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User`s Manual - CollabTask - Collaborative Task Management

1. Y CollabTask elaks File Edit View Projects Administration Help Task Projects x Users Bob Buddy HR Associates Status Incomplete On Hold Selection Bar To Do View Project View D Ze TaskInfo Predecessors Successors History te n SE em Task Get Mik Views I Order Name Plate Incomple 2 KI Assigned Bob y E Adjust Dates on Project Scratchpad Incomple 5 Panels E Assemble New Employee Packet Incomple 5 E Status On Hold Due empty EN K To Do H Configure Work Area Incomple 5 Priority Est Compl Date Bi Create Network Username Incomple 5 E Working F Ta sk Info Project El Determine Software Requirements Incomple 5 A empty H E H Load Software Incomple 5 Project Personal E Order Computer Incomple 5 sa Predecessors Bi Order Software Incomple 5 E Phone Setup Incomple 5 Successors D Process Benefit Forms Incomple 5 F gt Date Completed o E Request System Access pene sele Task History 15 tasks retrieved Auto Refresh On History Comment Adding a Task You can adda task in one of three ways e Select Insert Task from the Edit menu e Right Click in the To Do or Project View and choose Add Task e Press the lt Ins gt key After adding a task enter a title for the task and optionally enter change data on the Task Info panel When your changes are complete
2. collabTask Collaborative Task Management Software User s Manual Version 2 0 Copyright 2008 3230 Systems LLC SYSTEMS LLC Contents ili n Initial Installation EN 4 WINCOWS DR 4 Installation Procedure for Additional Machines cessceesceceeeeeeseceeaceceeeeeeaeeeeaaeceeaeeseseeeesaeeeeaaeeeeeeeees 4 Add ini for Microsoft Outlook iaia 4 Running CollabTask for the First Time inner 4 Local Data e 4 Storing Your D ta on a Database ee e 4 Changing Database Configuration seninernacinac iai 5 CollabTask Administration sise 5 User Eat Ello OA o NU S EEEE AEE ia ea 5 Team dio 5 Applyving a Be E 6 Basic Task Management asa aerei i 6 Orientation aaa 6 feelt te TAS ie Mi 6 Modifying a Task NE anita ela eee ai 7 History Comments a ciali eat 7 Deleting arTask acli ea aaa ae 7 Task NET H Me EE 8 The Project Scratchpad EE 9 Predecessors in the Project Scratchpad i 9 Selecting Sorting and Viewing TaSKS iii 10 T D View vs Project VIEW sien dida 10 e DR TEE 10 O O E E E E 11 Selecting Which Tasks to View 11 Project Selection BOX eegene n aaa 11 User Selection Box 11 Status Selection B0oxws L orali leleine 11 Sorting tasks slitta listelli 12 Changing Columns secices lilaca bui i ed Lai 12 Resizing Columns sirio LR O ALI iii 12 Tee ell Te E 12 Saving VIEWS ia ai A LE ai 12 Predecessors W amp SUCCESSONS s citi ire en a
3. save them by pressing lt Enter gt or clicking the checkmark button at the bottom of the Task Info panel To cancel your insertion press lt Esc gt or click on the X button at the bottom of the Task Info panel If you move to another task after adding or editing a task your changes will be saved However it is safer to explicitly commit your changes by pressing the Save Changes button or pressing lt Enter gt Modifying a Task To modify an existing task simply modify the values in the task info pane or in the grid on the To Do or Project Views Save or cancel your changes History Comments The edit box to the right of Save Cancel Changes buttons is the History Comment You may enter a comment to be shown on the Task History Panel for this change Use this to communicate the reason for certain changes For instance if you are correcting a priority based on your internal policies you may enter a comment such as Please use priority 1 only for client service issues Deleting a Task To delete a task select a task in the To Do Project View and do one of the following e Select Delete Task from the Edit Menu or e Right click on the To Do or Project View and select Delete Task or e Press lt Ctrl gt lt Del gt or e Change the task status to Deleted When you delete a task you are really only setting the status to Deleted This allows you to later determine if a missing task was deleted and by whom To permanently delete task
4. iii 12 Creating and Removing Predecessors SUCCESSsors nono nnnnna nn nana nrrnnos 12 The Task Status A O 12 The Histor Pan el t ras tan de isos 13 Printing Sc EXPOrtin Gs eseu deed teen nm o 13 Printing sir re rare na nn nes Mer nn Dunes E nt nt ne en ete den Neue En ERE 13 EXporting ian ia ia Rene net ne me i elite 13 Installation Generally speaking CollabTask only needs to be installed once in an organization Everything the program needs will be stored in the directory chosen during installation For this reason multiuser installations should be stored on a network or shared location that all users have access to Initial Installation The initial installation of CollabTask is accomplished by following the download link at http www collabtask com For a multiuser installation override the default program location Note If you ve already installed the program to a local directory you can simply copy or move the program folder to the correct location Windows Vista If you are running Windows Vista you may need to be logged in as an administrator to complete the installation Installation Procedure for Additional Machines As mentioned above no per machine installation in necessary Users simply need to run CollabTask exe from the program folder You may create a desktop shortcut or add an entry to the startup folder to automatically launch CollabTask Add in for Microsoft Outlook If you have not
