TeamworkPM Tips: Little known features

Posted on May 16, 2013 by Adrian Kerr

Every month we extend TeamworkPM with subtle features that make your life easier; you may not know about many of these yet so this is the first in a new series of blog posts that will highlight some features you may find useful.

1) Easily switch between your TeamworkPM sites

Over time many of you have created several TeamworkPM sites. This usually comes about when your clients see how great TeamworkPM is and adopt it for themselves.

We received a lot of feedback that remembering all the site addresses and passwords was tedious so we responded with a very handy feature that allows you to quickly jump between sites without the need to login again.

Once set-up, in the top right of the screen you will see the new “Sites” drop menu; clicking this allows you to instantly switch to your other sites.

It’s pretty easy to set-up – watch this video:

2) Keyboard shortcuts

We have a number of keyboard shortcuts in TeamworkPM to make common operations easier and faster to complete.

[Enter] when adding a task creates the task
Hovering over a task in the Tasks tab of a project
- [E] Edits the current task the mouse is over
- [T] Logs time on the current task the mouse is over
- [S] Start a timer on the current task
- [F] Quickly attach files to the task the mouse is over
- [R] Quickly create a reminder for the task
[Esc] Closes/Cancels any open dialog
[G] In the task tab for your project quickly opens the Gantt chart
[F] Focuses the Search box for immediate search input
[Q] Opens the “Quick Add” menu in the top left
[S] Opens the “Switch Project” menu
When you are in a Project
- Number [1-9] will jump between the tabs e.g:
  - [1] jumps to the Overview tab
  - [2] jumps to the Tasks tab
  - etc

3) Getting TeamworkPM to accept emails responses from unrecognised people

We have spent a lot of time adding the ability to send tasks, messages, files and notebooks to TeamworkPM via email. But what happens when an email is sent to TeamworkPM from an unrecognized email address?

Recently we added the ability to specify a user that these emails would be posted from. If we do not recognise the email address that the item has been sent from we replace this with a registered user’s email.

To set this up navigate to the settings section in the top right, select site settings and then the email tab.

Select the user who you wish to have these items posted from, now any emails sent from unregistered users will appear in the project that they have been sent to.

We are going to be posting more tips likes these so watch this space. As always, thanks for using TeamworkPM!

New Feature: New permission Edit All Tasks

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Daniel Mackey

For some time now we have had a dilemma on our hands with the permissions on tasks.

The main permission on a project was “Add/Edit tasks”. This meant that a normal person on a project that wasn’t an Administrator could only Edit tasks they created, tasks assigned to them or tasks assigned to Anyone.

It did not though allow a user to edit tasks that were not assigned to them or that they did not create.

We build everything in Teamwork based on feedback. We were finding that this option was not enough for some people who needed another level as the only alternative to this was to make the user a project administrator which gave them too many privileges.

This month we decided to tackle this and added another project permission. This new permission “Can Edit All Tasks” is off by default but if enabled for a user on a project will give them full control over every task on that project.

Introducing Sub Tasks

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Donal Linehan

This month our headline feature, as with gantt charts (released last month), is something which has been requested time and time again. Throughout the development of this feature we could see where it would come in handy. Before sub-tasks, you could create a similar structure of tasks using dependencies, but this structure wasn’t easily recognizable on the page. Sub-tasks will help you break your tasks into smaller chunks; and, as Henry Ford once said, “Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs”.

How do they work

Creating a sub-task is easy. Simply click the add sub-task icon highlighted in the screenshot below.

Now give the task a name and click “Add sub-task”. Optionally you can click “more” which brings up the usual task form allowing you to specify more options.

After adding the task, it will be displayed the same as any other task except that it will be slightly indented. The sub task’s parent task’s check-box will change into a button showing the number of active sub-tasks it contains. Clicking it will hide/show its sub-tasks.

Another way to create sub-tasks is to click the new “Add sub-tasks…” button when you are adding a standard task; this will add the task and allow you to start adding sub-tasks immediately.

The parent task cannot be completed until all of its sub-tasks are (Note: you will still need to mark the parent complete). As you complete each sub-task the icon beside the parent task with count-down with the number of sub-tasks remaining.

Sub-tasks have a few limitations being that you cannot specify their privacy, add dependencies or make them repeat. You can however make it’s parent repeat which will recreate its sub-tasks when it repeats. As expected, sub-tasks will inherit the privacy of it’s parent task or task list.

