Bulk actions: select multiple items and update them at once

Sometimes one item at a time is not enough. You are closing out a sprint and want to complete a whole batch of todos, or you are tidying a backlog and ten projects need to move to another role. Wherever Nestr shows you a list, you can select multiple items and act on all of them in one go.

Selecting multiple items

Selection works just like it does in your file manager:

• Click an item to open it, as always. The clicked item also becomes the start of a selection.
• Cmd + click (Mac) or Ctrl + click (Windows and Linux) adds an item to the selection or removes it again, without opening anything.
• Shift + click selects the whole range between your last click and the item you click now. Ranges run straight across group headers and expanded children, so what you see is what you select.

Selected rows are highlighted, and a pill at the top of the view keeps count. To start over, press Esc or click the ✕ in the pill. The selection also clears when you switch to another list or tab, change your search or filters, or complete a bulk action.

Multi-select is available in list views and in search results, including search tabs on your lists. Boards, the calendar and the mind map do not support it yet. To learn how to shape your lists in the first place, see Customising views.

The With selected menu

As soon as more than one item is selected, the pill shows With selected. Open it to act on the whole selection:

Delete

Removes all selected items. The confirmation shows exactly what will happen, including how many nested items the selection contains, so there are no surprises. After deleting, a message appears with a single Undo that brings everything back. More on recovering items in Recovering deleted items.

Move

Asks you where the items should go, using the same destination picker you know from moving a single item. All selected items move to the destination you pick. Items that cannot make that move, for example because they would end up inside themselves, are skipped and listed in the confirmation.

Complete and Uncomplete

Complete finishes every selected item that can be completed and is still open. Uncomplete reopens the completed ones. The two entries only appear when they apply to your selection, so the menu stays clean.

Export

Downloads just the selected items, so you can hand-pick exactly what ends up in your spreadsheet. For what an export contains and the other ways to get data out of Nestr, see Exporting and backing up your Nestr data.

Your rights still apply

A bulk action is never a way around permissions. Before anything runs, Nestr checks every selected item against your rights. Items you cannot change are skipped, and the confirmation lists each one with the reason, for example "no rights" or "not completable". If nothing in the selection is eligible, Nestr simply tells you so. Read more in Rights management.

Drag them all at once

A selection is not only for the menu. Grab any selected row and you drag the whole selection with it. The drag ghost shows a badge with the number of items you are holding. Use it to:

• Reorder: drop the items in a new spot in the list. They keep their relative order.
• Reparent: drop them on another item to move them all under it.
• Update in one move: drop them on a group or column, such as an assignee column or a label group, and every item takes on that assignee or label.

Items you are not allowed to update are skipped with a short message. Dragging a row that is not part of the selection moves just that row, exactly as before.

Bulk actions love search

Search is where bulk actions shine. Use Nestr search to gather items from across your circles, then select and act. For example, search label:bug, select the results with a shift click, and move them into your new triage project in one action. Search shows up to 100 results, so that is the most a bulk action there will touch at once.

Good to know

• The selection lives in one list at a time. Selecting in a different list starts fresh there.
• Bulk delete is the straightforward delete flow. The single item delete options, like moving an item's contents elsewhere first, remain available from the item's own context menu.
• Multi-select is currently for desktop browsers.

That is all there is to it. Select, then act. Your projects and todos have never been tidied up this fast.