Board
The board is where most work happens. Its columns are your statuses, in order; its lanes are your Matters, with the Inbox first. Every Action is a card in the cell where its Matter and status meet.
Open it from the ribbon, or with the command Open board.
Move things on
- Drag a card to another column to change its status, or to another lane to change its Matter. On a phone, touch and hold it instead (see On a phone).
- Select + in a cell to add an Action with that status and Matter.
- Select a card to show it in the inspector, where every field can be changed without dragging.
- Right-click a card for its menu: every status, Mark as done (or Reopen) and Move to Matter….
Within a cell, cards sort themselves: priority, then due date, then title. To put them in your own order, see Cards in your own order.
Cards in your own order
Select Order by hand in the toolbar, or set Card order to By hand in the board’s options. Now a card stays where you drop it: drag it up or down within its cell, or into another cell at the place you want it. Sort automatically in the toolbar goes back to priority, due date and title.
- Right-click a card (touch and hold on a phone) for Move to top, Move up and Move down, above Move to Matter….
- Cards you haven’t placed yet come after the ones you have, in the automatic order.
- Moving a card to another status or Matter any other way (from the inspector, the card’s menu, or a drag on a board sorted automatically) puts it after the cards placed by hand in its new cell.
- The order belongs to the Action, not to the board: every board and list in your own order shows the cards the same way. Boards sorted automatically ignore it.
Your order is kept in each Action note as mtm-order (see Properties).
Lanes
- Drag a lane by its header to reorder it, or use Move up and Move down in the lane’s menu.
- Dormant and closed Matters start collapsed. Their Actions stay in their lanes.
- The header shows how many Actions are open and waiting, and when the Matter was last reviewed. Select the title to open the Matter’s overview, or Review now in the lane’s menu to review it.
Show a Matter on the board
Show on board in a Matter’s overview opens the board at that Matter’s lane (if you have several boards, choose one first). The board scrolls to the lane and lights its header for a moment. When the lane was out of sight, the board brings it back the way you would: it turns the Sphere’s chip on, expands the Sphere’s band and expands the lane, and they stay that way. If the board’s tab shows another view of the file, such as the list, it switches to the board. On a phone, the board shows that Matter.
Two choices the board leaves as they are, and tells you instead:
- With Hide empty lanes on, a Matter with no cards on the board has no lane. A notice says it “isn’t on this board: it has no Actions here, and the board hides empty lanes.”
- With the Inbox lane set to Hidden, a notice says “The Inbox is hidden on this board. Show it again in the board’s options.”
Filter
The toolbar has a chip for each Action type, all on to begin with: select one to hide that type. With Spheres, their chips sit beside them. The Hide Done button hides your closed columns (it is named after your done status).
On a phone
On a phone the board shows one Matter at a time, so you never scroll in two directions at once. Tablets get the full board.
Choose a Matter
The strip of pills under the toolbar holds your Matters in the board’s order: the Inbox at its position, then each Sphere’s Matters behind a small label. Tap a pill to show that Matter. The strip scrolls sideways.
- A small number on a pill counts its Actions due today or late.
- A dot means its review is due.
- Dormant and closed Matters are dimmed, at the end of their group.
The board remembers the Matter you last showed. The toolbar works as on the full board: switch a Sphere chip off and its Matters’ pills go, type chips filter the cards, and with Hide empty lanes a Matter with nothing to show has no pill.
The Matter’s header
Under the pills, a row tells you what the lane header would: the Matter’s name (tap it for the overview), how many Actions are open and waiting, when it was last reviewed, and No next Action when nothing is moving. For the Inbox it says how many are left to sort and offers Process.
⋯ opens the lane’s menu: Move up and Move down (which move the pill), Move to Sphere… when you have Spheres, Review now, Mark as reviewed and Close (Reopen on a closed Matter).
Swipe through the statuses
The Matter’s columns sit side by side: swipe sideways to go from one status to the next. Each column snaps into place, with the next one peeking in. Hide Done hides your closed columns, as on the full board.
A Matter opens on the first column after your backlog that has cards (Next, usually). When it has no next Action, it opens on What’s the next step? instead, so the question is the first thing you see.
A swipe that starts at the very edge of the screen still opens Obsidian’s sidebars.
Move and add
- Touch and hold a card to move it: choose a status, Mark as done (or Reopen), or Move to Matter…. On a board in your own order, Move to top, Move up and Move down are there too. There is no dragging on the phone board.
- Tap a card to open it in the inspector, where every field can be changed.
- The round + adds an Action in this Matter, in the column you are looking at.
Board options
The board is a view in a Bases file (MTM/Boards/Matters.base), so its options live in the view’s settings and travel with the file:
| Option | Values |
|---|---|
| Inbox lane | Inherit (from settings), First, Last or Hidden |
| Show done | Inherit, Show or Hide |
| Show done from the last N days | Only closed Actions completed in that many days (0 = all) |
| Card order | Automatic (priority, due date, title) or By hand |
| Hide empty lanes | Leaves out Matters with no cards |
Filters you add in Bases narrow the cards. Lanes always show every Matter, so an empty lane still invites a next step.