Viewing Tasks

[Thomas M.]

Outlook 2007

We are trying to use the Task feature of Outlook more effectively. Toward
that end, I have given my supervisor Author permissions to my task list. He
is able to view my task list (he even gets my custom views) and he can
assign me tasks. Now he would like to have a view where he can see all the
tasks that he has assigned to all employees, and see all those tasks in a
single view. Is there any way to do that?

--Tom

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

yes. If he has Assigned Tasks, when he did so left the setting ON "keep
updated copies of Assigned Tasks on my Task List".

In his Tasks folder, try the Assigned view. Or make your own view - use the
Owner field to see who has been assigned the Tasks.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.deskdoctors.com

Are you sick of bad email practice? Get a copy of my paper "Implementing
Email Policy" from the Desk Doctors website.

 

[Thomas M.]

Sweet! We tried the Assigned view on his Task list, but I seem to recall
that it did not show anything. He probably did not select the option to
keep the assigned tasks on this list. We'll give that a try.

Thanks for the help!

--Tom

 

[Thomas M.]

We tested this and now we have a couple of more questions. When my
supervisor assigns me a task, and I update that task, an email message is
sent back to my supervisor. It appears that in order for the updated
information to appear on his task list that he needs to open, or at least
preview, the Task Update email message. We can work that, but it's not
ideal. Is there a way to make it so that my supervisor sees my updates to
the task without a Task Update email being involved?

Also, we would like for my supervisor to be able to edit an assigned task
AFTER it has been assigned. I have him setup with permissions on my Task
list, so he could open my Task list and maybe change the details of the
assigned task that way. However, he would prefer a kind of one-stop
shopping for tasks--a view where he can see the current status of all tasks
assigned to all employees, and update the tasks from that view without
needing to open the Task of the individual employee. Any way to do that?

--Tom

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

No to nearly everything you asked to do. It was not designed the way you
describe wanting to use it.

Boss assigns task, and can then see those tasks if they use the setting I
gave you and show the Owner field.

Task Updates provide the Boss' computer with a up to date versions of status
of each Task - must open them to suck data out.


If you want to steer away from the Task Assignment process, try just giving
the boss permission to your Tasks folder and they can see what you are
working on. Standardise your categories across the team.




Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.deskdoctors.com

Are you sick of bad email practice? Get a copy of my paper "Implementing
Email Policy" from the Desk Doctors website.

 

[Thomas M.]

We're not wanting to steer away from the Task Assignment process, but rather
toward it. We were merely hoping that Outlook would be a little smarter
than it appears to be. From a purely theoretical point of view, Microsoft
should be able to make Outlook take an incoming Task Update email and
process it automatically so that updates go immediately to the task list
without any action (Opening or previewing the message) being necessary on
the part of the user. We were merely hoping that Microsoft had made Outlook
that smart and that we were just missing the setting required to enable that
ability. Unfortunately, it appears that Outlook is not that smart.

Anyway, now that we are up-to-speed on how it works, we will simply find a
way to work with Outlook as it is.

--Tom

 

[Judy Gleeson \(MVP Outlook\)]

Using SharePoint may be more to your liking as it also holds Outlook Tasks
and enables team members to view status without the whole Update process.

Regards

Judy Gleeson
MVP Outlook

www.judygleeson.com
www.deskdoctors.com

Are you sick of bad email practice? Get a copy of my paper "Implementing
Email Policy" from the Desk Doctors website.

 

[Thomas M.]

We looked at that option, but it appears that SharePoint does not provide an
easy way to create recurring tasks, which makes that option unworkable for
us. We are currently planning to investigate the capabilities of OneNote,
which supposedly offers much of the functionality that we would like, but we
probably won't be able to work with OneNote for a month or two.

Also, upon further consideration, it makes some sense that Microsoft did not
make Outlook able to process task updates automatically. After all, what
would happen if both the employee and the supervisor makes changes to the
same task at the same time? Which would take precedence? My guess is
that's why Outlook handles updates via the Task Update email which requires
the user to accept the updates.

--Tom