5. able to them and can maintain the user list delete old tasks and apply license keys e Project Maintenance Indicates whether the user can add and modify projects Administrators can always maintain projects Team Users A dummy user may be set up to represent a team These users should not be enabled so that they do not count against the licensed user count Other users may may opt into the team by adding the team user to their normal task selection criteria As a result tasks assigned to a team user will appear for all members of the team It is recommended that the user who begins the task reassign it to his her own username so that no one else will begin the task Applying a License Key CollabTask ships with a limit of two enabled users Purchase additional user packs to add to this number You will receive a license key file which contains your total number of licensed users Typically you will receive this as an attachment to an e mail Save the attachment a store a copy among your backups To apply the new limit choose Apply License Key from the Administration menu and select the license key file Restart CollabTask Basic Task Management Orientation Throughout this document we will to various areas of the main CollabTask window To Do View Project View Task Info Pane Predecessors Successors Pane History Pane and the Task Selection bar
6. acket Process Benefit Forms Order Name Plate Configure Work Area Priority IT Tasks 5 DA DRT Est Compl Date Due Load Software RE Order Software empty E empty E Phone Setup Description E Management Tasks Determine Software Requirements Request System Access mi To create predecessors move your mouse cursor into the predecessor pane As you move the cursor up and down to the left of tasks they will be highlighted in a blue or yellow color Order Computer Ok to set as predecessor Not a valid predecessor With a task highlighted in blue click to add it as a predecessor Click again to remove the predecessor status Selecting Sorting and Viewing Tasks To Do View vs Project View There are two main views available in CollabTask To Do View and Project View To Do View On the To Do View tasks are displayed in a single to do list format typically ordered by priority You may be a part of several projects but can only work on so many tasks at once The To Do View allows you and others view all of your tasks together and can help identify conflicts between projects and allow management to reconcile your priorities so that everyone is comfortable with the order in which tasks are being addressed Project View The Project View arranges your tasks by projects Projects may contain several levels of sub projects and these are arranged in an expandable tree format There ma
7. all the information necessary to complete a task even though its predecessors are not technically complete CollabTask is not intended to prevent the completion of your tasks The History Panel The history panel allows you to view the history of a task Each change is listed in the history grid and the details of the change are listed below This panel is read only Printing amp Exporting You may print or export the tasks currently displayed by selecting Print or Export from the File menu Printing When printing you have additional options so you can print only the currently selected project the projects whose trees you have expanded you the entire view You may also select how much data you would like to include by specifying whether to print the Description predecessors and successors and the task history The columns are arranged in the same order as your view and the output will reflect your currently select view To Do or Project If you save your view the printing options will also be saved You can save views specifically for printing Exporting You can export your task data by exporting the data to a tab delimited data format suitable for importing into other applications such as Microsoft Excel Simply specify a data file name All tasks in the current view will be exported
8. cts in the project scratchpad to reusable templates for future use amp Project ScratchPad 5 8 E New Employee Details Templates HR Tasks Assemble New Employee Packet Task Assemble New Employee Packet Process Benefit Forms i Assigned LR Associates y Order Name Plate To Configure Work Area Priority IT Tasks s Y Order Computer Est Compl Date Due Load Software Order Software empty Er empty Ey Phone Setup Description Create Network Username Management Tasks Determine Software Requirements Request System Access Create New Project You may right click anywhere in the project tree to add or delete tasks Tasks and projects may be dragged into their proper positions in the tree No changes are made to the CollabTask data until you press the Create New Project button At that point the entire project tree will be added to CollabTask Alternatively or in addition you can save the project as a template To load the template at a later date click on the Templates tab select a template and press the Load Template button Predecessors in the Project Scratchpad You can quickly view and assign predecessors of a task by using the predecessor pane to the left of the project tree When a task is selected its predecessors are indicated by blue lines in the predecessor pane amp Project ScratchPad a E New Employee E HR Tasks Assemble New Employee P
