Ability to collapse/hide columns (sections) in Board view

I think it would be a great addition if we had the ability to hide columns in boards, since they cannot be deleted unless you move/remove all tasks in each column, which is undesirable many times.

For example, I’m using an Asana project in conjunction with Instagantt to manage a software project I’m working on. I’ve got an Asana project “MySoftwareProject”, for example, and I’m using some of the columns as versions for releases, let’s say 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, whatever… I then put the features and fixes I want to do for each version in the corresponding column as tasks.

This maps wonderfully with Instagantt and it makes Asana a great software development management tool thanks to this sinergy.

Now, the problem comes when I release a version of my app, let’s say 1.0, and hence all tasks assigned to the column 1.0 are done, and no more tasks will be ever assigned to that column. I cannot delete the column, because it is not empty, and I don’t want to delete the tasks there because they are full of very valuable historical information that I don’t want to lose.

So the only way to get rid of such 1.0 column so it doesn’t keep sucking space in the board for nothing without losing those tasks, is to move them elsewhere, for example create a project MySoftwareProjectArchive, add a 1.0 version column there, and then move the those tasks there until the original is empty and I can delete it. But this is a hack actually which it’s own side effects, and it is quite time consuming if you bear in mind that among other limitations you cannot select a bunch of tasks and move all of them at once.

On the other hand, having the possibility of hiding some columns on the board without deleting them could do the trick in an easy fashion without any side effect.

I hope you take this feedback into account.

Bests!

6 Likes

I just discovered you can’t remove a column indeed. How weird that is…

Second! This would be an extremely helpful feature. I use the board view to schedule messages to my network so each column is a month. I’d love to be able to hide them one they’re complete.

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Actually you can only delete a column when it is empty, even from completed tasks! So when completing a task, move it to another column first…

Hi Bastien,

That solution is undesirable for several reasons I cared to point in my original post. And, quoting myself “having the possibility of hiding some columns on the board without deleting them could do the trick in an easy fashion without any side effect.”

Bests!

1 Like

Sorry I did not re-read your post, my bad.

No prob at all!

Yes, I think so too. In my case, simply would like to remove unnecessary clutter from view when I don’t need to see it. For example, I have a column “this month” and another one “this week”. I only need to look at the “this month” column once every week when I decide what tasks I will tackle this week (and hence move them from the “this month” to the “this week” column. In fact, It can be quite overwhelming sometimes of constantly seeing those other tasks piled up, so it’s not just a question of aesthetics but also one of sanity :wink:

I’m surprised that thus feature request hasn’t attracted more attention…

4 Likes

I´d like this too!

I use a board as a content schedule and I have a column full of social media posts that have their slot in different social channels. These are repeating as time goes by and are scheduled. I mark them as completed using the tag-list view and it repeats itself as I have chosen.

Next in the board view I have columns that are dedicated to email newsletter and blogposts that are ideas > drafts > done > scheduled. These columns I need to see as it is a multi-step process for me but the social media column is not needed and just takes up space on the board.

I simply want to hide it until a day when I might want to change my recurruent social media posting schedule.

Any chance this is looked into as a development? Happy to show my process if at all interesting to understand how I use it.

Thanks in advance!

Åsa

Yes, I would also love to have this feature. I am trying to use Asana in exactly the way this poster is describing and its incredibly frustrating to not be able to hide columns.

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I am confronted with the same use case: tasks/features per release which I want to hide once the release was done while avoiding having to delete everything

Hi this would be a great added feature as we work on NPD and once a column is complete and empty it would be great to hide it from view so all you have visible are the uncompleted tasks.

Any idea when and if this feature will be added?

Many thanks.

Prigette

+1 - I would definitely use this feature!

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+1 I would also use this feature

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I would use this feature

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I think this would be a brilliant feature

+1 - this really helps a few different key players view the same information in different ways.

+1 would love to be able to hide columns! Makes the flow more streamlined.

Just looking for this feature now.

Very surprised I can’t just complete the ‘task’ that the column is. And then in the view that shows incomplete tasks only, don’t show it.

Nothing new to develope back end for asana team, and it makes sense.

Another vote for this … would use “hide column” a lot.