Sub-tasks for iPad

We’ve updated the iPad app to give you clean and simple access to the new sub-tasks feature – it’ll be available in the App Store in the next few days. Until then you can work away as normal with any of the existing Teamwork Apps and scripts: sub-tasks simply appear as normal tasks in those legacy tools. However, to whet your appetite, here’s an inside peek at what the updated iPad App will look like!

Sub-tasks fit in nicely with the existing flow of the app. On the task lists panel, the check-box is replaced with a sub-task count – so there’s no way to accidentally mark a bunch of sub-tasks complete with a stray tap! Go to any task that has some sub-tasks and you’ll find that they’re grouped into their own section – hidden away until you need them. Tapping on the sub-tasks section expands it out to a simple list detailing the sub-task title and the person assigned to it. From here you can either mark the sub-task as complete or, if you tap on the row, view all of the details. To create a new sub-task, hit the “Add sub-task” button : the familiar “Add Task” form will appear with a number of the fields pre-filled using information from the parent task. Making it quick and easy to one or a number of sub-tasks.

The other place that you’ll find sub-tasks is in the All Tasks panel. Here both tasks and sub-tasks that match the chosen filter are displayed. So “Today” for example, shows both tasks and sub-tasks due today. Behind the scenes we take care of automatically updating tasks and sub-tasks so you don’t have to think about them in any different way – just work through your day’s tasks.

As mentioned above, the app has been already been submitted to Apple and we’re just waiting for it to go through their review process. This usually takes about a week, so expect the update to be hitting the App Store in the next couple of days. Don’t forget, if you want immediate notification, just follow us on Twitter @TeamworkPM and we’ll tweet as soon as the App goes live.

Conclusion

We are delighted to finally add sub-tasks to the TeamworkPM feature-set. As with all new features, we’ve tried to implement this feature in a way that doesn’t clutter the interface but is just a click away when you need it.

We could have taken the easy path and implemented sub-tasks as just some sort of task description (as a few of our competitors do). However, we could think of many real business scenarios where having sub-tasks work like “real” tasks would be extremely useful; sub-tasks can be searched for, have files attached, have comments, be delegated to others and so on; they also show up on the “overdue” and “today” sections when they should. It was a lot more work but it was the right thing to do.

It’s live in your account right now!

We hope you are going to love breaking your daunting tasks into bite-sized chunks and that this will make you even more productive. As always, thanks for using TeamworkPM!

New Feature: Shareable File Links

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Peter Coppinger

When files are uploaded to Teamwork or attached to tasks/comments/messages and an email notification is sent, we add authenticated download links to the email. These links are time limited and require the user to be logged in to Teamwork before they can view the files.

When Teamwork sends you an email notification with a link to a file, viewing the file requires the user must be logged into their account.

Over the last year we’ve received a lot of feedback that many of you would like to have these links open without requiring that you to be logged into Teamwork.

People wanted this for many different reasons, but the main one we kept hearing was that some of you like to use project messages to track all communication with your clients, many of whom will never actually log into Teamwork. For some of your clients, having to log in to see a file is just too much hassle.

Introducing “Shareable Files”

This month we’ve added a new setting called “Shareable Files” which, when enabled allows the people reading any new notification emails to be able to open the linked file without having to log in.. You’ll find the new setting on the “Site settings” page under the “General” tab:

When set to “yes”, people can download the files linked to emails without having to be logged in to Teamwork – perfect if you’re on a smartphone or need to share the file with people not using Teamwork.

Bonus Feature – Short links to files

If sharable files is enabled, as an added bonus we’ve also provided the ability for you to generate a short link for any file. This link allows people to view/download the file even if they are not a member of your site or project. This link is found by clicking on the file name which will take you through to the “File Details” page. From here you will see the option on the left hand panel.

Security

This new setting is off by default. It can only be enabled by an administrator in the owner company.

If you ever decide to turn this feature off in the future all previous short URLs will also be disabled.

Enjoy

To start using this feature, administrators need to visit the “Site settings” page and under the “General” tab, turn on the “Sharable files” option. We hope you will love this feature.

Thank as always, for using TeamworkPM!

New feature: Add Contacts to projects

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Giampiero Bonifazi

Back in December we released our Contacts feature: a way of keeping reference details for contacts without having to create a full TeamworkPM account for them. The release was well received but you told us you needed more – and as always we’ve listened.

This month we are pleased to announce the ability to link Contacts directly to Projects.