9. lete On Hold D E e Projects Edit Project Title Project Info New Employee Bob Johnson HR Tasks Title IT Tasks Things to Fix Management Tasks Status Personal Incomplete Owner Start Date Due Date 11 19 2008 D 11 21 2008 D Date Complete 12 05 2008 D Each Project has the following data fields e Title The name of the project e Status Incomplete Complete or On Hold e Owner User responsible for the project optional e Start Date The start date of the project optional e Due Date The date that the project is due to be complete optional e Date Complete The date the project was completed optional Except for the status these fields are informational only The status is only used to indicate whether the project is listed in the drop down project selection boxes The completion of all of the tasks under a project does not automatically set the project to a completed status This allows for open ended projects Projects may be dragged into other projects on the project tree All child projects and tasks will follow them into the selected location The Project Scratchpad The Project Scratchpad is a powerful feature that can help you to easily design and replicate projects You can start from scratch or copy an existing project by right clicking on a project in the Project View and selecting Copy to Project Scratchpad In addition you can save proje
10. not support SQL Server s Integrated Security feature Once you have selected which database server to use you must then specify the Server Name or Address the Username and Password this will be stored in the configuration in an encrypted format and the Database name CollabTask will then create the database tables it needs Changing Database Configuration If you find that you would like to change the database configuration you can delete the CollabTask ini found in the program directory Starting CollabTask again will bring up the database configuration dialogs again However the only way to retain your current data is to select the same server and database or a copy if one has been made CollabTask Administration User Maintenance Use the Users menu option under Administration to manage CollabTask Users Five pieces of information are associated with each user e Username This is the Windows username and is checked against the current user when CollabTask starts Ifthe username is not in the CollabTask database execution is prevented e Display Name The name displayed for the user within CollabTask By default it is set to the Username but may be set to a friendlier name e Enabled Indicates whether the user may run CollabTask Only enabled users count against the licensed user count Tasks may be assigned to users that are not enabled see Team Users e Administrator Administrators have the Administration menu avail
11. run the installation program on your computer and use Microsoft Outlook and would like to be able to easily add e mail messages and tasks to CollabTask you will also need to register the CollabTask Add in To do this choose Command Prompt from the Windows Start menu usually in the Accessories folder Vista users should right click the Command Prompt option and choose Run As Administrator Change the current directory to the CollabTask program directory and type regsvr32 ctoutl dil CollabTask will appear in the Outlook toolbar the next time Outlook is started Running CollabTask for the First Time The first time CollabTask is run it will ask how you would like your data stored You have three options Local Data Storage This option is recommended when a database server is not readily available for installations of up to 5 users and for evaluation purposes It is the easiest to configure as everything is automatic The data will be stored in a Data subdirectory under the program directory Storing Your Data on a Database Server A database server is recommended for larger installations CollabTask supports Microsoft s SQL Server and MySQL from Sun Microsystems If you wish to use a database server you will need to use your server s administration tool to create a database for CollabTask and a user account for CollabTask to use This account will need full access to the database The account will also need a password CollabTask does
