Moving over from Trello
Export a board from Trello, drop the file into Tarsen, and your lists and cards arrive with their labels, checklists, comments and due dates intact. Most boards take a couple of minutes. Nothing is changed or removed on the Trello side.
How to do it
Export the board from Trello
Open the board, then Menu → More → Print and Export → Export as JSON. Trello saves a .json file to your computer. You need to be a member of the board to do this.
Open the importer in Tarsen
Workspace → Integrations → Import from Trello.
Drop the file in
You will see a summary of what was found (how many lists, cards and labels) before anything is created, so you can check it is the right board.
Confirm
Tarsen creates a new project with your lists as columns and your cards in them. It never writes into an existing project, so an import can’t disturb work you already have.
Importing the same board twice is detected and flagged, so an accidental double-import doesn’t quietly duplicate every card.
What comes across
| In Trello | In Tarsen |
|---|---|
| Lists | Columns on your board, in the same order |
| Cards | Cards, in the same order, each with its own reference like ROAD-14 |
| Card descriptions | Descriptions, with Markdown preserved |
| Labels | Labels, with their colours mapped to the nearest Tarsen colour |
| Checklists | Checklists, with items ticked as they were |
| Due dates | Due dates |
| Comments | Comments, with their original text |
| Attachments and links | Links on the card |
| Archived cards | Archived, so they stay out of the way but are not lost |
What does not come across
Being straight about this is more useful than a longer list of ticks:
- Power-Ups and anything they stored. Tarsen has no equivalent to plug them into.
- Butler automations. There is no automation engine yet.
- Card covers and background images. Covers exist in Tarsen but Trello’s export does not include the image files.
- Uploaded attachment files. Trello’s JSON export contains links to them rather than the files themselves, so the links come across and the files stay in Trello.
- Who a card was assigned to. Trello’s export identifies members by an internal id that cannot be matched to a person reliably, so cards arrive unassigned and you assign them once in Tarsen.
Assignments are the one thing worth budgeting time for. Filter the board by list after importing and assign in bulk: selecting several cards at once makes it quick.
What to do first, once it lands
- Assign the cards that need an owner. Shift-click to select several and assign them in one go.
- Mark your last column as the done list, so finishing a card actually completes it.
- Set a WIP limit on your in-progress column if your team tends to start more than it finishes.
- Try the command palette with ⌘K. It is how most of the app is reachable.
- Open Mission Mode and let it suggest a day’s work from what you have just imported.
Getting your data back out
Worth saying before you commit to moving: you can export everything, at any time, from Workspace → Integrations. JSON keeps the full structure and round-trips; CSV opens in a spreadsheet. There is a door out and it is not hidden.
Something missing here? Email support@tarsen.co and we’ll write it.