A kanban board in your notes, with cards you drag between columns

A kanban board shows work as cards moving through columns: ideas waiting, things in progress, things done. Barside puts a kanban board in your notes, so the board sits right next to the plan, the meeting notes and the links that explain it. Add one from the note toolbar or by typing /board, then drag cards from column to column. Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac. Your boards are saved with your notes, on your own computer.

Why put a kanban board in a note

Most boards live in a separate app, far from the thinking behind each card. A board inside a note keeps the two together:

• Context stays close. The project brief is above the board, and the call notes are below it. You never wonder why a card exists.
• One board per job. A launch, a semester or a renovation can each have its own note with its own board, in its own workspace.
• Nothing to set up. There are no boards to create elsewhere, no members and no permissions. Add a board and type.

How a kanban board works in Barside

A board is one block in a note, like a table or a drawing. It has columns side by side, and each column holds cards.

• Columns have a name, a color and a count of their cards. A new board starts with To do, Doing and Done.
• Cards hold text: a word, a line, or several lines.
• Colors come from eight choices: gray, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, purple and pink. The color shows as a dot and a line across the top of the column.
• Wide boards scroll. When the columns do not fit the note, the board scrolls sideways, also in a narrow or docked window.

Point at the board and two small buttons appear above it: a grip on the left, to select the board or drag it to another place in the note, and Delete board on the right. A board with cards asks first.

How to add a kanban board

1. Open a note and put your cursor where the board should go.
2. Press the board button in the note toolbar (Insert a kanban board). Or type / at the start of a line, then board, and press Enter.
3. The board appears with three empty columns. Under To do, press New and type your first card.
4. Press Enter to save it. The box stays open, so you can type the next card right away. Shift+Enter starts a new line in the same card, and Esc closes the box.

To change a card, click it, change the words, and press Enter. A card you empty is removed.

Move cards by dragging or with the keyboard

Drag. Press a card and move it. The card follows your pointer, and a line shows where it will land: another column, or another place in the same one. Let go to drop it. Press Esc while dragging, and the card goes back where it was.

Keyboard. Reach a card with Tab, or click it and press Esc, then:

The card keeps the keyboard focus after it moves, so you can move it again. Each change is its own step for Undo: moving three cards takes three presses of Ctrl+Z to undo.

Rename, recolor, move and add columns

Press the ⋯ button in a column's header for its menu:

• Rename. Type the new name and press Enter. You can also click the column's name.
• Color. Pick one of the eight dots.
• Move left and Move right change the order of the columns.
• Delete column. A column with cards asks first: Delete it and its cards.

Add column, at the end of the board, adds a column with a color that is not used yet. A board holds up to 20 columns.

Add any block with the / menu

Boards come with a faster way to add every kind of block. Type / at the start of a line, or after a space, and a menu lists what you can add: text, headings, bullet and numbered lists, a checklist, a kanban board, an embed of a video or web page, an HTML block, a database table, a table, a quote, a code block, a divider, a drawing, an image or video, a file, and a link to another note. Keep typing to narrow the list, like /h2 or /table. Use the arrow keys to choose, Enter or Tab to add it, and Esc to close the menu. A / inside a word, like in "and/or", leaves the menu shut.

Examples

• A writer keeps one note per article, with a board of Ideas, Drafting, Editing and Published, and the research notes underneath.
• A student gives each course a note with This week, Doing and Handed in columns, next to the lecture notes and the linked notes for each topic.
• A small team lead opens the weekly meeting note, drags last week's cards forward, and adds the new ones while everyone talks.
• A home project, like a move, gets a board of To buy, To book and Done, beside the floor plan as a drawing in the same note.

Details that matter

• Limits. A board holds up to 20 columns and 500 cards. A card holds up to 2,000 characters, and a column name up to 120.
• Cards are text. They have no due dates, checkboxes or reminders. For dated to-dos, use a checklist in the note: its items show on the task board built from your checklists, and each can have a reminder.
• Copy and paste. Select a board with its grip and copy it with Ctrl+C. Paste it into any note, and its columns, cards and colors come along.
• Search. The search box in All notes and the search bar find a note by the words on its cards.
• Templates. A note with a board can be saved as a template, so every new project starts with your columns. See note templates and repeating notes.
• Backups and sync. Boards are part of their note, so ZIP backups include them, and with Barside Plus, cloud sync keeps them the same on all your computers.
• Systems. Boards work the same on Windows 10 and 11, on Linux and on Mac. On a Mac, the keys use Option for Alt and Cmd for Ctrl.

Privacy

A board is saved inside its note, in your library on your computer. Nothing is uploaded unless you turn on cloud sync or cloud backup with Barside Plus, or share the note to a Space, which sends the board as text. Your AI reads a board only when you ask it about your notes, with the AI you connect. Read the privacy guide.

How it compares

Dedicated board apps are built for teams: shared boards, members, labels and automations. Barside's board is for your own work inside your notes: quick to add, private by default, and never far from the context. If you are comparing apps, read the Notion alternative guide and the list of the best note-taking apps. For notes in general, see the local-first note-taking app guide.

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