Arranging Issues

Once you've added issues to your structure, they appear in a single-level list. By moving issues around the Structure board, you can create complex hierarchies to organize your projects.

Issues can be moved in any of these ways:

  • With the mouse
  • Using the Structure toolbar
  • Using keyboard shortcuts (Press Ctrl+? for a complete list)
  • Via cut/copy and paste

Using the Mouse

To move an issue with the mouse, use the drag bar on the left side of the issue row. Press and hold the bar, then drag the issue to its new location.

You can move an issue up or down in the list, or move it right or left to adjust its position in the hierarchy. In the example below, we are moving the issue Small Bug to the right, so it will become a child of Task 2.

As we continue to move items, we can arrange them into more complex hierarchies. For example, we've placed issues beneath their corresponding epics, tasks under corresponding issues, and bugs under tasks:

This is a very simple example, but you can create structures as simple or complex as necessary, using as many levels as you need.

Using the Toolbar

You can also move issues using the toolbar. Simply select the issue by clicking anywhere in the issue's row (except on a link, which will take you to the Issue Details page) or using up/down on your keyboard. The selected row will be highlighted. Now you can use the toolbar to move issues up, down, left or right.

You can move items in the following ways:

  • Up - Moves issue up a row
  • Down - Moves issue down a row
  • Left - Moves issue to a higher level within the hierarchy
  • Right - Moves issue to a lower level in the hierarchy, making it a child of the issue above it in the structure

Cut/Copy and Paste

You can also move items using Cut, Copy and Paste. This is particularly useful when moving an item across a large structure.

First, select the issue by clicking anywhere in the issue's row or using up/down on your keyboard. The selected row will be highlighted.

  • To move the item, click the Cut button in the toolbar. Then highlight the new location you want the item and click the Paste button. The original item will be placed in the row below the selected item.
  • To create a copy of an item, click the Copy button. Then highlight the location you want the copy placed and click Paste. The copy will be placed beneath the highlighted item.
You can include multiple copies of an issue within a structure. The issue will still only exist once in Jira, but it can appear in multiple locations throughout your structure. This can be useful if, for example, a single task affects multiple stories.

Selecting Multiple Issues

To move more than one item at a time, click the small circles at the far left of each item's row. (Hint: The circle is only visible when the item is selected or when you hover over the item with your mouse.)

Once you've selected your items, you can cut/copy and paste them using the toolbar, or you can drag them to a new location using any selected item's drag bar.

You can scroll through selected items using the up/down arrows on the selection panel, or use the Filter button to hide all non-selected issues. To close the selection panel, click the x button on the right.

Expand/Collapse

Once you've built your custom hierarchy, you can use the Expand and Collapse buttons to view just your top level issues or the entire hierarchy.

Press the Expand button to view the entire hierarchy:

Press the Contract button to view just your top-level issues:

Next Steps

Next we'll look at how to edit issues from within a structure.

Editing Issues