Metro Retro Help
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    • ๐ŸŽจCustomizing Your Board
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    • โฐHow to set the timer
    • ๐Ÿ˜ŽHide & Show Sticky Notes
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On this page
  • Mode Switching
  • Sticky Notes
  • Index Cards
  • Task Cards
  • Roadmap Cards
  • Images
  • Tokens
  • Connectors / Arrows
  • Reaction Tool
  • Marker Pen
  • Shapes
  • Text Tool
  • Gadgets
  • Zone Tool
  • Frames
  • Gestures
  • Insert
  • Comments
  • Topics (Meeting Mode Only)
  • Voting (Meeting Mode Only)

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  1. Boards

The Toolbar

Everything you need to create and run a productive, interactive and fun meeting

PreviousDesign & Meeting ModeNextCustomizing Your Board

Last updated 7 days ago

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Tool Categories

There are two main categories for tools:

  • Board editing tools like shapes, text tools, and zones

  • Collaboration tools like sticky notes, topics and voting

The tools available are determined by which Mode you are in () and, if you are a participant, what the meeting host has made available to you.

Tool details are in order as they appear in the app UI. Meeting Mode specific tools are at the bottom of the page.

Mode Switching

Only available to the Host and allows you to switch between Design Mode and Meeting mode. Also available during an active meeting, where only the host will change mode.

For Host specific controls, read our guide.

Sticky notes are the main object you'll use in Metro Retro. Double-click anywhere on the board to create a sticky note, or use the toolbar to pick the color first. Note - on some templates, the color of a sticky note can be overridden by a zone's color settings.

Sticky note facts:

  • There are two sizes of sticky note: regular and large. To change the size of a sticky note, drag from the right-hand edge.

  • Each sticky is associated with its creator - hover over a sticky note to see who made it. (Use Anonymous mode to not track who wrote each sticky note).

  • Each person has a different handwriting style when writing sticky notes. Change your handwriting style in your Preferences.

  • When in Meeting mode, each person can hide and reveal their sticky notes as they wish.

  • You can write, vote, add reactions, draw on, and group sticky notes.

Sticky note options:

With a sticky note selected you are able to:

  • Set the sticky note colour (if not defined by zone)

  • Add a connector

  • Add a comment

  • Tag the sticky note

  • Access additional options via the 3-dot menu

These are just like real-life Index cards. Use these to write more text than you can fit on a sticky note. You can also stamp reactions, draw, and vote on Index cards.

  • Private writing works with Index cards - you can hide and reveal anything you're writing while the board is in Meeting mode.

  • Index cards can be expanded - drag from the bottom of the card to make it longer.

Task Cards are cards that you can write in, with separate title and body fields.

  • Task cards do not have private writing and can't be grouped with the Topic tool.

Select a roadmap card to access additional options:

  • Name

  • External link (for linking to related documents)

  • Tags (used for labelling with things like team name, initiative names, cost, linked OKR, estimate.)

  • Dates (including delayed / earlier dates)

  • Colour

Add images directly on to your boards with drag/drop or copy/paste, or use the image tool to search through a free image library, or add images by their URL.

Once an image has been added to the board, it can be resized and moved.

Tokens look similar to poker chips and can be used in a variety of ways - icebreakers, estimation, team health checks, planning poker, and workshops.

There are pre-made tokens with emojis or your team pictures, as well as blank tokens that can be edited.

Double click a token on the board to edit it. You can also add an emoji to a token on the board, using the reaction tool.

Tip / Scroll to the bottom of the token list or use the 'person' tab to find tokens of your teams Metro Retro profile pictures - Great for personalization in your meetings.

Connectors are arrows that link objects in your board, allowing you to visualise relationships or create simple diagrams.

Connectors can be linked to most objects, including shapes, sticky notes, task cards, index cards, roadmap cards, Jira cards, and tokens.

You can also draw connectors which are not connected to objects anywhere in your board.

Arrow styles

You can pick straight, bendy or angled arrows:

You can add a label to an arrow path, change the connector color, width, line style, start and end points:

Tip / To make multiple connectors quickly, press the R key after placing an arrow to place another. Or use the the "Create Another" option in the arrow options bar:

Reaction emojis can be stamped on almost any object. Pick your reaction and click where you want to place it!

To remove a reaction, right-click on the stamped reaction when you have the reaction tool equipped.

Draw on zones, shapes, sticky notes, and index cards with the marker pen. It draws directly on the object. To erase pen markings, hold right-click and wipe over the markings.

You can add shapes to your board, with a range of styles.

With a shape selected you will have access to editing options:

  • Switch the shape type

  • Border & fill style

  • Colour

  • Corner radius (roundness)

  • Line thickness

  • Container setting

  • Lock

  • 3-dot menu for additional options

Click the canvas to add a text object or click-and-drag to draw out a text area.

The Text box behaviour can also be set with the โ€œToggle Auto Heightโ€ option:

Gadgets make your team sessions more interactive, and dare we say... fun.

Gadgets are added to the board as an object and can be moved around, locked in place, or deleted as needed.

In the gadgets you will find:

  • A music player (Jukebox) - Pick your track and play music to everyone on the board.

  • A Timer - set the time for an exercise.

  • A Spinner - add your choices and hit spin!

  • A Counter - the counter counts up and down.

