How to edit a task

Clicking a task title anywhere in What are tasks? opens it as a panel over the page you were on. Everything on that panel is live: there is no edit mode to enter and no Save button to find, because each control writes as soon as you use it.

The quickest changes do not need the panel at all. Priority, due date and assignee can be changed straight from the task's row. Your workspace may use its own word for "task"; Settings › Terminology shows both.

Before you start

Editing is checked against the task's own department, not the workspace. At Fairgreen, Priya is a lead in one department and a plain member in another, so a change that works on one task can be refused on the next. How to work out who can do what in your workspace explains how roles work department by department.

What can you change from the panel?

Almost everything the task has.

• The title. Click it and type. It saves when you press Enter or click away.
• The description. Click it to edit in place. Enter saves, Shift and Enter starts a new line, and Escape cancels. A save that fails keeps your text on screen rather than losing it.
• Status, Assignee, Project, Cycle, Due date and time, and Priority, each from its own control. These save the instant you pick.
• Subtasks, blockers (Add blocker), Attachments and comments, each covered on its own page.

While anything is saving, the other controls go quiet for a moment. That stops two half-finished edits racing each other.

How do you change a task from its row?

Click the value on the row. Each opens a small menu and saves as soon as you pick:

• Priority: the priority glyph, first of the values at the right of the row.
• Due date: the date, or on a task without one the calendar icon whose tooltip reads Set a due date. Clear date removes it.
• Assignee: the avatar, or the dashed circle whose tooltip reads Assign this task. The menu lists Unassigned and everybody in the task's department.

The chip beside the avatar shows when the current assignee was given the task. Hover it for the full date, which reads "Assigned" followed by the day and time.

How do you move a task to another project?

Use the Project row on the panel. It lists the projects in the task's own department, plus No project to take it out of any project.

The Project row shows on top-level tasks only. A subtask always follows its parent, so move the parent and its subtasks come with it.

How do you put a task in a cycle?

Use the Cycle row. Pick a cycle, or No cycle to take it out of one.

New cycle at the foot of the menu creates a cycle and files the task in it straight away. It needs Create and edit campaigns and cycles, which admins hold by default. How to set up and work in cycles covers what cycles are for.

What are the four statuses?

Backlog, To do, In progress and Done. Every workspace has these four, and they are the columns you see on a board.

Done is the one that counts as finished. A task in Done drops out of open lists, which is why finishing a task and moving it to Done are the same thing.

Tasks use this set. Settings › Stages is for purchase orders, outreach, special orders, project items and production orders, and the statuses of your own Objects are set on each Object's Statuses tab, covered in How to set up the stages a record moves through.

How do priorities work?

Five levels: Urgent, High, Medium, Low and No priority. Each shows as a small glyph on the row: a red square for Urgent, signal bars for High, Medium and Low, and three faint dashes for No priority.

Priority sorts and surfaces work, and it is what fills the Urgent screen described in How to see what needs you. Anyone who can edit a task can set any level, including Urgent.

How do you set a due date and time?

One calendar control handles both. Pick a day, and set a time underneath it if the job has one.

A date is what puts a task on the calendar and into the Due soon and Overdue groups, and it is what task reminders are driven from. Overdue dates show in red everywhere they appear.

The same calendar holds the Repeats switch, covered in How to make a task repeat.

Who can you assign it to?

Anybody in the task's department. If a department has nobody in it yet, the picker offers Unassigned only.

An admin adds people to a department in Settings › Members, using the Departments (N) menu on each member's row, or when inviting them. See How to add people and set roles.

Assigning is a separate right from editing, so in some workspaces you can change a task's dates but not its owner.

How do you complete or reopen one?

Click the circle at the top left of the panel, or the circle on any list row. It turns into a ticked circle, and clicking it again reopens the task.

If the task is waiting on something unfinished, Tideswell asks first, with a Complete blocked task? dialog and a Complete anyway button. See How to break a task down and put it in order.

How do you find where a task sits?

The line at the top of the panel reads department, then project, then campaign. On a subtask it ends with the parent task's name, which opens the parent, as does the back arrow beside the title.

At the foot of the panel you see who created the task and when, plus a From #channel link when it started life as a chat message.

What are suggested changes on a task?

When the Agent has suggested a change to this task, a Suggested changes section shows near the top of the panel. Review in Agent opens it in the Agent panel, where someone who can make the change approves or refuses it. See How to approve, refuse or undo a suggested change.

How do you archive one?

Press Archive at the foot of the panel, then Archive again to confirm. The task and its subtasks leave every list.

Make sure before you archive a task, because an archived task cannot be brought back. If you only want it out of the way, move it to Done instead.

You can always archive a task you created yourself. Archiving anyone else's needs Delete other people's tasks and comments, which leads and admins hold by default.

Why was a change refused?

A refused change shows "You do not have permission to perform this action." The rights are separate from one another, and all of them are read in the task's department.

Edit tasks, Assign tasks, Complete tasks, Mark tasks as blocked by other tasks and Leave comments are five different rows in Settings › Permissions. Holding one tells you nothing about the others, which is why you can sometimes comment on a task you cannot reschedule.

Work out which one you are short of before asking, using How to work out who can do what in your workspace.