The Tasks screen is where you can add, edit, duplicate, delete, move, indent, outdent, import and export tasks in Projectal.

Each project has its own Tasks screen.

You can customize the Tasks screen to show specific data attributes and colors.

Tasks screen toolbar

The Tasks screen toolbar has the following buttons:

• Add Task - to add a new summary task, task or milestone
• Edit Task - to edit a selected task and display the Edit Task screen
• Delete Task - to delete the selected tasks
• Outdent Task - to change the parent of the selected tasks to the next higher level summary task
• Indent Task - to change the parent of the selected tasks to the next lower level summary task
• Copy - to copy the selected tasks into the clipboard
• Paste - to paste the copied tasks from the clipboard to the selected location in the project
• Insert Task Template - to insert a task template at the selected location in the project
• Save As Task Template - to save the select tasks as a new task template
• Import Document - to import a spreadsheet (XLSX, XLS, ODS, CSV) or PDF document and add tasks at the selected location in the project
• Export Document - to export the list of tasks in the project to an Excel XLS spreadsheet file on your local computer
• Project Schedule Mode - to set toggle the project's Schedule Mode from Auto Scheduled to Manually Scheduled
• Manual Schedule Task - to set the Schedule Mode of the selected tasks to Manually Scheduled
• Auto Schedule Task - to set the Schedule Mode of the selected tasks to Auto Scheduled
• Schedule Project Now - to perform auto scheduling on the project
• Auto Assign Staff - to display the Auto Assign Staff screen so that you can assign actual staff of generic staff to the project or selected tasks
• Collapse Tasks - to zoom out of the project so that you see only higher level summary tasks, tasks and milestones
• Expand Tasks - to zoom into the project so that you see lower level summary tasks, tasks and milestones
• Search Tasks - search for tasks containing a search term
• Filter Tasks - add filters to find the tasks you need to see
• Color By - to color the list of tasks by the designated color of a selected data attribute
• Tree Task List - view tasks with their parent hierarchy
  
• Flat Task List - view tasks in a flat list with no parent hierarchy
• Spreadsheet Mode - to enter Spreadsheet mode and see tasks displayed in a more compact way

Customizing the columns of data to display

To choose which columns of data that you wish to display, click on the Options menu in a column header.  This will display a list of all the data attributes that you can display in the Tasks screen.

You can reorder the columns by clicking on a column header and dragging it to the position that you want.

You can resize the width of a column by moving your mouse to the left or right edge of a column header.  You will see a resize cursor appear.  Click and drag the column to the width that you desire.

You can sort the list of tasks by the data attribute by clicking on the corresponding column header.  This will display a small arrow next to the column label to indicate sorting is ascending, descending or no sorting.

Editing Tasks

Double-click on a cell to edit a value for a task.

Select a cell and copy (Ctrl+C) and paste (Ctrl+V) the values into another cell. 

Select a cell and drag the right side corner of the cell to fill down  the value into other cells.

Select a cell and press the DEL key to delete the value from the cell.

Filtering Tasks

If you wish to reduce the list of tasks so you can see only specific tasks you are interested in, then you can search for tasks using the Search Tasks menu on the Tasks screen toolbar.

Enter a search term and the list of tasks will be reduced to those tasks that match the search term.  Projectal searches for your search term in the tasks' name, ID, description tags, notes, assigned staff and assigned resources.

You can comma (,) separate search terms and Projectal will find all tasks that either search term.

Example: To list only the Animation tasks and Effects tasks, you could search for "animation, effects".  All tasks that have either "animation" or "effects" will be listed.

You can use the plus sign (+) to force inclusive searches so that all terms must be in a task to be listed.

Example: To list all Animation tasks assigned to John, you could search for "Animation+John". All tasks that have both "animation" and "john" will be listed.

Coloring Tasks

By default, the Tasks screen does apply any coloring to the tasks listed in the Tasks screen.

Using the Color By menu on the Tasks screen toolbar, you can color the list of tasks by specific data attributes.  This helps you easily identify tasks by their color.

The following colors can be set:

• None - no coloring is applied
• Task - color tasks by the color set for each task
• Stage - color tasks by the current stage of each task (e.g. yellow = Ready, blue = In Progress, green = Completed)
• Skill - color tasks by the skills required to complete each task (e.g. orange = Animation, purple = Effects, Cyan = Compositing)
• Assigned Staff - color tasks by the staff assigned to each tasks (e.g. pink = staff from Animation dept., brown = staff from Lighting dept.)
• Assigned Resource - color tasks by the resources required to complete each task (e.g. red  = camera, blue = screen, teal = lights) 
• Rebate - color tasks by the rebates applied to each task (e.g. green = Vancouver, yellow = Montreal, brown = London)
• File - color tasks the files attached to each task (e.g. blue = client files, pink = review files, purple = signed off files)

Expanding or Collapsing Task Lists

Your list of tasks on the Task screen may contain many levels of tasks so that you can categorize and organize your tasks into groups of subtasks.  You organize your tasks into groups using summary tasks.

You can expand or collapse your summary tasks using two methods:

• Individually.  To expand or collapse a summary task, click on the arrow icon on the left of the summary task name in the Tasks column to expand or collapse a single summary task.
• All tasks.  To expand or collapse all summary tasks, click the Collapse Tasks or Expand Tasks buttons on the Tasks screen toolbar.

Saving & Recalling Task Views

If you create a view of the Tasks screen that you like, then you can save it so that you can recall it at any time.  This lets you have a set of different views of the Tasks screen for getting different views on your projects.

Example: You may want to have a view so you can see just all the high level summary tasks and their financials such as Fixed Costs, Estimated Costs and Actual Costs in gross and net forms.  Or you may want to have a view of of all tasks with their current progress, current stage, assigned staff and ETC so you can track the project.  Or, you may want a view of all tasks colored by their skill or assigned staff so you can quickly see what departments are required.

After you have configured the Tasks screen as you like, click the Save As Task View menu item to save the view.  You will be prompted to provide a name for the view.  For example, "Task Financials".  The view will be saved and listed on the Task View popup menu.

If you wish to make changes to an existing view, then configure the Tasks screen as you wish and then click the Update Task View button next to the view in the Task View popup menu.  You will be prompted to optionally change the name of the task view and then the view will be updated with the new configuration.

If you wish to delete a task view, click the Delete Task View button next to the task view in the Task View popup menu.

By default, a saved task view can only be viewed and edited by the user that created it.  You can also share your task views with other users.  This is handy when working in teams or when a company wishes to standardize on a set of views.  To share a task view, click the Share Task View button next to the task view.  This will display the Share View screen.  To allow all users to use the task view, click the Public radio button.  To share the task view with a limited set of users, click the Private radio button and click the Members button to select the users that you wish to share the task view with.  By default, only you can edit your task view to make changes.  If you wish to allow other users to edit the task view, click the Members button next to Editing Permissions to select the other users that can edit the task view.

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