Working with Stories

Stories are the standard unit of work in Shortcut. Stories are where collaboration and documentation for the said unit of work happen.

There are several options at your disposal to take action with stories. These actions allow you to work with stories to increase collaboration, organization, and visibility of the work that matters to your team. Stories can be shared, archived, and even edited in bulk. We'll go over these actions below.

By default, all Stories have unique IDs. These IDs allow you to link to specific Stories using URLs.

You can send URLs to specific stories by grabbing the permanent link in the upper right-hand corner of the expanded story, or by copying and pasting the URL from the address bar of your browser.

In addition to URLs, the story dialog also supports linking to individual stories using

sc-XXXXX or #XXXXX.
Editing a story is as simple as clicking on the content or metadata field you wish to change - Story changes are automatically saved. This section, however, will focus on the process to edit multiple Stories in bulk.

You can start the process of bulk editing Stories in 2 ways:

1. Go to the Stories Page and hover over the Story card you want to edit and click on the checkbox that appears in the upper right corner. Select as many Stories as you want individually or Select an entire column.
An Edit # Stories button will appear in the upper left corner (next to the Shortcut icon):

OR

2. Navigate to a specific entity in Shortcut - an Epic, Label, Iteration, or Project (if applicable) - and select Stories from the Table view.

For example, if you wish to bulk edit all of the stories with a particular Label, you'd navigate to that Label's page, and select multiple (or all) stories via the check box in the left-hand corner of the table. Regardless of which section you're in, the Stories table view is the same across Shortcut:

After selecting the stories you wish via either of the 2 aforementioned ways, you will now be prompted to change their details. Make your new selection(s), and click Update # Stories:

Once updated, a confirmation will appear in the lower right-hand corner of the UI.

A maximum of 500 Stories can be bulk edited at a time. Updating a large number of Stories at once may take some time.
You can navigate through Stories in Shortcut using the Next and Previous arrows.

Please note that the Next/Previous Navigation works in slightly different ways on different pages:

On the Stories page: when you open a Story, the arrows will toggle you up and down the currently visible Stories in the corresponding Workflow State column.

To keep the UI fast, Shortcut only loads the first 30 stories of each Workflow State on the Stories page at a time. If you have more than 30 Stories in the State column, arrow navigation will take you up until the 30th Story unless you scroll down the state to load the rest.

On the Epic and Iteration page: the arrows will move you up and down all the Stories in that Epic or Iteration.

On your Dashboard: the arrows will take you through the current Stories you Own.
If you want to copy the information in an existing Story into a new Story, click on the Story Actions menu (found in the ellipsis menu in the upper right of the Story dialogue) and then select Duplicate Story.

A new Story draft will open with copied fields and Tasks, but not files or comments. You can make edits as needed and then press Save Story.
If you would like to convert the Story to an Epic, click on the Story Actions menu (found in the ellipsis menu in the upper right of the Story dialogue) and then select Convert Story to Epic.

A prompt will open stating "This Story will be converted to an Epic and then archived. You will be able to find the original Story in a comment on the Epic."

Once confirmed, the Story will be Archived and you will be redirected to the new Epic.
- Any Tasks associated with the Story Card will become Stories in the Epic created.
  - Any Task Owners assigned will become the respective Story Owners.
  - If no Task Owner is assigned, no Story Owner is assigned.
- Metadata transfer:
  - The Workflow and Project on the Story become the Workflow and Project on the Stories converted from Tasks.
  - The Team on the Story becomes the Team on the Epic.
  - The Story Owner becomes the Epic Owner.
  - Story Labels become Epic Labels.
  - Followers on Story become followers on the Epic.
  - Comments from Story will not transfer to Epic
  - The User who converts Story to Epic becomes the Epic Requestor.
    - - Epic Requestor also becomes the Requestor for the Stories created
Archiving in Shortcut can be used to archive uncompleted or duplicate Stories, and you can archive Stories one at a time or in bulk.
Archived Stories will be excluded from all Reports and charts, as well as from the Stories page.
- Archiving a Single Story
  - To archive just one Story, click on the ellipsis icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Story card and select Archive Story.
    
    Your Story will be instantly sent to the archives. Once your Story is archived, only then can it be permanently deleted via the red "Delete" button that will appear on the Story.
    
    Archived Stories can be accessed using their individual permalink or by searching in the Search Stories input field.
- Unarchiving a Single Story
  - To unarchive a story, simply click the Unarchive button shown in the banner at the top of the story.
- Archiving or Unarchiving Multiple Stories
  - First, select the Story cards you want to archive and click on the checkbox that appears in the upper right corner of each Story card. Select as many Stories as you want.
  - Next, click on the "Edit # Stories" button in the upper left (next to the Shortcut icon) to open the Bulk Edit modal:
  - click on the Archived metadata field under Followers and above the Custom Fields
    
    Select Yes.
    
    Click Update # stories.
    
    Your Stories will be sent to the archives, and you'll see a green success message in the bottom right of Shortcut.
To delete a single Story follow the steps below:
1. Open the Story modal, click on the ellipsis icon in the upper right-hand corner of the Story card, and select Archive Story.
2. Once the Story is Archived, the Story will present a button giving you the option to Delete it.
Once a Story is archived it will no longer show on the Stories page. To find the Story, you can use the Search box at the top of the UI.
- To Bulk Archive & Delete Active Stories:
  - On the Stories page, select the Story cards you want to Delete by clicking on the checkbox that appears in the upper right corner.
    - Select as many Stories as you want.
  - Next, click on the "Edit # Stories" button in the upper left (next to the Shortcut icon) to open the Bulk Edit modal:
  - When on the Bulk Edit Story modal, click on the More Options menu in the lower right corner of the drop-down menu, and select "Archive & delete # Stories":
  - You will be prompted to archive the Stories first. Click Archive # stories.
  - Once Stories are archived (or if they already were), you will be prompted to delete Stories. Click Delete # Stories.
  - You'll again be prompted by a browser dialogue for a final confirmation that you want the Stories to be deleted. Click Ok if you wish to proceed.
- To Bulk Delete Archived Stories:
  - The Delete Multiple Stories modal will show and when ready, click Delete # Stories.
  - You'll again be prompted by a browser dialogue for a final confirmation that you want the Stories to be deleted. Click Ok if you wish to proceed.