Microsoft Planner Overview
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Full video here
Planner can be used as an individual or group management tool. Planner is made up of a collection of tasks created by the user to have certain properties to monitor and track ongoing tasks. These tasks can also be separated, assigned to, and filtered.
CREATE A NEW PLANNER BOARD
A Planner board will create a SharePoint group upon creation (which allows you to upload documents to), therefore it is advised to use an existing SharePoint group upon creation.
To create a new board;
- Click ‘New plan’
- Name your plan
- Choose the privacy options
- Either
- Continue with creation – create a new plan
- Add to an existing Microsoft group > search for the group
- Click ‘Create plan’
BOARD EXPLAINED
The board is comprised of cards organised into buckets that act to separate the cards. Each card is a task and can therefore be moved to other buckets either by drag & drop or by going into the card settings.
Once a card is completed it will appear in a ‘Completed’ stack below the ongoing cards and will remain in the same bucket.
ADD A NEW CARD
To add a new card;
- Click ‘Add task’ in the bucket you wish to add the card to
- Enter the task name (optional: add due date / Assign to a member)
- Click ‘Add task’ (shortcut key = Enter)
Now the basics are added, the task can be extended with additional details and tracking information. Click on the card to open the full details window, the below options can be added;
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Assign to a team member – member will receive email reminders, and it will appear in their ‘Hub’ section (see below for more information)
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Categorise with a label – create your own label or choose a predefined colour label
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Bucket – change the bucket this task will appear in
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Progress (Not Started, In Progress, Not Started) – change the status of the card here
- Start date
- End date
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Notes – comments box to add more detail on the task
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Checklist – break down the task into multiple sections, these can be easily moved about and marked as complete. Note, you can create a subtask from these by selecting the ‘new task’ button which appears when you hover over the checklist item (next to the delete icon)
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Attachments – Add any attachments relating to that document, this will save to the SharePoint group and be accessible by all team members on the board (these permissions can be changed within SharePoint). Therefore, multiple team members can then add and edit the document if required
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Comments – post a comment on that task
MARK A TASK COMPLETE
This can be done by clicking on the circle next to the card name, and also within the card itself by changing the progress status to ‘Complete’. If a task has been made complete you can undo this by repeating the same process but choosing one of the other options.
PLANNER OPTIONS
CHANGE THE LOOK OF YOUR PLANNER BOARD
Click on the ‘…’ next to schedule and choose ‘Plan Settings’ here you can add a background
VIEW THE CARDS IN AN ANALYSIS VIEW
Toggle to the ‘Charts’ and ‘Schedule’ sections to see the cards in a variety of ways, and to showcase a running total of all the cards along with their analysis. This is especially beneficial for a management-type plan if you wanted to view how many tasks are in progress, what staff members have been assigned to, and the bulk of the work.
The schedule view will use the start and end date to enter the values in.
FILTER THE CARDS
Choose the ‘Filter’ button at the top of the page and click on any of the different fields to filter the cards by a specified range
ADD MEMBERS TO THE BOARD
This can be done either by clicking ‘Members’ at the top of the page and entering their name, or if you add the member to the Teams group the Planner board was created on – this would then add the member to the group automatically.
USING THE HUB
Each staff member has a Planner Hub which is an amalgamation of all of the tasks they have been assigned across all boards they have access to. This allows the user to see and track their ongoing tasks.
LEAVE A PLAN
As the Planner boards are created using a Teams group if you do not want to view the board you can choose to leave the board. Click on the ‘…’ next to schedule and choose ‘Leave plan’.
You may not have this option if you are the Owner of the Team, or created the Plan and is not on an existing Teams group.
EMBED THIS INTO YOUR TEAMS GROUP
You can add Planner as another tab within your Teams group if you would like your members to view the plan there. Simply add a new tab and choose ‘Tasks by Planner’, choose the Planner board and load through.
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