Creating tasks

In order to create new tasks in your personal tasks folders, public or other users' shared tasks folders - provided you have the right to create objects - you can use one of the methods described below.

Creating new tasks in the Tasks module

If the Tasks module is open, click on the Tasks icon in the New panel section. Here it is irrelevant whether or not the panel is already expanded - in every view of the panel, the icon for creating new tasks is always displayed at the top.

As an alternative you can open the New task window by double-clicking in the empty field below the task list in the list and h split view.

Creating tasks in public or other users' shared tasks folders

Please note that you need the right to create objects for creating new tasks in public or other users' shared tasks folders.

If these rights have not been granted to you, a relevant error message will appear after starting the function to create new tasks. You can now decide whether you want to create the new task in your personal tasks folder (Tasks folder) or if you want to cancel the function.

You can find more information about choosing the desired destination folder and the necessary access rights under the section called “Entering data for a new task” of this chapter.

Creating new tasks from other modules

Even if the Task module is not active, you can create new tasks - from any other module of Open-Xchange Server. If the panel is not expanded, click on the downward arrow of the New panel section and then select Task from the menu that opens then.

If the panel is already expanded, click on the Task icon in the New panel section.

Target folder for new tasks

Since tasks can only be managed in tasks folders, your personal tasks folder (Tasks folder) is automatically preset to be the destination folder when you create new tasks from other modules of Open-Xchange Server .

If you would like to save newly created tasks in other personal folders or in public or other users' shared tasks folders, you can choose another destination folder when you enter the data for the new task.

You can find more information about choosing a destination folder and the required access rights in the section the section called “Entering data for a new task” below.

Entering data for a new task

Regardless of how and from which module you have initiated the task creation, the window Task opens with the Task tab activated. Now you can enter the relevant data for a new task via the appropriate fields.

Start and due date of the task

You can enter the start and due date of the new task either by hand-filling the appropriate fields or set the dates using the calendar icons.

When you enter data, they are checked for plausibility to make sure that the due date of a task is set to occur after its start. If you have mistakenly set the due date of a new task to occur before its start, you will receive a relevant error message, and cannot save this task until you have entered chronologically correct values for the start and due date.

Status and progress

Via the Status select list you can set what phase the new task currently is in - the Not started status is selected by default and the progress indicator is set to 0%.

The status is related to the progress (and vice versa): If you choose In progress, for example, the progress indicator is automatically set to 25%; if you set the progress indicator (using the + or - buttons) to 100%, the status is automatically changed to Done. You can also enter the progress by hand instead of using the buttons. In this case the status is not changed automatically.

Priority of the new task

Via the Priority option you can assign a priority to the task - you can choose between Low, Normal and High.

Personal tasks

If you have started the creation of the new task from any personal folder and you do not add any other participants to the task, you can mark the new task as personal. Tasks marked as personal can only be accessed by you - even if you share your personal tasks folders for common use with other users, other users cannot see nor edit your personal tasks.

Creating personal tasks

Please note that you can only mark tasks as personal that you have created for yourself - without other participants - and that you manage in your personal tasks folders. When you save new tasks in public or other users' shared tasks folders, you will get an error message, if these tasks are marked as personal tasks.

Task series

If you want to create periodically recurring tasks - as, for example, a weekly data backup -, you can create it as a task series with appropriate parameters instead of planning these tasks over and over again.

In order to create a task series, click on the Series option. This opens the New task series window, where you can adjust the settings for the new tasks series.

The following figure shows a typical example of a task series - the parameters were set as follows: The task should be performed every week on Friday; the date of the initial instance of the task series is set to be the start date. Since this task series should continue indefinitely, the Ends option is set to Never.

Figure 5.5. Task series (example)

Task series (example)

Task series

More information about instances of task series is available under the section called “Editing tasks” in this chapter.

Associating tags

You can associate one or several tags with the new task in order to categorize it. To do this, you manually write the desired tags into the Tags field (individual tags must be separated by commas) or click on the option Tags and then select the desired tag by mouse click. Note that the Tags option display tags only if you had provided these before into the Settings.

As a result, all selected tags are entered into the Tags field .

If you would like to delete one or several of the tags associated with a task, just delete the relevant entries from the Tags field. Place your cursor into the field and delete the undesirable tags.

As an alternative, click on Tags deselect the tags in the popup window and click OK.

Creating personal tags

If you would like to reuse certain tags frequently, it is advisable to create these as personal tags in the Settings, so that you can access these tags more simply. You can find more information about creating your personal tags and a description of the procedure in the chapter Settings under the section called “Private Tags”.

Selecting the destination folder

With the Folder option, you specify in which folder the new task should be saved; by default, one of the following folders is selected in this field:

  • When you create new tasks from one of your personal tasks folders => the personal tasks folder that was opened when you created the new task.

  • When you create new tasks from a public or another user's shared tasks folder to which have been granted the right to create objects => the public or shared tasks folder that was open when you created the new task.

