Story card annotations – NextGen

Take advantage of card annotations and customize your story map to deliver more information.

Tamás Párványik avatar
Written by Tamás Párványik
Updated over a week ago

Contents

What are annotations used for

You can customize your story maps in many ways to deliver information quickly and meaningfully. You can include the legend of used tags in a form of annotations to your cards. Annotations can explain any hidden dependencies on the board or point to further action e.g. “a step is missing here”. Besides the many creative ways of using annotations, you can use the following annotations to drive attention to details for example to indicate a need for:

  • Needs discussion

  • High risk

  • Blocked

  • Depends on other card

  • Splittable

  • Rejected

You can also identify teams with annotations so they always no where they need to pay attention to. Be creative and make your work even more effective.

How to create custom annotations

  1. Open your story map

  2. Go to “Annotation Settings”

  3. Click on “Add new annotation”

  4. Name your annotation

  5. Select an icon for your annotation

  6. Choose a color

  7. Click on “Save”

Step-by-step guide to create custom annotations

To create your custom annotation, open your story map. Then, go to “Annotation settings” to see the list of your annotations available. To add new annotation, select “Add new annotation”.

In the next step, name your annotation and select an icon that will be displayed through multiple views on your story map to.

Then select the displayed color for your annotation and click “Save”.

Once the annotation is saved, you can click on the three dot menu to “Edit” or “Delet” annotations. You can also change the order of the annotations in the list by dragging them and moving to the right place.

How to add annotations to cards

To add annotations to your cards, open your story map and go to “Planning” view. Select the card you want to add an annotation and click on the three dots. Choose “Annotations” from the list.

Then, select the annotation you want to make visible on your card.

You can also add annotations to your cards when you open a card to look at its details. Then click on “Add annotation” icon to see the list of available annotations and select the annotation(s) you want to add to the card.

There is one more way to add annotations to your cards on “Tracking” view. In this case, select a card, go to the three dots menu and click on “Annotations“. Then, select annotations you want to add to your card.

How to enable annotations on your story map

To make card annotations visible you can configure your views on your story map in “View settings”. StoriesOnBoard provides individual views of your story map in every phases (Discovery, Planning, Backlog, Tracking). You have the authority to customize your view in each phases to display important details and have context. To enable annotations, select “View settings” and enable or disable “Annotations“ on your selected view.

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