Say hello to a whole new level of visual work in Businessmap. V13.05 is focused on improvements in the Whiteboards and Canvas: we are adding a fully-featured Table object, bringing true rich text formatting to everything you write on the canvas, and introducing bent arrows that keep your diagrams clean and readable.
And of course, that is not everything. This release also brings comments with @mentions to Documents, a batch of search and filtering improvements, smarter business rules, and a set of smaller refinements you asked for. Here is everything that is new.
What's in this release:
- Table component in Whiteboards and Canvas
- Rich text formatting in Whiteboards and Canvas
- Bent / Elbowed arrows
-
Other Updates
- Comments with mentions in Documents
- Reorder custom field categories
- New search option — only "Other value"
- Search by empty Custom Card ID
- Dynamic dates for the before / after operators
- Filter parent cards whose child cards are blocked
- Filter the users in contributor custom fields
- Already linked cards are marked when you search
- Card picker shows the card title on the card front
- Custom field names in Planning view
- Gherkin as a new code block
- Copy subtasks as unfinished
- Rule type shown in the business rules list
- Planned and actual dates in business rule filters
- Last Comment Date in custom email notifications
- Clearer permissions in Apps settings
Table component in Whiteboards and Canvas
The single most requested addition to our visual workspace is finally here: with the new release you are able to draw a real Table directly on your Whiteboards and Canvas. Pick the Table object from the toolbar and simply drag — as you move your mouse the grid grows with you, so you decide on the spot whether you need a compact 2x2 or a large matrix. Let go, and you have a proper table you can type in straight away. No more faking tables with rows of rectangles, no more jumping to a spreadsheet and pasting a screenshot back onto the board.
Working with the table feels exactly the way you would expect. Adding columns and rows takes one click, either from the table's own context menu or from the quick actions that appear when you hover over it — and the same quick actions let you reorder columns and rows by dragging them into place. Need a different shape? Grab the edge of any row, column or cell and drag to resize it. Cells can be merged into one and split apart again, so headers that span several columns or a summary row at the bottom are no problem at all.
Rich text formatting in Whiteboards and Canvas
Text on your canvas has grown up. Until now, the text styles in the sidebar — text color, font size, typeface and font style — applied to an entire object at once. With V13.05 you are able to select just a word, a sentence or a single line inside the object and style only that part. Make the first line of a note big and bold, turn a key phrase red, italicize a caveat, or switch a single term to a different typeface — all inside the same text box, exactly the way you would in any modern editor.
This works across everything you write on the canvas: text objects, notes, and every shape that holds text — rectangles, triangles, circles and the rest. On top of that we are adding lists to text objects, both bulleted and numbered, so you can finally structure the content of a note properly instead of separating lines with dashes by hand. Agendas, decision logs, acceptance criteria and step-by-step instructions now look clean and scannable at a glance.
Bent / Elbowed arrows
Diagrams on your canvas just got a lot tidier. We are introducing a new arrow type — Bent (Elbowed) — that travels from point A to point B in clean right-angle segments and actively routes itself around the objects it connects, instead of cutting straight across them.
This is the arrow style you know from classic flowcharts, process maps and architecture diagrams, and it makes a real difference the moment your diagram has more than a handful of boxes. It is also the perfect companion to Generate templates with AI, so the diagrams Businessmap builds for you come out looking just as sharp as the ones you draw yourself.
Other Updates
Comments with mentions in Documents
Documents now have a proper comment thread underneath them — the very same one you already know from cards, complete with rich formatting, inline images, links and @mentions. Open any document and you will find the comment panel next to the attachments, with a counter in the header so you can see whether a discussion is going on before you even open it.
Reorder custom field categories
When your custom fields are grouped by category on the card, the categories used to be sorted alphabetically with no way to change that. Now you are able to arrange them in the order that matches your process: a new button in Board Custom Fields Management lets you drag the categories into the sequence you want, and that is exactly how they appear on every card on the board.