First we updated the side bar user cards with new icons to highlight Administrators and Project Administrators. Then if you have sufficient permissions you’ll be able to click on the photo and go to the full profile in the People section. And finally, you can choose who gets to see contact details on a project by project basis by setting the appropriate permission in the Project settings tab:

New user cards (detailed view)

New user cards

We’ve made the project’s People page consistent with the main People section, bringing over all of the recently added functionality such as quick edit, View & filtering. You’ll also note the orange key icon, this indicates a Project Administrator in contrast to the green Site Administrator icon:

You can see a new on/off button to grant or remove access to project, a button to edit project permission and new icons summarising each users permissions:

New People in the project page

New buttons and icons

New permissions icons

Click on the settings cog to quickly edit permissions or set a User as a Project Administrator:

Edit project permissions

You will notice a new permission Can edit all tasks this is a new feature we just introduced, you can read more about this addition here .

We’ve also made it easier to add new people. Click the Add Person button while selecting project members. This allows you to set up a new user or contact as normal and chose which projects they should be added to.

Add more people to Project

Adding a new person

Should you decide at some point to upgrade a Contact to a user Account (option available in the user profile) they will be immediately assigned to any project to which their contact details were previously linked:

Upgrade a contact to user account

You can read more about People, Companies & Permissions in our related FAQ.

We hope you like this new feature and as always let us know your thoughts and comments here or on our Facebook or Twitter pages.

New Feature: Move/copy files to other projects

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Peter Coppinger

For some time now we have had the option to move or copy most items (ie. tasks, task lists, milestones, notebooks, time-logs and links) between projects.

Moving files between projects was not something we were looking forward to adding though. Files can be attached to Messages/Tasks and Comments. Moving a file from one project to another also needed a phenomenal amount of work due to thumbnails, the fact that each file could reside on a different file server etc. This become one of the our top feature requests. so this month we put our heads down and got it done.

How it works

You now have the option to move or copy an individual file or multiple files to another project without having to upload them again.

To move files:

Navigate to the files tab within the project.
Click the “Select multiple files” link in the lower left hand panel (checkboxes will now appear beside each file).
Select which files you wish to move or copy.
Click the “Move/Copy” button. Then from the upper right hand side of the page select the option to move/copy files.
Choose whether you want to move or copy, pick the destination project and click the button.

Alternative Method

An alternative method is to go to the “File Details” page where you will find the option to “Move/Copy” the file in the options on the left hand side of the page.

We hope you all find this new feature really helpful. Now that we have moving of files complete we can finally add the ability to move Messages between projects so stay tuned!

Fine Wood Conservation in New York share their TeamworkPM story.

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Sam Kidd

This month we thought it would be nice to hear from a customer who runs a very hands on type of business. You don’t have to be a tech type company to be able to benefit from using an online project management app. Olaf Unsoeld is from Fine Wood Conservation Ltd in Brooklyn, New York.

We are a small company of furniture conservators, restoring antiques and modern furniture, objects and architectural elements made of wood. We currently have three full time employees and we take on interns for six months of the year. In some cases we will hire subcontractors for special projects when additional expertise is required.

We have no office manager and before TeamworkPM, I was solely responsible for managing projects. This involved keeping tabs on projects, profitability and deadlines, which proved to be very time consuming.

I examined spreadsheet programs and considered cloud based options. I soon realized that what we needed was something that could allow me to keep track of all the data and have access from the studio.

Having all of us enter our daily tasks and time directly would free me up from having to manually transfer time sheet data on a weekly basis. I spent weeks examining four or five options and finally settled on TeamworkPM as the most suited to our needs, as well as being the most intuitive and comprehensive.

I have been using TeamworkPM for over one year now and am very pleased with how it has helped us at Fine Wood Conservation, Ltd.

Now, after I have examined a piece of furniture or architectural element and had our proposal accepted, the first thing I do is create a new project, listing the date, client and general description.

I then create task lists, generally one for each object in the project, plus related management tasks. I will enter my time estimates per item and also cut and paste proposed treatments, so that the person doing the work can quickly see what was proposed and act accordingly.

At the end of the day each craftsperson will enter his or her hours and tasks completed [on their personal iPads!!]. I can then review the time expended and see how well I estimated a job and where I might need to focus more attention.

At the end of the month I can generate a time log across all projects by staff to calculate payroll. I do not use TeamworkPM for invoicing, as my accountant requires that I use a double entry bookkeeping system, but TeamworkPM is my guarantee that I haven’t forgotten to send out the bill. Once an invoice has been generated, I then archive the project.

