Using TaskManager without an account

This is the first part in a series of comprehensive tutorials on how to use TaskManager. Now, we’re going to explore how to use TaskManager without being logged into an account.

Getting started

For our first tutorial we will discuss how to quickly create a group and a task.

1. The first step is to create a new group. You can do so by clicking the button on the Board.
2. After the new group has been created, click on the icon in front of the group name.

3. You will be prompted with a text box for naming the task
4. The Task Drawer should pop up on the right side of your screen. In it, you will be able to perform all task-related actions.

As an alternative to step three, you can go to the top of the Sidebar and click the button.

Doing so will prompt you with a form where you will be able to:

• give a title to the task.
• write a description.
• set a due date.
• select the group you wish the task to be added to.
• tick the checkbox next to Add another task after creating this one in case you don’t want to leave the form after clicking Create Task.
• Everything else stays the same.

The UI

The UI is split into four parts:

• The Header, which contains the current page title as well as common actions.
• The left-hand Sidebar, which acts as a main menu that can be used to access the other features, including the option to sign-in or to create a new account.
• The Board (or Main Area), which displays the actual tasks.
• The right-hand Drawer, which is primarily used when editing a task.

Now, let’s have a look at every button in each of these sections.

The Header

The top of the page contains three buttons:

• Export allows you to either generate a PDF file containing your To-Do list or physically print it.
• “View” allows you to change the way the tasks are shown. You can choose between List view and Tile view (also known as Kanban board).
• Filter: Allows you to filter the tasks that are displayed according to two categories:
  • progress (“Not started”, “Marked in progress”, “Incomplete tasks”)
  • due date (“Overdue”, “Due today”, “Due next N days”)

The Sidebar

The Sidebar contains TaskManager’s navigation features. You can make it go away by clicking on the top-right button, and you can bring int back with the top left button that shows up in the Header

Timesheets

Clicking the icon will display all tasks and subtasks with work logged inside the specified time interval. Read more on the topic.

Search

Clicking the icon pops up a search bar in a modal window which you can use to search for specific tasks.

New Task

Clicking the icon, you will be shown a form that you need to fill in order to create a new task.

All Tasks

Clicking this button will display all tasks in the main area.

Today

Clicking this button will display only the tasks that are due today.

Sign In / Sign Up

This will prompt you with a form from which you can log into your account or create an entirely new one.

Task Drawer

From the task drawer you can perform the following actions:

• Set the task priority (Low, High, On Hold).
• Set the amount of progress that has been made toward completing the task.
• Log work.
• Add a due date.
• Change the group it belongs to.
• Create a subtask for this task or set this one as a subtask of another task.
• Add attachments.
• Add comments.

Adding comments

In order to add a comment, you have to click on a task. The task options drawer should slide in from the right of the screen. At the bottom of the task drawer is a textbox which will expand upon clicking on it, revealing additional options.

• The button allows you to attach files to your comment. Clicking it will open your device’s file picker (Windows Explorer, Mac Finder, etc.) [Backspace]

• The Emoji icon allows you to add emojis in comments. Here’s what they look like:

  

• The rest of the icons are standard document editing features: bold, italic, underline, and so on.

  Once you hit Comment, your comment will appear in the task drawer.

The Board

The Board is where the tasks are displayed, depending on what sidebar button has been pressed.

Group options

By hovering your mouse over one of the task groups, a context icon will appear.

Pressing it will prompt with two options: Edit group and Delete group.

Logging work

Logging your work is important for keeping track of your progress.

1. Click on the task you would like to log work for. This will open the task drawer.
2. Click on Progress to expand the section.
3. Click on Log work. This will prompt you with a form. form which you can set the date of the log and time spent on that task. Enter the time spent as hours and minutes, e.g. “2h 15m”.

Timesheets

Timesheets is a special page that allows you to quickly generate reports based on your work.

• At the top of the page we have:
  • a drop-down menu that allows us to select the unit of time we wish to use - “Day”, “Week”, “Month”, “Quarter”, “Year”, or “All Time” (which displays all tasks, regardless of their due dates).
  • a selector, which allows you to choose the timeframe, whose size is specified via the drop-down menu
  • a Generate report button, whose functionality is explained below.

• Below that we have:
  • a list of all tasks within the specified time interval, containing the amount of time logged for each task, as well as a checkbox. If at least one of these boxes is ticked, the “Generate report” button will become available. If clicked, we will be greeted by several options for customizing our report, the most important of which being the Export dropdown from which we can choose the format (CSV, EXCEL, or PDF).
  • the total logged time.