  • When you create new tasks from a public or another user's shared tasks folder to which you have not been granted folder rights => your personal tasks folder (Tasks folder).

  • When you create new tasks from another module of Open-Xchange Server, e.g., Email, Calendar, etc. => your personal tasks folder (Tasks folder).

Please note during your selection that new tasks can only be saved in tasks folders and that you need the right to create objects for public or other users' shared tasks folders in order to be able to save tasks there. Hence, the select list displays only as destination folders those tasks folders for which you have been granted this right.

Activating reminders

If you would like to be reminded of tasks, you can set via the Reminder field when you wish to be reminded of the new task. Please note that a due date is required for setting a reminder and that the selected reminder is always only active for the creator of this new task - all other internal participants separately set their own reminders for this task.

If you have activated a reminder for a task, a reminder window will alert you of this task when the end of the selected period has been reached. In this window you can decide whether you would like to be reminded of this task again after a certain period, or whether this first reminder of this task is sufficient.

Notifying participants by E-Mail

If you want to notify all added participants of this new task, activate the option Notify all participants by E-Mail. This approach is recommended particularly when you are inviting to participate in a task external participants (e.g., from your personal contacts) who do not have access to Open-Xchange Server - thus, they would not be automatically informed about this new task.

Confirming tasks

More information about the possibilities for confirming newly created tasks is available in the section the section called “Editing tasks” in this chapter.

Entering details for a new task

In the Details tab you can specify the estimated and actual duration, the estimated and already accrued costs, travel expenses, as well as other billing information.

Selecting participants for a new task

In the Participants tab you specify which participants should be involved in this task. In order to add further participants to the new task or to delegate the task, click on the Add Participant function in the Participants panel section. This function opens the window Select participants where you can select the participants to be added as described below.

Adding internal participants

In order to add registered users of Open-Xchange Server (as internal participants), you first need to make sure that the Global address book is selected as the contact folder. Then enter the name of the participants to be added, wildcards (the characters * and ?), or combinations of parts of the name and wildcards into the Search field. Then click on Go.

You can use wildcards in the following ways (among others) for defining the search criterion in the window Select participants - you can ignore capitalization here:

  • he or *he* => all registered users from the contact folder Global address book whose first or last name contains the character string "he".

  • m???r => all registered users from the contact folder Global address book whose first or last name contains the characters "m" and "r" with precisely 3 characters between "m" and "r" - as, for example, the last names Maier, Meier or Meyer, but not Mair or Muller.

In the next step you add the desired participants by selecting the relevant participants from the select list and clicking on Add in the Participants section.

Creator and participants of tasks

Please note that as the creator of the task you cannot be entered as a participant. The creator of a task can add only add additional participants to the task or delegate the task to others.

Adding external participants

If you would like to add external participants to a task who do not have access to Open-Xchange Server (e.g., contacts from your personal or from public or other users' shared contact folders), select first the relevant contact folder and then add the desired participants as you would do for internal participants.

If you have made a mistake selecting participants, you can remove the contents of the Participants field via the Delete function. For this, select one ore more participants in the Participants field and click on Delete.

If it would be impossible to find in a single search all internal and external participants who you want to add to the new task, repeat the display and selection process for participants - with appropriately different search criteria - until you have captured all required participants.

Adding attachments to tasks

If you would like to associate external documents related to the new task (for example, text documents with task specifications, spreadsheets with part lists, images, etc.) directly with this task, you can add the relevant files to the task as attachments.

Please note that in order to be able to add attachments to tasks, you must have enough free storage capacity on the server. If the storage space assigned to you is used up, you cannot add any further attachments to tasks. The InfoBox on the Start page of Open-Xchange Server provides information about your currently available storage space.

In order to add attachments to new tasks, you first activate the Attachments tab and then click on Add attachment under the Attachments panel section. This function opens the Select Attachments window where you can select the file(s) to be attached. Select one or more files via Browse and use the Add option to add them to the list of attachments.

When you confirm your file selection with OK, the window Select attachments is closed and the attachments are added to the task.

Adding attachments to tasks

Every attachment that you associate with a specific task is exclusively associated with this task. If you add a file as an attachment to several tasks, a unique copy of this file is attached to each of these tasks.

Removing attachments from tasks

If you added attachments to the new task by mistake, you can delete them again. For this, select the file(s) you wish to delete from the task from the attachments table. If you want to select several files, hold down the Ctrl key (for non-adjacent multi-selections) or the Shift key (for adjacent multi-selections). Then click on Remove in the Attachments panel section to remove all selected attachments from the task.

Saving your entries

In order to save the new task with all supplied data, click on the Save icon in the Save panel section. This closes the Task window and creates the new task in the previously selected folder.

Notifying participants

If you had included other participants in the new task or delegated the new task to others, all participants are notified of this task by E-Mail - provided that you had activated the option Notify participants when you were creating the new task.

Discard input

If you do not want to save the task, click on Cancel in the Window panel section. To be safe, you will be asked whether you really want to discard your entries. If you confirm this query with OK, the Task window is closed and all inputs are discarded.