Time tracking in TeamworkPM

TeamworkPM has eased some of the pressure in terms of project management, office management, and invoicing, allowing us to concentrate our resources on doing what we do best.

Doing what we do best at Fine Wood Conservation

Olaf Unsoeld

Fine Wood Conservation, Ltd.

481 Van Brunt Street, 4th Floor 10D

Brooklyn, NY 11231

www.woodconservation.com

Introducing Happiness – happiness.teamworkpm.net!

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Adrian Kerr

Have a look at happiness.teamworkpm.net.

For the past few months we’ve been running a little experiment, you may or may not have noticed but when we answer a feedback we ask you to rate us at the bottom of the page:

Most of what TeamworkPM is today is based off of feedback we have received from you and others. A great example of a feedback induced feature is the recently released Gantt Chart. When we started out we never intended to add our own Gantt system. But it was something that came up again and again in feedback. So we did it, we’re proud of it and looks like it’s made quite a few of you happy as well.

We really appreciate the time that people take to talk to us. Whether it be regarding a bug fix, feature request or appraisal. We would not be where we are now without you telling us what you need and what could be improved on. We also want you to know that we care: with every feedback that comes in we endeavour to answer not just as quickly as possible but also in a structured and considered format.

Ultimately we want you to tell us how we are doing. Mostly we get very positive feedback, but we also know that there are always ways which we can improve. With the happiness page we want to be as transparent as possible about this. We will continue to strive towards perfection. When we get there we will tell you how it’s done

When rating the feedback we really do want you to be as honest as you can. If our reply didn’t meet the high standards you expect from us then let us know. That way we can grow and do better the next time. The one thing we do ask, though, is that if an answer is not the answer you’d like, please don’t shoot the messenger! Remember it’s the quality of the feedback itself that’s being rated.

Head on over to happiness.teamworkpm.net for a peak.

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts and seeing your ratings

Introducing Gantt Charts for TeamworkPM!

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Donal Linehan

By popular demand we’ve just added Gantt Charts to all accounts on TeamworkPM!

Gantt charts are a great tool for planning, re-scheduling and visualizing your projects; they have been one of the top feature requests every month for the last 5 years. We’ve been working round-the-clock over the last 6 weeks, and today we are proud to announce that beautiful and powerful Gantt charts are now a part of TeamworkPM – take a look:

Tip: Turn up the video quality and go full screen.

How to access the Gantt Charts

To access the Gantt charts, go to the tasks page of any project and look for the “Gantt chart” link on the left hand side.

You can also just hit “G” on your keyboard from either the Tasks or Milestones tab in a project to jump into the Gantt Chart view. You can hit the “Escape” key to exit at any time.

Gantt Chart Features

The TeamworkPM Gantt chart already has some great features including the following.

Drag drop dependencies

Create start-to-end or end-to-end dependencies by dragging between tasks.

Invalid dependencies

Invalid dependencies get highlighted in red so you can quickly fix them up.

Collapsable task lists

When working on a large project it will be useful to collapse the lists you are not working on.

Six zoom levels

We support 6 zoom levels from year view to day view! There is also a handy “Show all” button.

Save when done

We designed the Gantt feature so you save the changes only when you are ready.

Automatic task colors

The color of each task changes automatically based on people assigned to it.

Update task progress.

Instantly change the progress of a task by clicking the percentage button on the left hand side.

Pushing & pulling of tasks.

By default dependant tasks will automatically move forward when necessary (or hold ‘shift’ to ignore).

Other features include:

Gantt charts use Full screen (even better when you hit F11)
Drag-drop to Change tasks & milestones
Drag task list bar to move all tasks and milestones.
Drag-drop reordering of task lists.
Drag-drop reordering of tasks
Drag-drop to move tasks between lists.
Click & drag to pan the canvas.
Roll mouse wheel to zoom.
Roll mouse wheel to scroll up/down (left hand side).
Automatic calculation of task list progress.
Quickly assign tasks & milestones to users.
Add new tasks, task lists & milestones.
Update task, task list & milestone names from sidebar.
Quickly add multiple new tasks or task lists (with control-return).
User permissions respected.
Standard edit forms for setting advanced options.
Show all button – tries to fit everything on one page.
All modern browsers supported.
In-built help.
Shortcut keys – ‘G’ to access gantt, ‘Esc’ to exit, ‘S’ to save changes
Save changes alert when exiting
Print support.

