My First Document & Kanban Board Panes

KRT

I would like to create a ‘Personal’ Kanban Board with various Panes (e.g., Inbox, Backlog, Doing, Done). However, in attempting to add unique Panes to the Kanban each and everyone is titles, My First Document. How do I (1) Remove the My First Document (default?), and (2) create uniquely titled Panes per the above?

What I am getting at here is my desire to start with a ‘clean sheet’ and not be forced into the My First Document routine!

LauraH

KRT
Hey - welcome to Legend!
I think what you’re describing is hitting on a couple issues. You’re not being forced into some kind of onboarding - it’s simply that Legend has to start with a document.
Each pane you’re adding is not exactly titled “My First Document”. The panes, by default, show their parent as the “title” of the pane. So, you’re seeing what appears as panes titled “My First Document” because that is the “parent” for the pane.
It sounds like you might also be trying to set up a “kanban” board from the “start”. That’s not quite how to go about setting that up in Legend.

A couple steps to try and help get you set up with what you described:

You have to have a document, but you can rename it to whatever you like. Click the icon that looks like a split window in the upper left of a pane to “Show Documents”. Then right click on the document to rename it.
The OUTLINE mode is the “core” of legend - so I suggest starting in outline mode and adding the main categories you want as OUTLINE items first. So - view as outline, and add as headings: “Inbox”, “Backlog”, etc.)
Now add a new board, title it “Kanban” - and add 4 panes. They will still all look the same and be titled the same - hang with me.
You then need to point each board to the right part of your outline. So the first pane, click the “inbox” heading you created in the outline to “zoom in” to the “inbox” node. (You will see the default “title” of the pane change at that point also.). Do this same “zoom into” for the remaining Kanban categories you wish.

Edited to add: Once you set this up - you will be able to drag things between the panes in Kanban style. The “underlying” what is happening is that you will be moving things between different sections of your outline. It is helpful to know that is what is happening as it gives you a lot of flexiblity to set things up and then view and interact with them in many different ways. I think most of us who LOVE legend - this is the what we love most. The ability to see the same information grouped, filters, sorted, arranged, pane separated… etc in was that are relevant for each situation.

You can also individually rename panes in Legend. But if you try to just rename the panes, without creating / modifying the underlining outline structure as described above; you will not get the behavior you are hoping for.

Legend is flexible enough and powerful enough that it can be a little tricky to help folks get started. I hope I understood what you were asking; and I hope this helps point you in the right direction. Please give it a go, and feel free to post back with further questions.

LauraH

Jay (the developer) posted this in response to a different question, and it is relevant here to, and important for understanding how legend works:

First I think there may be a bit of confusion between documents vs. boards. Documents are where all your data is stored, and you can create multiple documents for separate areas. Panes are a view into any of your documents. And Boards are a collection of Panes. So Boards themselves don’t contain any data, they’re just views into documents.

webalstrom

Besides @LauraH detailed instructions, there are also some articles about using Legend (including one on Kanban boards) on Medium. There are also a couple of tutorial videos (with hopefully more to come) on using Legend on Youtube. And if you haven’t read over the help files, that will give some valuable background info on how Legend works. All of this will aid in setting up a Kanban board or any other system in Legend.

That is one of Legend’s strengths, and frustrations for new (and experienced) users: it is so powerful and flexible it can be hard to grasp how everything works and fits together. But once you understand the concepts, you are richly rewarded with all that you can do with the app. My advice is to start simple (such as with a 3 or 4 pane Kanban board) and then slowly add in filters, new views and pane types as you find you need them.

Jay

Thanks for the great answer @LauraH. The concepts of documents vs panes vs boards is a stumbling point for a lot of our new users and we haven’t quite figured out how to solve it.

@Rackleberry wrote this article which I think is helpful but it is fairly long and maybe inaccessible to brand new users.

Does anybody have ideas on how we can make the concepts clearer? Or is it something we should call out better in the onboarding process?

This is what new users see right now: https://app.legendapp.com/#demo=newuser That is perhaps overwhelming with multiple panes and lots of intro content?

How can we do better?

LauraH

Jay
Hey Jay - Understand how this is a tough concept to try and communicate!
I looked over the “new user” link you shared. One challenge would seem to be that it shows a lot of the views / features - without clarifying the underling outline structure that seems (to me) to be fundamental to understanding Legend.
Yes, the panes, views, filters are huge, and they are the “selling points” you show off on the website, etc.
However, once someone actually tries to start in Legend - I wonder if there is value in stating very clearly something like, “Welcome to Legend. In this pane you are seeing the core / basic structure of Legend - a document of a text based, infinite outline. Each line of this outline is it’s own ITEM. All the other features and functions - kanban boards, tag views, group by priority, and more - are different VIEWS you can create and interact with based on this core outline of items.” ???

From posts here in the forum, it seems at least a few of us “think this way” when setting up our systems, using Legend. So maybe it’s helpful to set new users up with that mindset from the start?

Another idea to consider - Legend is enough of a “shift” from standard software that some kind of onboarding / intro video really is crucial for people to even get started. I recently tested some new software that started with a “How to use this program” video when I launched it. When I went to click and close this intro video, the software popped up a message that said something like, “Please wait a moment! WE believe this 3 minute video is so crucial to you understanding and being able to effectively use our software that we will give you a FREE $10 toward your subscription simply for finishing watching this video.”

It was such an interesting approach, and so clearly communicated, “We want you to understand our software!!!!” that I went ahead and watched the 3min video.

Rackleberry

[unknown] Glad you liked the first few videos! You said hopefully more to come… Any suggestions on topics or angles you would like to see for videos?

Jay

We have a new approach at an intro in https://forum.legendapp.com/d/703-feedback-on-our-new-intro-please. I’d love to know what you think in there!