Board Cards And Dragging
5 min read
A card is a defect, and everything you do to it on the board is an ordinary defect update.
Dragging one is a shortcut for changing a field, not a separate mechanism.
What A Card Shows
Section titled “What A Card Shows”The title is always shown, trimmed to three lines. Under Board settings → Cards → Show on cards, choose which of these appear alongside it:
- Defect code
- Priority
- Severity
- Assignee
- Labels
Fewer fields make a denser board that fits more cards on screen.
A status badge is added automatically when the board is not grouped by status. On a status board the column header already says it, so repeating it on every card would be noise.
Labels appear as coloured chips. When a defect carries more than three, the extras collapse into a count that lists them on hover.
On a release board a card can also carry a badge showing it is linked to more than one release, and a dashed border when the link came from a test run rather than from a person.
Opening A Defect
Section titled “Opening A Defect”Select a card to open the full defect beside the board.
Previous and Next walk the board in reading order — down a column, then on to the next — so a triage pass does not mean returning to the board between defects. Closing the defect refreshes the board quietly, so a change you made is reflected without the board reloading around you.
See Defect Details for everything the detail view holds.
The Card Menu
Section titled “The Card Menu”The ⋮ menu on a card changes one field without opening the defect.
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Open defect | Opens the full defect |
| Assign to | Picks a project member, or unassigns the defect |
| Change status | Sets the defect’s status |
| Change priority | Sets priority |
| Change severity | Sets severity |
| Labels | Opens a searchable picker with the current labels as removable chips |
| Delete defect | Deletes the defect, after confirmation |
Ticking several labels in a row saves as one change rather than one per label.
Traceability links — test cases, requirements, executions, and releases — are deliberately not on this menu. Open the defect for those.
The menu acts on the card you opened it from. A board has no multi-select and no bulk edit.
Moving A Card
Section titled “Moving A Card”-
Press on a card and move it slightly. A press without movement is treated as a select and opens the defect instead.
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Drag it over the column you want.
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Read the hint on the target column, which names the change.
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Release.
The hint says what the drop will do rather than only where the card lands:
| Grouped by | The hint reads |
|---|---|
| Status | Change status to Resolved |
| Assignee | Assign to Priya |
| Release | Link to 2.4 |
| Dropdown custom field | Clear Platform |
A drag that crosses a column and a swimlane at once is saved as a single change, so the defect gets one history entry and one notification rather than two.
A column at its WIP limit either warns or refuses the drop, depending on the board’s setting. See Board Layout.
Dragging Between Lanes
Section titled “Dragging Between Lanes”Dragging a card into a different swimlane sets the lane’s field, in the same way dropping into a column sets the column’s field — moving a card into Priya’s lane assigns it to Priya.
Two kinds of lane are an exception and only reposition the card:
- Label lanes. A defect can carry many labels, so there is no single label a drop could mean.
- Release lanes. Release membership is a link rather than a field, and adding or removing one is handled by release columns, where the board can offer the choice between moving and linking.
Ordering Cards In A Column
Section titled “Ordering Cards In A Column”Under Board settings → Cards, choose how cards are ordered:
- Manual — drag cards into the order you want.
- Recently updated
- Newest first
- Due date
Manual order is remembered against the cards either side of where you dropped, so two people reordering the same column at once merge their changes instead of overwriting each other.
Above 1,500 matching cards Hawzu turns manual ordering off and says so — narrow the board’s filter to bring it back. Changing the board’s grouping also clears the manual order, as described in Board Layout.
Closing A Defect From The Board
Section titled “Closing A Defect From The Board”On a status board, dropping a card into Closed asks how it was resolved — Fixed, Duplicate, Rejected, Deferred, or Withdrawn — and saves the status and the resolution together.
Cancelling returns the card to where it started. Turn the prompt off under Behavior if your team records resolutions elsewhere.
See Defects Overview for what each resolution means.
Release Boards
Section titled “Release Boards”A defect can belong to more than one release, so a card may appear in several columns at once.
Under Behavior, choose what dragging between releases does:
- Move — add the new release link and drop the old one.
- Link — only add the new link, never remove one.
Cards linked to a release through a test run are shown with a dashed border and cannot be detached from the board. The link belongs to the execution, so it has to be changed there.
Permissions
Section titled “Permissions”Dragging a card, and the assign, status, priority, severity, and label actions on the card menu, all need edit access to defects. Delete defect needs delete access.
If you can read defects but not change them, the header shows a View only badge — cards open, but nothing moves. A locked column refuses drops from everyone.
Next Steps
Section titled “Next Steps”- Shape the board with Board Layout
- Measure flow with Board Analytics
- Review a defect in Defect Details
- Track changes with Defect History
- Organise defects with Labels Overview