How to create a task

Every task is made in one dialog, New task, which opens from the Create new button in the menu and from a handful of shortcuts around the app. This page covers that dialog and every way into it. For what a task is for, start at What are tasks?.

Before you start

Creating a task needs the Create tasks row on Settings › Permissions, in the department you put the task in. Members have it by default.

If you are refused, How to work out who can do what in your workspace explains how to work out which right you are short of, and who to ask.

Where do you open it from?

From Create new, the + just below your workspace name at the top of the menu. Choose Task, and the dialog opens over whatever page you are on. On a phone browser, open the menu drawer and use the Create pill instead.

The shortcuts open the same dialog with something already filled in:

• The + on a group header in a list. On a department or project list it fills in the department. On Work › My tasks it fills in a due date to match the group: today for Today, three days out for This week, two weeks out for Later.
• The + on a board column, or Add task at its foot. Both appear when you hover the column, and they fill in that column's status.
• The Create task button on a chat message, covered below.
• A Create task button on an insight in a daily brief. In the Agent panel, open History › Updates and pick a brief under Briefs. See How to read your updates and the daily brief.

Working inside a project, pick that project in the dialog's Project pill too, so the new task lands in it.

What do you have to fill in?

A title and a department. Type the title in the top line (Task title), then pick the department from the Select department pill. Create task stays greyed out until you pick a department, and the dialog asks for a title if you leave it blank.

The department decides who may edit the task afterwards. The Project and Assignee pickers list that department's projects and people, so they stay empty until you choose it.

Changing the department clears the project and assignee you picked. Choose the team first and the rest of the form follows.

What else can you set?

A description under the title (Add description…), then the row of pills beside the department: Status, Project, Cycle, Assignee, Due date and Priority. Status starts at To do unless you opened the dialog from a board column.

The Due date pill opens a calendar where you can also set a time. Leave anything you are unsure of: every pill can be changed later from the task panel, per How to edit a task.

Can you dictate the title or description?

Yes. Click the microphone beside the title (Dictate title) or beside the description (Dictate description) and speak. Each field has its own, so your words always land where you meant.

Dictated words show in lighter italic until you type or click in the field, which is your cue to read them over. The microphones show in browsers with built-in speech recognition, such as Chrome and Safari.

Can you add sub-tasks before the task exists?

Yes. Type into Add a subtask… under Subtasks and press Enter or Add. Each one becomes a chip you can remove with its X.

When you press Create task, the task is made first and the sub-tasks are added under it. This suits a job with an obvious shape, such as "Autumn lookbook" with "Book the studio", "Confirm samples" and "Brief the retoucher" under it.

If any sub-task could not be added, a message says so with the count, for example "Task created, but only 2 of 3 subtasks were added." Add the rest from the task panel, per How to break a task down and put it in order.

How do you attach files while creating?

Pick the department, then click Attach files and choose them. Files start uploading the moment you pick them, so a large one is on its way while you finish typing.

Keep each file to 25 MB or smaller. If you press Create task while files are still uploading, Tideswell asks you to hang on until they finish.

How do you turn a chat message into a task?

Hover the message in chat and click the green tick (Create task) on the bar that appears. The dialog opens with the message's first line as the title and the whole message as the description.

If the channel belongs to a department, that department is filled in already. Any photos or files on the message are copied onto the new task when you create it.

The finished task shows a From #channel link at the foot of its panel, so anyone can get back to the conversation that started it. On the iPhone app, press and hold the message and choose Create task. How to turn a conversation into work covers the chat side.

How do you make it repeat instead?

Open the Due date calendar and turn on Repeats inside it. The button at the foot then reads Create recurring task, and the date you picked is when the schedule starts.

Pick a date before you save, or Tideswell asks you for one. While Repeats is on, the Attach files button gives way to a note: add files to a task once the schedule creates it.

Setting a task to repeat needs the Set tasks to repeat row on Settings › Permissions, which leads have by default. How to make a task repeat covers the rhythms and how to pause one.

What happens after you press Create task?

The dialog closes and the task appears in the list you were looking at. If you assigned it, it appears in that person's Work › My tasks, and when that person is somebody else it lands in their Work › Inbox too.

To keep going, click its title to open the task panel, covered in How to edit a task.