Spreadsheet mode allows you to see tasks in a project as columns on the Task screen.  This is a compact and convenient way to manage tasks in your projects.   

It is common to use Spreadsheet mode when bidding, budgeting or planning the early stages of a project, since Spreadsheet mode mimics your Excel spreadsheets that you may have used for bidding or budgeting purposes.

To enter into Spreadsheet Mode, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Projects screen by clicking Projects on the left sidebar.
2. Find the project you wish to work on and click on it to enter the project.
3. Click on Tasks on the left sidebar to enter the Tasks view of the project.
4. Click the Spreadsheet Mode button to turn on Spreadsheet mode on the Tasks screen toolbar.

Task Groups in Spreadsheet mode

A task group is a collection of tasks that you can create and use in Spreadsheet mode on the Tasks screen.  A task group shows the tasks as vertical columns.

The benefits of task groups are:

• Task groups allow you to create a standard set of tasks that you always want to use when you are bidding, budgeting, planning or scheduling projects. 
• Task groups allow you to name each task, color them, order the sequence of tasks and choose the data attribute that you wish to enter when in Spreadsheet mode.
• You can create multiple tasks groups and use them for different types of projects.  For example, one task group for VFX projects, one for Episodic projects, one for Film projects, one for Games projects and one for Animation projects.

Example: A VFX studio bids on VFX projects from clients and always needs to use a standard bidding template so that they can fill in the estimated times required for their various departments (or tasks). This helps them determine the overall project cost and duration.  In Projectal, the VFX studio can create a task group that contains the studio's departments (or tasks) such as Concept, Layout, Rigging, Animation, Effects, Roto, Lighting and Compositing.  They can order them as they wish.  By selecting this task group in Spreadsheet mode, these columns will be listed as columns in the Task screen and bidding producers can simply fill in the required data (such as estimated duration) of each department (or task).  This allows the VFX studio to bid and budget on projects directly within Projectal without the need to have separate bidding Excel spreadsheets.   

You can create as many task groups as you like.  

You can select and assign a preferred task group for a project.

You can edit your tasks groups and adjust them to best fit your projects.