Use templates to add and update work items in Azure Boards and Visual Studio

Templates captured through the web portal are assigned a GUID.

1. From the web portal, open a work item that you'll use as the basis for a template.

   Within the web portal, work item templates are associated with a team. Only those templates that are defined for a team are accessible when you go to apply a template to work items using the web portal.

2. Choose the actions icon to open the menu. Choose Templates and then Capture.

   

   Name the template and optionally define or clear fields. Save the template when finished. The template is saved under the team you selected in the first step.

   

3. Once you've saved the template, choose Copy link to capture the URL for the template that you can use to add work items using the template.

4. Use the URL whenever you want to add a work item of the type you've defined with its predefined values.

   You can save the URL as a text file or add the URL to a dashboard or web page as a hyperlink.

If you primarily work in Visual Studio or Team Explorer, and want to create work items from templates that you access from the Work Items page, you can create work item template files (extension .wt).

1. If you haven't yet installed Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2015 Power Tools, do that now. You need this software installed to access the Work Item Templates power tool for Visual Studio.

2. Open or run a query that lists the work item whose fields you want to capture.

3. Right-click the work item of the type and whose fields you want to capture, and select Capture Template from the context menu.

   

4. In the dialog, use the checkboxes to select all the fields you want to save in the template. Then, add a name and (optionally) description to the template.

   

5. Save the template and it will appear in the root of the Team Explorer pane under the Templates section.

You manage templates from team settings. All templates are defined for a team. If you're not a team administrator, get added as one. Only team or project administrators can change work item templates.

1. From the web portal, open settings for a team.

   Choose the gear icon to open the settings for a team.

   Here we open the admin page for the Web team.

   

2. Choose Work>Templates.

   

   From here, you can select any work item type to view or add templates for that type.

Manage templates for a work item type

• Choose the work item type to view the templates defined for each type. For example, choose User Story to view templates defined to capture user stories.

  

Create a work item template

1. From the work item type page, choose the New template to create a template from scratch.

   

2. Name the template and optionally add and remove fields. Save the template when finished.

   Once you've saved the template, select Copy link to capture the URL for the template that you can use to add work items using the template.

Edit, rename, or copy a link to a template

1. From the work item type page, choose the actions icon for an existing template to access the menu options to Edit, Delete, or Copy link.

   

2. To rename a template, choose to edit the template, change the name, and then save your changes.

Create a copy of a template

1. To duplicate an existing template, choose the actions icon for an existing template and select the Create copy option.

   

2. Name the template and optionally add and remove fields. Save the template when finished.

Delete a template

1. From the web portal, open Project Settings>Team configuration>Templates.

2. Choose the actions icon to open the menu, and choose Delete.

   

3. Choose Delete from the Delete template confirmation dialog that displays.

   

   As indicated in the confirmation dialog, you can't recover a template once it's deleted.

With Visual Studio with power tools installed, you can view the list of templates defined for each work item type, and also add, edit, copy, delete, and copy the link of a template. These templates are only available to you. To share them with others, you can copy the template URL and share that, or save the template as a .wt file.

• You manage templates from the Team Explorer pane.

  

  The root Templates node represents the parent of all of your templates. You may create a directory structure underneath it by adding folders. Right-click on the Templates node or a folder and select New Folder from the context menu.

• You can cut, copy, paste, rename, and delete templates and folders using the context menu. You may also drag and drop templates into folders. To edit multiple templates, use shift-click to select a range or ctrl-click to add individual templates to your selection, then right-click.

Define a template

1. From the Templates section, right-click Templates and choose to create a template from scratch.

   

2. Save the template, provide a Name in the dialog provided.

   

   Once you've saved the template, select Copy link to capture the URL for the template that you can use to add work items using the template.

Edit, use, copy, or delete a template

• To edit, delete, or complete another action on a template, open its context menu (right-click) and choose the option you want.

  

• To make frequently used templates more accessible, you can set a default template for each work item type. To do so, right-click on a template in Team Explorer and select Set As Default. A checkmark will appear on the icon to indicate that it's now the default.

Set your template directory

• To change the directory where templates are stored, select the Configure link, or navigate to it via Tools>Options>Microsoft Team Foundation Server>Work Item Templates. Use this dialog to set your template store path. Place your templates in a network location to share them with your team.

1. Choose the gear icon to open the settings for a team.

   

2. Choose the Work>Templates tab. Then, choose the actions icon for the template you want to copy and select Copy link.

   

   You can save the URL as a text file or add the URL to a web page as a hyperlink.

1. You can copy the link to a template, which will open in the web portal, by opening the context menu for the template.

   

2. Paste the copied link into a web browser to check that it works as expected.

Apply a template within a work item

1. Open the work item that you want to update using the fields defined within a template, choose the actions icon to open the menu, select Templates, and then select the name of a predefined template.

   

   Tip

   Refresh your browser to discover the latest templates that have been added. If you don't see any templates, it may be that there are none defined for the work item type.

2. Save the work item for the changes to be applied. The fields changed are noted in the History field.

Apply a template to several work items

1. To bulk update several work items, first select them from the backlog or a query results list, and then open the actions menu for one of them. All work items you select must be of the same work item type. For example, all user stories or all bugs.

2. Choose the template to apply.

   

3. Field changes are automatically applied and work items saved. To learn more about bulk updates, see Bulk modify work items.

1. Open or run a query that lists the work item(s) whose fields you want to capture.

2. Right-click the work items—which must be of the same type—and choose Apply Template from the context menu.

   

3. Select the template to use and select OK.

   

4. Save the work item.