March 3, 2016
The features that you might have just missed
*PLEASE NOTE – DropTask is now Ayoa – an all-in-one tool for idea generation and collaboration, that goes beyond traditional task management. Discover Ayoa and achieve your best work.*
Features; whether it’s the latest pocket gadget or the new ‘smart home’ control system, we just can’t get enough. Features offer substance, and sure, some can be throwaway gimmicks, but more often than not they become indispensable due to their ability to make our lives easier – to solve a nagging problem or to fulfil a need we didn’t think we had. Plus, let’s face it, they’re one of the key drivers that leads us to ‘buy-in’ in the first place so it’s important to know exactly how they can be put to best use.
Now when it comes to DropTask, we try to keep things really simple. We don’t expect you or your team to study tutorial after tutorial just to get started, so we pack in the power in a way that we hope enhances your user experience rather than hinders it – which is especially important if you’re new and trying to find your way around a productivity-boosting app. Despite this, some features can still get overlooked, so here it is; our rundown of 5 fantastic features that you might have just missed…
1. Turn a ‘Please Do’ into a ‘To Do’
It’s one of the fan favourites – any email that you forward to task@droptask.com automatically converts into a ‘to-do’ within DropTask, as long as you’ve emailed from the same address that’s linked to your account. But what if someone else wants to put in a request via email?
Well, neatly located within your user preferences (which can be accessed by selecting your avatar in the top right corner), you’ll find a unique email address ending in ‘droptask.com’. Simply give this to colleagues, friends, family or anyone else who likes to dish out the odd job, and anything they send to this address will automatically land in your DropTask as a colorful and interactive task bubble, begging to be burst.
2. Keep your eyes on the task at all times…(or not)
By default, you’ll receive notifications and alerts on almost all of the activity that takes place on a task that you’ve created – whether you’re assigned or not. It’s a great way to stay in the loop, but doesn’t need to be the case if you’re looking to hand over responsibility and then take a step back from having any further involvement. To opt-out of updates, simply select the task to access the feature-rich task sidebar and then click the button marked with 3 dots. Then, select ‘Unwatch‘ from the drop-down menu so you can go back to your day without hearing another peep.
3. Drag attachments
The quickest way to upload a file to a task is to go into the task side bar, click on the ‘paperclip’ icon and then select where you would like to upload it from… Right? Wrong. To save some seconds, try dragging a file from wherever it’s stored on your computer, straight onto the task circle itself and ta-da! It’s attached.
4. Show or hide
Dependency arrows are great for creating workflows so you can easily identify what needs to be done first, or next.
Example:
If you’re looking to bake a cake, then you’ll need to buy the ingredients first. So the sequence will look like this:
Pretty simple, right? