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Microsoft Planner - 5 features to be more effective

Microsoft Planner – 5 features to be more effective

Tim Lauenroth

Microsoft Planner is a great tool for creating projects on short notice, defining tasks and assigning them to people. At the same time, you can document the progress within the application and exchange information about the tasks with each other using the chat function. The Planner is also compatible with other Microsoft365 programs such as SharePoint or Teams.

An app with many possibilities that simplifies the implementation of projects. Today, we at timeghost will show you five ways to work even more effectively with Planner.

1. Add emojis

To better visualize the different tasks within the project and thus make them look clearer, using emojis is a great way to get a better overview of different tasks. Emojis can be inserted not only in the task description, but also in the different bucket titles (see tool icon at “To do`s”). Especially if many tasks are assigned to one project, it can quickly become confusing.

How can I insert emojis?

For Mac users the key combination is “Command + Control + Shift” and for Windows users “Windows logo + period (.) “.

Add emojis

2. Customizable details in the task

Some MicrosoftPlanner users create tasks that contain much more details than can be shown in the overview. By clicking the button “Show on card” you can select which details you want to see on the project card, so that in the best case you don’t even have to click into the detailed task description. In the screeshot it is selected which of the three contents of the task should be displayed in the project card. In this case a note has been chosen, which is already displayed in the project map (see arrow).

Customize details in the task

3. Looking for specific attachment files

One of the main problems of many users of the Planner is the search for attachments. Creating many tasks automatically creates many files attached to each task. If you want to retrieve a specific document, you can easily do that via SharePoint. SharePoint manages all files that you have added to individual tasks as attachments in Planner.

To do this, you only have to click on the three dots marked in the image in Planner and then on “files”. This will take you to the SharePoint page that hosts your files. To find a specific document, just enter the file name in the SharePoint search field at the top and the desired document will be displayed.

Looking for specific attachment files

4. Integration of Microsoft Planner with Microsoft Teams and timeghost

The compatibility of Microsoft365 products with each other is one of the advantages that Microsoft Planner users also enjoy. The integration with Teams is particularly convenient, as the user no longer has to switch between two applications. We have developed the timeghost Teams app to connect project time tracki