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Blog Post Date: November 25th, 2013 Category: Technology made easy Author: Ulrika Hedlund Source: http://www.businessproductivity.com/ Benefits of the task list in SharePoint 2013

Whenever multiple people are working together on a joint project or initiative you need

some way of effectively communicating what everyone is supposed to do. You also need to

track what everyone has (or has not) done in order to manage the project properly to deliver

on time. I’ve always been a big fan of the task list in SharePoint. In this week’s blog I wanted

to share with you the benefits of the Task list, or the so called “Task App,” in SharePoint

2013.

1.1.1.1. FFFFaster and easieraster and easieraster and easieraster and easier useruseruseruser interfaceinterfaceinterfaceinterface If you’ve worked with task lists in

SharePoint before you’ll be

positively surprised with the new,

clean interface in SharePoint 2013.

The default view when you’ve

created a new task list in SharePoint

2013 is the “Quick Edit” view. Here

you can quickly start adding your

tasks by typing in what looks like a

small Excel grid.

By default this view only contains three columns where you need to enter information

(“Task name”, “Due date” and “Assigned to”). This is so that users will quickly be able to add

tasks. If you would like to show additional columns of information you can click to “Modify”

the view and add more columns. I prefer to have the “Description” and "Start Date” fields

visible in the “Quick Edit” view as well.

When you’ve completed a task you just mark it as complete in the “Completed” check box

and instantly it will be crossed out. You can also easily find tasks by searching for them in

the search field. This is extremely beneficial if you have larger projects with lots of tasks.

2.2.2.2. More flexibility with tasks and More flexibility with tasks and More flexibility with tasks and More flexibility with tasks and subtaskssubtaskssubtaskssubtasks To get a better overview of your tasks it helps to group them into task groups with subtasks

- in SharePoint 2013 this is very easy to do. To create a subtask you can mark the task and

click “Indent” on the “Tasks” menu bar. An even quicker way to do this is by using the

keyboard shortcut “Alt+Shift+Right arrow”. You can see all the available keyboard shortcuts

by clicking the information sign at the bottom of the Task list.

You can drag and drop tasks around to group and sort them to organize the project list.

3.3.3.3. Improved Improved Improved Improved project project project project insight with insight with insight with insight with colors and acolors and acolors and acolors and a graphical timelinegraphical timelinegraphical timelinegraphical timeline When you create a new task list in SharePoint 2013 a graphical timeline will be created at

the top of your task list. The timeline gives you a visual overview of your project. You can

add desired milestones or important project tasks to give viewers a quick, visual overview of

your project or initiative. You have a number of formatting capabilities of the timeline, so for

instance you can highlight important tasks or milestones in red and make the text bold to

make it stand out more.

Colors also help you see task status. As soon as a task is overdue, the due date becomes red.

By just glancing at your task list you can quickly see which tasks have passed their due

date.

4.4.4.4. QuQuQuQuicker project oicker project oicker project oicker project overview with a new verview with a new verview with a new verview with a new ““““Project SummaryProject SummaryProject SummaryProject Summary”””” web partweb partweb partweb part If you create a new team site in SharePoint 2013, the “Get started” web part provides you

with a number of different options to get started with your site. If you click “Working on a

deadline?” a task list with a timeline and a calendar with your tasks will be created for you.

In addition, a “Project Summary” web part will be added to the top of your team site.

The Project Summary Web part gives you a great overview of your projects at a glance,

without even going to the task list. When the task list is populated with tasks you will see a

summary of late and upcoming tasks in the Project Summary Web part. You can quickly go

to your task list by clicking “Edit list” or “Add task” in the top right corner of the web part.

5.5.5.5. EnhancedEnhancedEnhancedEnhanced accessibility with accessibility with accessibility with accessibility with a a a a mobilemobilemobilemobile view of theview of theview of theview of the task listtask listtask listtask list In order to always stay on top of your project and to see late and

upcoming tasks you can access the task list from your mobile. The

mobile web browser view is easy to navigate and you can quickly

mark items as complete.

To find the link to the mobile version of your task list, go to “List

Settings” and scroll down to “View”. Click on “All Tasks” and at the

bottom of the page you will find the link to the mobile web version

of your task list. To easily access it you can just copy it and email it

to the people on the project. When they open up the link (after

signing in) they will see a clean, simple overview of the tasks in your

task list.

Be aware of changes in the Outlook integrationBe aware of changes in the Outlook integrationBe aware of changes in the Outlook integrationBe aware of changes in the Outlook integration Overall the changes to the task list in SharePoint 2013 are extremely positive. However,

there is a change that you must be aware of when it comes to Outlook integration. Just like

before you can connect (synchronize) your SharePoint task list to Outlook. In previous

versions of SharePoint/Outlook you would be able to see all tasks in the task list – no

matter who they were assigned to. When you synchronize a SharePoint 2013 task list to

Outlook 2013 you will only see your own tasks. Even though it’s very useful to have all your own tasks (from various task lists) summarized in Outlook (and your mobile), you might

also want to see tasks that have been assigned to others. So, just be aware that in order to

access the full task list you have to open up the SharePoint task list. (To learn more about

the technical changes see “Syncing of task lists in Microsoft SharePoint Server 2013”).