Company I work for has successfully integrated Jira in our work process and through adoption faze I collected some tips for my colleagues and created a small presentation. Here are most useful ones.
Keyboard shortcuts
Jira support some keyboard shortcuts, even though it's a web app. Using shortcut for save makes you a lot faster.
Here are some most useful list of shortcuts that work in Firefox.
- dashboard = Shift + Alt + H
- create = Shift + Alt + C
- submit = Shift + Alt + S
- quick search = Shift + Alt + Q
- comment = Shift + Alt + M
- find = Shift + Alt + F
For Internet explorer use Alt + <key>. There is a list of shortcuts in Jira documentation.
More keyboard shortcuts
Using some utils like AutoHotKey, WinKey you can create keyboard shortcuts that will work from every program.
Having a shortcut for "Create Issue" is super useful.
Often overlooked features and settings
Return to search - When doing a search, then opening a issue, there is a nice little shortcut in the upper right corner that gets you back to search results.
History - Popup window with recently visited issues. You'll find it even higher on the right, right next to account name. Only visible after you open first issue after logging in.
Filter - Popup window with saved filters. Next to history in upper right corner.
Personal settings
There are two useful configuration settings that every user has/can set for himself. You can find them if you click on the "Profile" link in the upper corner, than search for Edit Preferences in the menu on the left.
First there is Number of Issues displayed per Issue Navigator page settings that specifies the number of results on a page when you are browsing filters or doing a search. Default is too low for my taste.
Then there Email me when I make changes that will save everyone's inbox. When this is setting is turned off, user will not receive the email when making changes (editing, resolving, commenting,...) a task. You'll probably want to turn this of.
Faster assigning security groups to users
Assign security groups to a user has a slightly confusing user interface. There are two lists (available and assigned groups) and there are two buttons that move groups between the lists.
Sometimes you would like to add user to some groups and take him/her from some other groups. From the top of the head I though that I first need to select groups I want user assigned to, press the Join button, than select those groups I want to remove and press Leave button.
Turns out that you can select group in Available Groups and select groups in Groups and press any button and you have same result in one step!
Issue and comments by email
You can setup Jira to watch a POP3 account and create and manage tasks if you send email to that account. I'm not sure just how useful this is, but it's cool enough to squeeze in this list. I have never tried it, though.
There are instructions in the docs on how to set it up.