12. s use the Delete Old Tasks option on the Administration Menu Task Details The following details are available for each task e Task Title A short title for the task e Assigned To The user or group assigned to the task e Status Deleted Incomplete Complete or On Hold e Due Date Date that the task is dues to be completed e Priority A value from 1 highest to 10 lowest e Estimated Completion Date Date that the task is expected to be complete e Working A check box indicating that work is current progressing on the task e Project The project that the task belongs to Note On the drop down project tree a single click is used to navigate the tree You must double click a project to select it e Description A free form text field to specify additional details or instructions Projects CollabTask allows you to organize your tasks into projects Projects may contain tasks and other projects but tasks cannot contain projects Your user account must be enabled for project maintenance in order to add or change projects There are three ways to create a project e On the Projects window available from the Projects option of Projects menu e Inthe Project View e Inthe Project Scratchpad The Projects window is the preferred location to perform general project maintenance Here you may choose which projects are displayed by selecting a combination of project statuses E Status Incomp
13. sks in the user selection of your normal selection settings As an example Bob and Sally may both be Human Resource Analysts and either can complete many HR tasks An HR Analyst user can be created and Bob and Sally can be instructed to include this user with their task selections Tasks can be assigned to the HR Analyst user and they will appear on both Bob and Sally s to do lists It is recommended that if either begin to work on the task that they reassign it to their self That will lessen the possibility that both will work on the same task Of course an HR manager may also review Bob and Sally s tasks and reassign the task to the most available person Status Selection Box Use this box to select tasks by status Sorting Tasks You may change the sort order of the task displays by selecting the Sort option on the View menu Select your sort fields from the list on the left Use the Up and Down buttons to rearrange the order of the sort fields Changing Columns Resizing Columns You can resize columns on the task grid by positioning the mouse cursor between two column headings and clicking dragging to set the desired column width Moving Columns Columns may be moved by clicking and dragging a column title to another position in the grid Saving Views You may save your current view settings so that you can quickly reestablish them in the future Select your desired settings and choose Save Current View as from the Vie
14. w menu Enter a name and press okay The view should now be available under the Saved Views menu option Predecessors amp Successors Some tasks cannot be completed until other tasks are complete The tasks which must be completed are termed predecessors Projects may not be predecessors Creating a predecessor task automatically creates a successor task and vice versa The predecessors and successors of a task may be views on the Predecessors Successors Panel On this panel you may also create assign or remove predecessors and successors Creating and Removing Predecessors Successors Press the Assign button to assign an existing task as a predecessor or successor to the current task Press Create New to create a new task which will be a predecessor or successor of the current task Press Remove to remove the currently selected predecessor successor relationship The Task Status Icon The square icon to the left of the task title identifies the status of the current task as well as its predecessors and successors Predecessor Status F Incomplete Predecessors Exist F All Predecessors Complete F No Predecessors Task Status Incomplete On Hold Complete Deleted Overdue Successor Status C Overdue J Incomplete Successors Exist NotOverdue All Successors Complete No Successors Note CollabTask does not prevent the completion of a successor task if its predecessors are not complete In some cases you may have
15. y be many projects in an organization but only a few for which you have responsibilities As such only those projects that include selected tasks are displayed If you have been authorized to modify projects you may also edit and add projects in the Project View see Projects Selecting Which Tasks to View The Task Selection Bar has three selection controls that allow you to choose which tasks to display These selections apply to both the To Do View and the Project View In each box un checking all the boxes is the same as checking them all Project Selection Box Use the Project Selection Box to select which projects to view Selecting a parent project automatically selects all of its children Caution To be sure you are viewing all of your open tasks it is highly recommended that you clear the project selections Someone may add a task for you under a project you didn t expect or a newly created project you are unaware of User Selection Box Use the user selection box to view tasks for specific users Often you will want to view tasks only for yourself However you can also view tasks for your team or anyone else CollabTask encourages this Do not enter tasks into CollabTask that you wouldn t want any other CollabTask user in your organization to see Team users can be created by creating a dummy disabled user i e a user that cannot log into CollabTask but may be assigned tasks You may opt into a team by including its ta

User`s Manual - CollabTask - Collaborative Task Management

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