  • A Buzzer - pick a sound effect, then hit the buzzer to play it!

  • Voter Panel - Place a customisable Voter panel on the board - choose from pre-set voting options with Moods, Number Scales, Team Pictures and more!

Gadgets are only available while in Design Mode, or the Meeting Host can enable the Gadgets tool during Meeting mode.

When the Gadgets tool is enabled, anyone can use it, including Guests.

Gadgets can be locked in place to prevent editing or deletion, but are still interactive while locked.

Zones are the primary object for laying out your board sections.

  • Zones can be any size.

  • Zones have a title, emoji field and border style. Zones can also override the color of sticky notes inside them.

  • Click on the title of a zone to select it.

Frames surround and organize an entire exercise.

They are different to Zones, which are a single section within an exercise.

There are multiple Frame types available, all with unique function and purpose.

Activity Frames

Activity frames are a way to organize different areas of your board.

For example, if you run a workshop with different activities, you can surround each activity with an Activity Frame, and hide the later sections until it is time.

Activity Frames have a sheep icon in their menu bar which you can use to pull ("herd") everyone to the Frame immediately.

Timeline Frame

The Timeline Frame allows you to create a pre-formatted timeline with dates that you can use to plan projects or events.

The Timeline Frame is configurable in the following ways:

  • Header & background colour

  • Choose Start Month and how many months to span

  • Add or remove additional rows - useful for different streams of work

  • Set auto-arrange options for content inside the rows and columns. ! Note - this feature is in Beta and dynamically moves your content around. Use Undo if you want to reset after trying this.

Grid Frame

Grid Frames are layout objects with configurable rows and columns to contain content.

You can use Grid Frames to arrange content in tabular form

Grid Frames can be configured with any number of rows and columns, and have content-arranging options:

Gestures are visual functions that appear above the board but do not affect the content. They are for presenting ideas and interacting with your colleagues. There are four functions in the Gestures menu:

A ping is an arrow you drop on the board to point at something. Click once to drop a single arrow or click-and-drag to highlight over an area.

Off-screen pings are shown at the side of your screen. Click an on active ping to be taken to where it is pointing.

Tip - you can drop a ping on the board at any time by pressing the Tab key. An arrow will appear at your cursor's position.

The vanishing pen lets you draw a temporary annotation on the board. It is useful for drawing attention to items on the board without permanently drawing on them.

There may be imitations, but this is the original. Click and drag to aim, then release to fire confetti. We won't lie, it's kind of addictive.

Pick this option to throw your hat across the board, of course. Similar to the confetti, click and drag to aim, then release to throw the hat.

Tip / in order to throw a hat you must be wearing one, so pick a hat to wear by clicking on your avatar in the top right

Add data from various sources to your board

  • Template: Insert a Metro Retro template to your board.

  • CSV: Import CSV data and convert to stickies or cards.

  • Image file: Import an image to your board.

  • Jira: Pull tickets from Jira directly into your board.

You can attach comments to sticky notes, task cards, index cards and roadmap cards. Simply select the object and use the comment tool.

A comment indicator will appear on the object once a comment has been added.

Use the Topic tool to group similar stickies into organized themes.

To create a topic: Open the Topic tool, choose a color, and click to add to the board. Write the name of the topic inside, and then drag sticky notes toward it. The Topic will automatically group the sticky notes. To ungroup sticky notes, just drag them out of the group.

You can pick up a topic and it will bring any associated stickies with it.

You will only see the topic tool in the toolbar when in Meeting Mode. Use the multi-select flow (explained below) to create and manage topics in Design and Meeting Mode.

Alternative: Group selected stickies under a topic

For a quick grouping of stickies, you can also select two or more sticky notes and use the 'Group Under Topic' option:

Topic options

When you have a topic group, select the topic label to access additional controls:

  • quick-set the colour of all stickies to the topic colour

  • set the topic label as a Tag on the stickies (we have big plans for Tags in the works)

  • tidy up the stickies grouped in the topic

The Voting tool allows you to hold a group vote. You can vote on stickies, topics, index cards, and task cards.

TIP / Sometimes a team member can start a voting round accidentally. If this occurs, it freezes the previous round's votes for everyone. You can remove the accidental voting round by either deleting the voting round from the voting menu in the bottom left, or the person who created it presses the undo button (Ctrl + Z).

Sticky Notes

Index Cards

Task Cards

Roadmap Cards

Roadmap cards are the building block of time-based roadmaps, to be used with the .

Once you have added a to your board, add the roadmap cards to represent your streams of work:

Images

Tokens

Connectors / Arrows

Reaction Tool

Marker Pen

Shapes

Text Tool

Gadgets

Zone Tool

Frames

Gestures

Ping

Vanishing Pen

Confetti

Fire confetti across the board with the confetti cannon!

Throw Hat

Insert

Comments

Topics (Meeting Mode Only)

Voting (Meeting Mode Only)

๐Ÿงฐ
๐ŸŽ‰
Timeline Frame
Timeline Frame
read more here
Host Controls
Board with 3 activities where the retro is hidden
timeline frame with sticky notes
timeline frame - configurable options
Example of a grid used to record steps in a marketing funnel
Auto-arrange content in a variety of ways
Insert Template browser
voting round options
view vote rankings