Microsoft's Productivity Tools: Tasks by Planner and ToDo

Screenshot of Microsoft Tasks by Planner and ToDo

Three-minute read

Microsoft Tasks by Planner and ToDo (formerly known as Planner) is a feature-rich application that integrates with Microsoft Teams. This powerful tool enables users to assign, collaborate, and monitor projects and tasks using a variety of dashboards.

To integrate the Planner app into Teams, simply navigate to the desired channel and select the + (Add a Tab) button in the menu bar. When the list of applications comes up, select Tasks by Planner and ToDo. If you don’t see this listed, start typing Tasks in the search bar and you should see the app appear.

screenshot of Microsoft Teams - how to add a tab
Once selected, on the next screen click Create a new plan and give your plan a name:

Screenshot of Tasks by Planer and To Do showing how to create a plan
You will see a new tab with the Planner name on your Team’s menu bar.

The main user interface of Planner shows tasks in the bucket view. These buckets represent different groups of tasks, like Client-specific, Internal, and Webinar Series. Within each bucket, you can create individual tasks, choose a due date, and make assignments:

Screenshot of Microsoft Teams showing tasks in Tasks  By Planner and ToDo

When users are assigned a task, they receive an email with the new task information. The task information can be monitored from the main Planner screen in Teams (see above). Users can also edit tasks and mark them complete using this same interface by clicking on the task to open the Task Details screen:

004_Tasks-by-Planner-and-To-Do-Task-Details
In addition to the bucket view, users also have the ability to view their team’s tasks using a charts view, which groups tasks by various categories. For example, in the screenshots below, the tasks are broken down by status, bucket, priority, and members:

Charts view in Microsoft Teams Tasks By Planner and ToDo


007_Tasks-by-Planner-and-To-Do-Chart-View-3


Second Charts view in Microsoft Teams Tasks By Planner and ToDo

Finally, Planner provides a list view which enables you to view all tasks in a standard list:

Standard Lists view in Microsoft Teams Tasks By Planner and ToDo

Microsoft Planner is an easy-to-use task management application that nicely integrates with Teams. Try it out to see if it could help your organization’s task management needs, and if you have any questions or would like help choosing the best Microsoft tools for your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

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