Drag and drop

Move work items between columns to update their grouping field, or reorder them within a column to set their rank. All changes sync to Jira in real time.

Moving between columns

Drag an work item card horizontally to move it to a different column. When you drop the card:

• BetterBoard updates the grouping field in Jira (e.g. Status changes if grouped by status, Assignee changes if grouped by assignee)
• The card animates to its new position
• If the update fails (permissions, workflow restrictions), the card returns to its original position and an error message is shown

When a column has more than one field option mapped to it, dropping an work item into that column assigns the first option in the list. You can reorder the field options in Display settings → Columns to change which option is applied by default.

Moving between Assets groups

When the board is grouped by an Assets field, dragging to another object group updates that field in Jira. A single-object field is replaced; for a multiple-object field, BetterBoard adds the destination and removes the source while preserving unrelated objects. Dropping in No value clears a single-object field or removes only the source object from a multiple-object field. If Jira rejects the update, the card returns to its previous placement.

See Assets fields for the full behavior and limitations.

Reordering within a column

Drag an work item card vertically within a column to change its rank position. This is manual rank mode:

1. Enable manual rank in Display settings → Order by → Manual rank
2. Drag cards up or down within a column
3. Positions are saved automatically

Manual rank positions sync to Jira’s native ranking field. Reranking in BetterBoard also reranks the work item in Jira’s backlog and other board views that respect rank.

Drag affordance

Cards show a grab cursor on hover. On touch devices, long-press an work item card to activate drag mode, then drag to the target position.

Column drop zones

When dragging, each column highlights as a valid drop target. Drop zones:

• At the top of a column: places the work item first
• At the bottom: places it last
• Between two work items: inserts between them

Limitations

• Workflow restrictions: Moving an work item to a status that requires a specific transition condition will fail if the condition isn’t met
• Permission restrictions: You must have edit permission on the work item to move it
• Epic work items: Some field updates aren’t available for Epic work item types in team-managed spaces
• Read-only fields: Fields configured as read-only in Jira’s field configuration can’t be updated via drag