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10 Minute Guide to Microsoft Exchange 5.0

- Lesson 19 -
Managing Tasks with Schedule+

 

In this lesson, you learn how to use the Schedule+ software to track tasks and projects. You learn how to enter tasks into your To Do list and how to connect tasks with specific projects.

A task is an item in a list of things to do. It can be related to a project, or it can be an independent chore that you're responsible for. Tasks also can be recurring. For example you may have to turn in an expense report every month, or you may have to send out invoices every week.

Adding Tasks to Your To Do List

To track a task, you need to tell your Microsoft Exchange Client system about it. There are actually two ways to add a task: the quick and easy way (which inserts the task into your To Do list) and the less quick but more detailed way (which lets you set a priority, end date, and other information about the task).

Adding Tasks the Quick Way

The fast way to insert a task into your To Do list is to use the Daily tab, which is in the foreground by default when you first launch Schedule+. Follow these steps to use the quick method of adding a task:

1. Click the To Do section of the Daily tab.

2.
Click the first available row, and it becomes highlighted.

3.
Type a name or description of the task (see Figure 19.1).

4.
Press Enter, and the task appears as a regular entry in your To Do list.

Figure 19.1 You can enter a task in the To Do list of the Daily tab.

When you enter a task in this quick way, certain defaults are assumed about the task's characteristics. Based on those assumptions, the task is assigned to the current date (the date displayed in the Daily tab), it has a priority of 3 (see the discussion on priority later in this lesson), and its duration is set for one day.

Adding Tasks with Details Attached

If the task is a bit more complicated and needs to be configured for a date range, with a priority, or using other details, you can provide this information by using the Task dialog box to set up the task. Just follow these steps to create your task:

1. Click the To Do tab. The full To Do window appears (see Figure 19.2).

2.
Click the Insert New Task button to display the Task dialog box shown in Figure 19.3.

3.
If the task will take more than a day, click the Ends check box and specify the date on which the task will end. (You can click the down arrow next to the entry box to see a Date Navigator, from which you can select a date.)

Figure 19.2 The To Do tab displays the tasks you're tracking, along with information about them.

Figure 19.3 The Task dialog box lets you configure a task with many options.

4. In the Starts box, specify the number of days, weeks, or months before the end date that the task starts. (Click the down arrow to choose whether you're specifying days, weeks, or months.) This is the task's start date.

5.
Click the Mark As Done After End Date check box if this task definitely ends on the specified end date.

6.
In the Description box, type a brief description of the task.

7.
In the Project box, enter the name of the project to which this task is linked (if there is one). You can enter a new project, or you can click the drop-down arrow and choose an existing project from the list that appears.

8.
In the Priority box, set the level of importance for this task. (Use the up and down arrows to scroll through the priority choices.)


Task Priority Levels As you scroll through the available priority choices, you'll see the numbers 1 through 9 and the letters A through Z. The numbers appear on the right side of the Priority box, and the letters appear on the left. You can take advantage of this by creating all sorts of priority schemes, including choosing a letter and then a number to end up with a priority such as C3. It's a good idea to work with other people in your company to establish some pre-determined meanings for the available priority indications.

9. (Optional) Check the Set Reminder box to enable the reminder feature. When you select this option, two additional selection boxes appear, in which you can specify the number of minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months before the start date (or the end date) that you want to see a reminder.

10.
(Optional) Check the Private box if you don't want this task to be seen by other users on the network.

11.
(Optional) Click the Make Recurring button if this task fits that category.

12.
When you finish setting the details, click OK. The task is now listed on your To Do list.

Marking a Task As Complete

When you finish a task, you will want to mark it off the list. There's a quick way to tell Schedule+ that you've completed it. Click the box to the left of the task description on the Daily tab to indicate you've completed this chore (see Figure 19.4). That column to the left of the description is the "check off" column: You check off the task when you're done. A check mark appears in this box when you click it to show that the task has been completed.

Figure 19.4 Check off the task when it's been completed.

Managing Projects

A project is a goal-oriented group of tasks. For example, you can have tasks such as "collect budgets from department heads," "import General Ledger into database," and other related tasks as part of the project called "Budget Review for 3rd Quarter." After you've created your project, you can link your tasks to it by using the Project option in the Task dialog box (refer to Figure 19.3), as described in the previous section.

There are two methods for adding a Project to your To Do list:

  • Enter a project name into the Project box of the Task dialog box, as described in the previous section. This adds the project and gives it a default priority of 3.

  • Choose Insert, Project and use the Project dialog box to give the project a name and a priority. Figure 19.5 shows the Project dialog box.

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Figure 19.5 Use the Project dialog box to give the project a title and a priority.

Project names appear in bold on the To Do list, and their priority levels are indicated in parentheses. You can click the plus button next to the project name to see the list of tasks linked to the project.

There are a couple of things you should know about the relationship between projects and their linked tasks:

  • The priority for a project is not automatically inherited by its tasks; each of the tasks can have whatever priority you choose.

  • If you make the project private, all of the tasks linked to the project are also made private.

In this lesson, you learned how to add tasks to your To Do list, and you learned about projects and how to link tasks to projects. In the next lesson, you'll learn how to use Schedule+ to manage information about the people you must contact.

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