How to format your text in Trello

Trello supports several different types of content and formatting options. In addition, there are several different methods for how to format your text. Let’s start by exploring each of these methods.

We’re still working on bringing the new editing experience to Trello’s mobile apps. For now, you’ll need to use Markdown in order to format your text in the mobile app.

Toolbar

At the top of the text editor, you’ll see a toolbar listing all of the available formatting tools. Click on any of these button to apply that formatting or see more options.

Trello text editor menu bar

Don’t see the toolbar when editing the card description in the web or desktop apps? You may be using the legacy editor, which only supports Markdown and keyboard shortcuts. The legacy editor will not display your formatting until you click the Save button. You can switch to the new editor by going to trello.com/labs and turning on WYSIWYG Editing.

Quick insert menu

Press / while typing in the description or a comment to open the a dropdown menu with all the different types of content you can add.

Trello text editor quick insert menu

Keyboard shortcuts and Markdown

If you want to format text quickly, keyboard shortcuts and Markdown are great options. These let you format text as you type, without having to move to your mouse or trackpad to click on a menu. Markdown is also the only way to format text in the mobile apps.

Keyboard shortcuts and Markdown will convert into formatted text as you type. If you don’t want the text to be formatted, you can press ‘CMD + Z’ or ‘CTRL + Z’ to undo the formatting, or click on the undo or redo buttons in the toolbar.

You can use any of the below keyboard shortcuts or Markdown syntax in Trello’s editor:

Trello text editor keyboard shortcuts

You can open this dialog in Trello by pressing + / or ctrl + / while editing a comment or card description, or by clicking the ? in the toolbar.

What types of content can I add?

Trello’s editor supports much more than just text! In addition to the various options for formatting text in the card description or comments, you can also add links and embedded content, images and other attachments, and other types of content and formatting.

Trello text editor description with formatted text

You can also format text in checklist items. Use either keyboard shortcuts or Markdown to apply any of these formatting styles in a checklist:

  • Bold text

  • Italicized text

  • Strikethrough text

  • Inline code

  • Links

Text

Trello text editor menu with text formatting options

Trello has most of the standard formatting options you'd see in other editors, such as adding emphasis to text or organizing your content using headers and bulleted or numbered lists. You can indent an item in a list by using the tab key.

Pressing Enter while typing will add a new paragraph with additional spacing. If you want to create just a line break, hold Shift while pressing Enter.

When you’re editing, you can paste a URL into the card description to insert a link by pasting a URL, selecting the link option from the toolbar or quick insert menu, or pressing + K or ctrl + K.

By default, link are be formatted as an inline links, which show the title of the linked page. You can change this by clicking on the link and selecting any of the below options:

  • URL
    This will show the address for the link (example: https://www.trello.com)

  • Inline
    An inline link will show the title of the linked page.

  • Card
    This will will show additional information about the link, if available, such as an image or description.
    The card view is not available for all links.

  • Embed
    This will let you directly view the content from another page. You can read a Confluence page or watch a YouTube video without leaving your Trello card!
    The embed view is not available for all links.

Trello smart link editor with 3 options to format link as URL, inline, card, or embed

Use the icons on the left side of the link menu to switch between display types.

The display type menu is not available for links in checklist items, which will always display as inline links. You can get around this by using Markdown formatting for the link, or by adding ` to either side of the URL to display it as a code snippet like this:

`https://www.trello.com/` → https://www.trello.com/

By default, any URL you paste into the card description will convert into an inline link, as shown above. If you'd like to change that—for example, if you always want to display the URL—you can do that by changing your link preferences in your Atlassian account settings:

  1. Select your avatar from the top-right menu, then go to Manage account.

  2. From the top menu, select Link preferences.

From there, you can choose a new default display method for all links, or you can customize it by selecting different options for different types of links.

Images and attachments

You can insert images by clicking on the image icon in the toolbar.

Trello text editor menu bar highlighting the image attachment feature

This will bring up a dialog where you can either choose a recently uploaded image, add an image via link, or upload an image from your computer. After you upload an image or add an image link, you will need to click on the image thumbnail under “Recently uploaded” to insert it into your card description or comment. Any images you insert will also be added as attachments to the card.

Other types of attachments can be added to the description using the paperclip icon in the toolbar.

Other formatting options

To find even more types of content and formatting options, click on the + button in the toolbar:

Trello text editor menu bar highlighting the + dropdown with other formatting optios

 

See Also:

Additional Help