Practical guide
Organize Markdown files with a Kanban board
Turn a folder of notes into a progress board in Balise. Each card opens its corresponding Markdown file on your Mac.
Your project already has notes, plans and tasks in Markdown. A Kanban board gives you a view of their progress without copying each document into another service. In Balise, each card corresponds to a .md file in your workspace.
1. Open the project folder
Open the folder as a Markdown workspace, then create a new Kanban board from the tools menu. The board starts with Backlog, To Do, In Progress and Done columns. Documents without an assigned column appear in the unclassified group, including files in subfolders.
To try it, start with three notes: home-page.md, installation.md and announcement.md. Give each a level-one heading. The card uses that heading as its title, or the filename when no heading is present.
2. Choose your project stages
Rename the columns to match your work, then drag cards to the appropriate stage. You can also move a card through its context menu.
Here is one way to organize the notes after adapting the columns:
| To prepare | In progress | Done |
|---|---|---|
| Launch announcement | Installation check | Home page copy |
Moving a card changes its position on the board, not the document’s Markdown contents.
3. Work from a card
Click a card once to see a read-only preview in the inspector. Double-click it to open the document in a tab for editing while keeping the board open.
Add a priority or due date in the inspector if it helps you choose the next task. Search covers file titles, paths and contents, and works alongside priority and due-date filters.
4. Keep the board with your notes
In a folder named Project, the layout is stored in Project.balisekanban at the workspace root. Keep this file with the notes if you want the columns and their order to be available in another copy of the project. The document text stays in the .md files.
The board does not sync with an external tracking service. Deleting a column returns its cards to the unclassified group without deleting the documents.
To prepare your notes, follow the visual Markdown editing guide. The Kanban chapter of the manual, available in French, also covers filters and copying context from selected cards.