Subitems

What Are Subitems?

Subitems will help you break your work into smaller sections or subclassify your database records. Subitems will contain all the same fields as your items in that particular folder, but they will be embedded within the parent item.

This means that you can use subitems to easily divide work on a single item among multiple people, and each subitem can have its own dates (start date, due date, etc.), labels, etc.

How to Create Subitems

You will be able to create subitems in two ways.

If you are in Table or List view, and you hover over the far left side of your item, you will see the six dots symbol which you can use to open the options related to that item. When you click it, you will see that one of the options is ‘Add new subitem’.

If you create subitems via Table view, you will be able to populate their fields right there in the table.

The second way is when you expand any item, at the very bottom of the modal, you will be able to see the option to ‘+Add Subitems’. Once you click there, you will be able to easily add new subitems one below another by giving them a title and hitting Enter.

create-subitems

Subitems created in this way initially won’t have any other fields populated. To edit subitems you will need to click each one and fill out other attributes.

Once you click on a subitem it will open just like a regular item. To go back to the parent item quickly you will be able to click a small arrow icon at the top of your subitem (pictured below).

subitem-back

Viewing and Managing Subitems in Different Views

In different views, subitems will be displayed differently.

In the Table and List view, you will notice the option to ‘Expand All Subitems’ at the top next to ‘Customize’. But if you want to expand only certain subitems you will be able to do so as well.

All items that have subitems will show with a small arrow sign on the left side. Once clicked, the subitems will be displayed. The same arrow sign can be used to collapse subitems anytime.

In the Columns and Calendar view, you will not be able to expand subitems, but you will be able to see an icon that will display which items have subitems and how many.

In the Gantt view, subitems will be displayed by default, provided they have the start dates and end dates that have been set for the Gantt chart. If your Gantt is grouped, moving a parent item from one group/section to another will also move the subitems.

In views where you can see expanded subitems - Table, List, Gantt - you will be able to interact with them just as you would with items. The three dots on them will open options you have on items such as duplicating, making recurring, exporting, etc. - with one additional option ‘Convert subitem to item’.

Another way to convert your subitems to items is by simply drag and dropping a subitem in Table view and List view somewhere between your existing items. Similarly, you can convert an item to a subitem by drag and dropping it in Table view and List view somewhere between your existing subitems.

Filtering Views with Subitems

When filtering your views, you will get to choose whether the filter should apply to subitems as well.

For example, if you filter items with Status ‘To Do’, by default it will display only parent items that have this label. However, if you select ‘Apply to Subitems’, it will also display subitems that have this label, regardless of the label their parent items have.

{primary} NOTE: You will also be able to use subitems in automations with the ‘Subitems updated’ trigger as well as ‘Create a Subitem’ and ‘Convert subitem to item’ actions.

Deleting Subitems

You can delete a subitem from the expanded parent item or directly from the view, as we mentioned above.

If you delete a parent folder, subitems belonging to it will be deleted as well. However, if you wish to restore only certain subitems you will be able to do so from Trash. Once restored, a subitem will be converted to an item.

{primary} NOTE: Subitems don’t count against the total folder item number or board item number. The number you see next to your folders, subfolders and on your boards from the dashboard will still show only the parent items.

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