New search option — only "Other value"
If you use a dropdown custom field with "Allow other value" enabled, you can now isolate the manually entered values in one step. The search pill for such a field accepts a new "is Other value" option, which returns every card whose field holds something that is not one of your predefined dropdown entries — no more excluding all the predefined values one by one and updating that filter every time the picklist changes.
Search by empty Custom Card ID
You are now able to find the cards that have no Custom Card ID at all. Use the Custom Card ID filter with the "is" operator and leave the value empty to get every card without one, or use "is not" with an empty value to get every card that has one. Please note that filtering with "is not" or "does not contain" against a specific Custom Card ID value now also includes cards with no Custom Card ID in the results — previously those were left out.
Dynamic dates for the before / after operators
Date filters in search and in widgets have been extended: the "before" and "after" operators now accept dynamic values such as today, yesterday or this week, just like the "is" and "is not" operators already did. This is what you need to build a truly self-maintaining dashboard indicator — set it up once and your Data Blocks widget keeps showing the right numbers without anyone touching the date every morning.
Filter parent cards whose child cards are blocked
A new option in the board filter lets you show only the parent cards that have at least one blocked child. It is a quick way to spot the initiatives and parent items that are quietly stuck because something underneath them is not moving. The filter works on the first level of the hierarchy.
Filter the users in contributor custom fields
On boards with a lot of members, a contributor custom field that is only ever meant for a handful of people used to mean scrolling past everyone else. Now, when you configure a contributor custom field, you are able to restrict which users it offers by user attribute — for example only the people whose attribute marks them as QA or as approvers. You can use more than one attribute and choose whether they combine with AND or OR, exactly like the filter you already know from the card picker field. Note that you can only configure the user filter on the global administration level and not per board.
Already linked cards are marked when you search
When you search for a card to link to the one you are working on, the results now show you which of them are already linked — and with what link type. That way you do not create a duplicate link by accident, while still being free to add a second link of a different type when that is what you actually want.
Card picker shows the card title on the card front
A card picker field displayed on the front of a card on the board now shows the title of the referenced card instead of the generic "1 card selected" label, whenever exactly one card is selected. If you do not have permission to see that card, "No permission" is displayed instead, and when two or more cards are selected you still see the "N cards selected" count as before. Titles update live, so renaming the referenced card is reflected right away.
Copy subtasks as unfinished
Business rules that copy subtasks used to carry over the original completed state, which is rarely what you want on a brand-new card. A new configuration option lets you explicitly say that the copied subtasks should arrive unfinished. We have also added tooltips to both the new option and the existing "Remove extra subtasks" setting, so it is clear at a glance what each of them does.
Planned and actual dates in business rule filters
Planned start date, planned end date, actual start date and actual end date are now available in the filters of your business rules, with the same options as every other date field. Among other things, this unlocks recurring update rules driven by your planned dates — a scenario that simply was not possible before.
Custom field names in Planning view
Custom date field names in Planning view are no longer tied to the "Days" zoom level. You decide whether they are displayed, so you can keep them visible while planning across weeks, months or quarters — the level at which long-range planning actually happens — and hide them again whenever the labels get in your way.
Gherkin as a new code block
The rich text editor supports a new code block type: Gherkin. If you write your scenarios in Given / When / Then, your acceptance criteria now get proper syntax highlighting right inside card descriptions, comments and documents.
Rule type shown in the business rules list
The list of business rules now displays the type of trigger next to each rule's name. When you maintain dozens of automations, you can tell at a glance what kind of rule you are looking at without opening it first.
Last Comment Date in custom email notifications
When you build a custom notification in a business rule, you are now able to include Last Comment Date as one of the fields.
Clearer permissions in Apps settings
Opening an app's settings and finding everything greyed out, with no idea who to ask for access, is no longer the experience. A member of an app with a role other than admin can now open the settings and see all the tabs in read-only mode, so the basic details of the app are always visible. Account owners can open the details of any app and review all of its tabs, whether or not they have been added to it — and when an owner is a member with the admin role, they can make changes as well.