Using the Map

Overview

The Map is a horizontally-scrolling, multi-column explorer for your entire Workstream and Item hierarchy. Each column shows the contents of a single location, and clicking into an Item or Workstream opens the next level to its right, so you can drill from the top of your portfolio down to individual tasks while keeping the path you took in view.

The page header reads Map Value (your browser tab simply shows Map). In these articles it is called the Map.

Reading a column

The leftmost (root) column is titled Core Workstreams and lists only Workstreams.

Once you open a Workstream, each column to its right has two collapsible sections:

• Workstreams — the folders and Workstreams in that location.
• Items — the work items in that location.

Each section header shows a small count badge so you can see, at a glance, how many Workstreams and Items live in the column. Click a section header to collapse or expand it.

To drill deeper, click a Workstream or a navigable Item. A new column opens to its right showing that location's contents, and the Map scrolls to bring the new column into view.

Selecting rows

Every selectable row has a checkbox, and there are several ways to build a selection:

• Click a row's checkbox to add it to (or remove it from) your selection. The checkbox is the most reliable way to select more than one row.
• Click a row to select just that row, replacing any previous selection.
• Cmd-click a row (on a Mac) to toggle an additional row without losing the rest of your selection.
• Shift-click to select a range of rows.

Selection is scoped to a single column at a time: selecting a row in a different column starts a fresh selection. There is no "select all" checkbox in the column header.

Bulk-editing selected items

When one or more rows are selected, a blue Edit button appears with a badge showing how many are selected. Open its menu to apply a change to the whole selection at once. Hover the button to reveal an x that clears the current selection.

The bulk Edit menu can change:

• Cycle/Board
• Gantt
• Team
• Item Type
• Relationships
• Priority
• Color
• Location
• Assignee
• Point Estimate
• Time Estimate
• Start Date
• Due Date
• Status
• Custom Fields
• Tag

It also offers Archive, Delete, and Unarchive.

Smart constraints

Rather than blocking the whole menu, individual actions turn themselves off when they would not make sense for your particular selection:

• Item Type is disabled when the selection includes Workstreams, when a selected Item has children, or when the selected Items are of incompatible types.
• Cycle/Board, Team, and Assignee are unavailable when the selection includes Workstreams, which cannot be assigned to a board, team, or user.
• Status is unavailable when the selection includes Workstreams, includes Items that do not belong to a board, or spans boards that use different statuses.
• Location is disabled when the selected Items are of incompatible types (they do not share the same parent type).
• Point Estimate and Time Estimate appear only when your organization uses that estimation mode and the selected Items can be estimated.

If an action is greyed out, hover it to see why — for example, a tooltip noting that there are Workstreams in the selection.

Quick-adding items and Workstreams

Use the Workstream and Item add buttons at the top right of the Map to open the quick-add dialog. The add-item control also offers Create Items with AI, which generates a batch of items from notes or documents — see Creating Items with AI.

New work is created under the location you select and inherits that location's permissions, so new items take on the access of where they're created — see Workstream & Item Permissions.

Controlling where new work lands

Near the bottom of the quick-add dialog, below a divider, a single checkbox controls where the new row is placed in the Map:

• When adding an Item, the checkbox reads Insert after other Item(s) in the Map.
• When adding a Workstream, it reads Insert after other Workstream(s) in the Map.

By default this checkbox is unchecked, which places the new work at the top of the list. Check it to place the new work at the bottom instead.

Your choice is remembered, so the Map keeps using your preferred position the next time you add work.

This position control appears only in the Map's quick-add dialog. A second checkbox, View detail after creating, opens the new item's workspace as soon as it is created.

After you save, the Map surfaces the new work: it expands the relevant column and scrolls to bring the new item into view.

Focusing the Map with filters

When you apply a filter, the Map automatically hides any column that contains no matching items, so only the relevant path through your hierarchy remains on screen. The root Core Workstreams column is never hidden, and keyboard navigation skips the collapsed columns. This automatic clean-up engages only when at least one filter is applied — applying a sort or rank alone does not collapse empty columns.

Map display options

Open the Options popover in the filter bar to adjust how rows are displayed:

• Line Wrap — wrap long titles instead of truncating them.
• Show Item Number — display each item's number alongside its title.
• Show Completion Stats Icon — show the completion indicator on rows.
• Item Indicator: — choose whether the row indicator reflects Item Type or Item Status.

Exporting the Map to a spreadsheet

The Export button in the filter bar sends the Map's work to a CSV file through the same Export Items to CSV dialog used elsewhere, where you name the export and choose which columns to include.

The export covers everything beneath the column you have drilled into — not just the rows on screen. Open a workstream three columns deep and you get that workstream's entire subtree, however many levels of nested workstreams sit beneath it. Drill in further to narrow the export; back out to widen it.

Exports run in the background; a finished one waits under Measure Performance ▸ Exports, ready to download. Because it produces a report, the Export button appears only for members with reporting access. See Measure Performance.

Templates from a workstream column

The ellipsis (⋯) menu at the top of a sub-workstream column carries four template actions, in two pairs. The first pair works with Item Templates — reusable trees of workstreams and items that live in DevStride, shareable and re-applied as often as you like. The second pair is the older Excel round-trip, where the template is a spreadsheet file you fill in and pass around.

Each entry appears only when you hold the permissions behind it: Apply Template… needs ACCESS_TEMPLATES and CREATE_ITEMS_AND_WORKSTREAMS; Save as Template… needs ACCESS_TEMPLATES and CREATE_ITEM_TEMPLATE; the two Excel entries need MANAGE_IMPORT_HISTORY (and importing also needs the ability to add items under that workstream). If none apply to you, the ⋯ button isn't shown at all.

Apply Template… and Save as Template… are also on the right-click menu of any workstream or item. For building, sharing, and applying Item Templates start at the Templates overview; for the spreadsheet flow see Import Templates.

Related

• Creating Items
• Templates overview
• Import Templates