Trello Folds is a Chrome extension making it easier to work with big boards. It also adds features needed to use Trello for Kanban systems.

Trello Folds works by scraping the Trello web page adding styling to the board. It does not exchange any data with the Trello server, Trello APIs or any other server.

Screenshot

Because Trello Folds relies on scraping Trello pages and applying new formatting I cannot guarantee that the extension works if Trello changes page content.

I’m working on this extension because I use the features myself, because it’s fun to code, and because I like to contribute to the open source community. Feel free to use it as much as you want both for personal and commercial use.

Table of Content

Collapse Lists

With Trello Folds you can collapse lists to get more screen real estate.

Collapse a list by pressing the top right X added to the list title when running the extension.

list title

When collapsing a list it will rotate 90 degrees. Pressing anywhere on the collapsed list will expand it to its original state.

collapsed list

List Sections

List sections let you create collapsible groups inside lists. Sections are created using a special character repeated N times. The default is double hashtags (##). This can be configured in settings.

Example

## Section 1

Adds a section called Section 1 to the board.

Sections are reformatted to hide the identifier (e.g. ##). Clicking on the arrow next to the section name toggles expanding/collapsing the section.

list with sections

WiP Limits

WiP (Work in Progress) is essential to create a Kanban system. To add a WiP limit to a board add the limit inside brackets after the title.

Example

List Bravo [5]

adds a WiP limit of 5 to List Bravo. The title is reformatted to show the limit and also the number of cards in the list.

List with WiP limit

When the card limit is reached the limit badge is highlighted in orange and a bar is added above the list. If the limit is exceeded the badge and bar turns red. In settings you can control if you want to show the top bar or not.

Collapsing a list with a WiP limit will still show the badge and top bar (if not disabled).

Note! Section and comment cards (see below) are of course excluded from WiP limits.

list limit reached list limit exceeded collapsed reached collapsed exceeded

Always Count Cards

Under settings you can choose to always show the card count even if the list does not have a WiP limit.

list always count collapsed always count

Remembering Viewstates

The extension remembers the viestate of boards. This can be enabled/disabled in settings.

Combining Lists

You can combine two lists and give them a shared WiP limit by giving them the same prefix separated with a dot.

Example

Two adjacent lists named

Delta.Sub1 [5] Delta.Sub2

will be combined into one list with two columns. The WiP limit from the leftmost list is used.

combined lists combined collapsed

Compact Mode

For big boards not fitting on screen you can enable compact mode decreasing list width to a custom value. The compact mode width is set from the extension popup window.

compact mode setting compact mode button

Blocked Cards

Using the Trello powerup custom fields and adding a checkbox field Blocked you can highlight blocked cards in the board.

blocked custom field blocked card

Comment Cards

You can add comments, descriptions, Defintion of Dones, etc. to the board by prefixing card title with //. The card will be reformatted and excluded from WiP limits.

Comment card

Refresh Button

The Refresh button repaints extension related stuff in case it fails to do so when loading or reloading the board.

Settings

Clicking the extension icon in the menu bar opens a popup window with settings.

Setting Description
Sections Here you can choose a character to use for sections and how many times the character needs to be repeated.
WiP Limits Here you decide if you want the extra top bar to indicate when WiP limits are reached/exceeded.
Always count cards Toggle if card count badge should be displayed for lists without WiP limits.
Combining lists Turn combining lists on/off.
Compact Mode Sets custom list width for compact mode.
View State Toggle if list view states should be remembered. Here you can also dump view states to the dev console (F12) and see for how many boards view states are stored.