screen-share type thing, but those are clunky to set up, and require the host to be active.

I work on large documentary projects and no one has cracked being able to do it online easily. We started using Trello but quickly ran into this limitation. So mostly we use paper index cards when I'm in town, and take a picture to preserve versions.

So if you move it above 1,000,000 on the request list you might get a lot of filmmakers and writers using Trello--it could be the Google Docs of film/TV.


author: Iain Dooley
body: [@Doug Abel](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3634591) I said:
> The operation you're referring to which is to select multiple cards and then move them in the same order to a common insertion point in a different list is so specific I can't imagine any software interface ever implementing it unless it was far more specific than Trello.

You said:
> It's a pretty common functionality in writing software, to be able to move a block of cards around. Scrivner can do it. I think Final Draft can, too.

That's exactly my point. I can imagine software for a specific industry or use case implementing this, but not a piece of software who's target market is "anyone who's ever used a post-it note".


author: Noa Office
body: [@Iain Dooley](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1416112) but how do you "shift+click"? I tried shift+click as well as ctrl+click and both options just opened the card in a new window, rather than allowing me to select multiple...


author: Doug Abel
body: I got too frustrated with Trello and switched to miro.com. This seems to be the go-to tool that filmmakers are using these days to help figure out editing.


author: Dreamsuite Mike
body: Trello and Miro are very very different tools. It turns out, they work really well together...