In-built Help

There are video tutorials and frequently asked questions available directly from within the Gantt Chart screen which we’ll be adding to over time. We also have a dedicated Gantt Chart feedback link available in the help section.

Over time we will be expanding these videos and questions based on your feedback. Also included is a quick way for you to provide us with feedback on the Gantt Chart.

It’s still BETA

We’ve performed rigorous testing to ensure that the Gantt Chart is robust but please remember that it’s still in BETA so we recommend you save your changes regularly. If you notice anything that may not be functioning as you’d expect hit send feedback in the Help section and we’ll get on it right away.

Browser compatibility

When we started work on the Gantt Chart we had a number of goals in mind. We wanted it fast, beautiful and fully functional. To accomplish these goals we’ve had to aim at modern browsers that support HTML5 Canvas.

The Gantt Chart will work in the following browsers:

Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Opera
Internet Explorer 9 or 10
Safari PC/Mac

The Gantt Chart will not work on Internet Explorer 8 or earlier and we’ve restricted access to it from touch devices such as iPad. We recommend that you enable Hardware Acceleration if you are using Firefox on PC.

Future plans

Before you start screaming at us for more, we have plans to add more features to the Gantt chart over the coming weeks including support for: show hide/completed tasks, filter by user(s), critical path, user availability view, improvements to speed and compatibility, mobile browser support, reload and the ability to bring in changes from outside. If you have any other suggestions we would be more than happy to hear from you [feedback etc.]

Wrapping up

It’s been quite a busy month here again at TeamworkPM, long nights committed to getting-it-right. We’d want to especially thank Donal for his hard work on making this feature come together so quickly.

The Gantt chart feature is something we are really proud of; so we hope you are going to love this and look forward to your reaction!

New feature: Profile Page for People

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Giampiero Bonifazi

Since our last post about contacts, we’ve received lots of useful suggestions and this month we’ve been hard at work implementing as many as possible. We’ve added extra features and subtle improvements to People page allowing you to store even more information (socials links, public profile etc.) as well as introducing a new dedicated Company page.

Today we are pleased to announce another major update to the People/Contacts section: Profile Pages for Accounts and Contacts.

The new user Profile Page gives a complete overview of a user’s activity inside TeamworkPM. From permissions to status, preferences to statistics, the Profile Page brings it all together in one spot. Perfect for checking someone’s details or for administrators managing user and company information.

As a quick introduction we’ll highlight some of the most important features.

First of all, there’s a dedicated Profile Page for every user. It can be reached by clicking on the ‘My profile’ link in the account menu (just below your name) or by clicking on a person on the People or Company page.

(the link to your new profile page)

The new profile page has a responsive layout which dynamically changes to make the best of your screen size. From this page you can update your status and find the contact details of users and their companies. You can even quickly save these details directly to your portable device by scanning the automatically generated QR code. User image and company logos are bigger and more prominent than before, so if you want to make the most of the great new layout, we recommend uploading square images.

(New responsive User profile page)

Previously, to get an overview of any particular user, the filters on the Everything page would have been the best option. Now you can see at a glance, a summary of the Projects, Tasks and Milestones a particular User is connected to. Either graphically on the Details tab or listed under the Projects and Tasks tabs. A really useful feature is the ability to edit existing tasks from right there within the Tasks tab without leaving the page.

Projects, Tasks, Milestones and activity charts

(new charts displaying useful informations about user activity available for all users)

All members of the Owner company will now see extra information like the new Private Notes. Administrators and users with privileges to manage People and Companies, can Add and Edit notes. While any person in the owner company can also add Private Notes: notes which are only viewable by others in the owner company.

(Private Notes will be visible only to users of Owner company)

Also, given the necessary privileges, User and Company details can be quickly added or modified without leaving the page just by clicking on the little ‘Edit‘ icon in any of the panes.

Permissions and Notifications can be changed and applied instantly by clicking on any of the yes/no switches – no save required.

(new yes/no switches instantly will apply changes)

Another handy feature of the Profile page is that you can now see the Projects and Tasks that you’re working on, while Administrators can see these tabs for all users:

(new Projects tab)

(new Tasks tab)

The new layout will allow us to add more tabs and features in future updates – providing you with an even deeper ‘catch-up’ and overview of what a user is doing in TeamworkPM. So watch this space!

I hope you like these new feature and as always let us know your thoughts and comments here or on our Facebook and Twitter pages.