# Choose the board AnyKanban opens

A team lead who lives on one board and visits the others twice a month should
not arrive at a list, and should not have to trust that the tool remembered
correctly. Mark that board as your default and it opens every time, including
the times you spent yesterday afternoon in somebody else's board.

The choice is **yours alone**. Two people working in the same project can mark
different boards, and neither sees the other's; nothing about it travels in a
shared link, an export or a dashboard widget.

## Before you start

At least one named board in the project. The ad-hoc **Board** tab on a query's
results has no definition behind it, so there is nothing to mark.

## Steps

From the board list:

1. Open **AnyKanban** under **Boards**. If a board opens instead of the list,
   select **Back** in
   the command bar.
2. Select the star at the left of the row. It fills in, and a message confirms
   which board now opens.

From the board itself, which is where you will be once one opens:

1. Select **⋯** (More actions) in the board's command bar.
2. Choose **Set as default**.

## What you should see

The star of the chosen row is filled and accented; every other row's is an
outline. In the board's menu the entry reads **Default board ✓** once it is set.
Leave AnyKanban and come back from the left navigation, or reload while the
board list is showing, and that board opens directly. An address that names a
board works differently: a reload while another board is open, or a bookmark
you saved while on a board, opens the board in that address (see Notes).

## Undo it

Select the filled star again, or choose **Default board ✓** in the board's menu.
You are back to the default behavior: AnyKanban reopens the board you
had open last, and shows the board list when there is nothing to reopen.

## Notes

**A shared link still wins.** A URL carrying `?board=`, whether from
[Copy link](https://anykanban.com/docs/share-and-navigate/link-to-a-board/), a wiki page or a dashboard tile, opens the board
it names, whatever your default is. That is the point of sending someone a link,
and it is true for your own bookmarks too. It opens the board only for people
the board is listed for (see [who sees which boards](https://anykanban.com/docs/share-and-navigate/who-sees-which-boards/)).
Anyone else reads *This board does not exist, or you don't have permission to
read the work it shows.*

**Deleting the board clears the choice**, and a board that disappears for any
other reason (someone else deleted it, you lost access to its project) is not an
error: AnyKanban falls back to the board you used last, and then to the list.
A board that is no longer in your list is passed over the same way, without a
message. That happens when it reads a team whose area paths you may no longer
read, for example after an administrator narrowed the area paths you may
read. Both your default and the
board you used last are checked like this before either opens. Each is
checked against Azure DevOps's answer about that board alone, so it opens as
soon as that answer arrives, without waiting for the answers about other
teams' boards. A board you created, or one in your own **My boards**, opens at
once.

**It is stored in your Azure DevOps**, in the same per-user preferences that
hold your collapsed columns and your Board-or-List choice. Nothing is written to
your device and nothing leaves your organization.

## Related

- [Give a board a link you can put in a wiki page](https://anykanban.com/docs/share-and-navigate/link-to-a-board/)
- [Move between boards without going back to the list](https://anykanban.com/docs/share-and-navigate/switch-between-boards/)
- [Put a board summary on a dashboard](https://anykanban.com/docs/share-and-navigate/put-a-board-on-a-dashboard/)