Building a Structure Manually

Building a structure manually requires more work and maintenance than any of the other methods we’ve mentioned so far, but there are some situations where it might be the preferred method:

• You want complete control over the issues you include and where they appear in the structure hierarchy

• You want to visualize relationships that may not exist in Jira

• You’re still in the planning phase and don’t want your actions to affect Jira

When you manually add items to a structure, their position is stored within the Structure app, so you can move things anywhere you like without affecting the issues in Jira. On the other hand, changes made in Jira will not affect the structure – it will be up to you to keep the structure up to date.

Adding Issues to a Structure Manually

You have a couple of options for filling your structure - you can create new Jira issues directly from Structure or add existing Jira issues to your structure. For the purpose of this guide, we're going to assume you already have issues you want to work with. So let's open the Add menu and select Search and Add.

Open

To add issues:

1. Choose a JQL or Text search

2. Enter your search query

3. Select the issues you want to include and click Add selected, or select Add all

Organizing Issues

Issues can be moved in any of these ways:

• With the mouse

• Using the Structure toolbar

• Using keyboard shortcuts (Press Ctrl+? for a complete list)

• Via cut/copy and paste

Using the Mouse

To move an issue with the mouse, use the drag bar on the left side of the issue row. Press and hold the bar, then drag the issue to its new location.

Open

You can move an issue up or down in the list, or move it right or left to create a custom hierarchy.

This is a very simple example, but you can create structures as simple or complex as necessary, using as many levels of hierarchy as you need.

Using the Toolbar

You can also move issues using the toolbar. Simply select the issue by clicking anywhere in the issue's row (except on a link, which will take you to the Issue Details page) or using up/down on your keyboard. The selected row will be highlighted. Now you can use the toolbar to move issues up, down, left or right.

Cut/Copy and Paste

You can also move items using Cut, Copy and Paste. This is particularly useful when moving an item across a large structure.

First, select the issue by clicking anywhere in the issue's row or using up/down on your keyboard. The selected row will be highlighted.

To move the item:

1. Click the Cut button in the toolbar

2. Highlight the new location where you want the item

3. Click the Paste button

The original item will be placed in the row below the selected item.

To create a copy of an item:

1. Click the Copy button

2. Highlight the location where you want the copy placed

3. Click Paste

The copy will be placed beneath the highlighted item.

Selecting Multiple Issues

To move more than one item at a time, click the small circles at the far left of each item's row. (Hint: The circle is only visible when the item is selected or when you hover over the item with your mouse.)

Once you've selected your items, you can cut/copy and paste them using the toolbar, or you can drag them to a new location using any selected item's drag bar.

You can scroll through selected items using the up/down arrows on the selection panel, or use the Filter button to hide all non-selected issues. To close the selection panel, click the x button on the right.

Flex Items

Flex Items are special items in Structure that can be used to group issues, draft future Jira issues, add notes within your hierarchy, and more.

You can use Flex Items to:

• Add "folders" to organize issues into groups

• Plan projects - see Planning with Flex Items

• Create placeholders for future issues

• Add a note to the structure

• And more!

To learn more about working with Flex Items, see Flex Items.

Next Steps

Next, we'll look at how to visualize your data within a structure.

Working with Columns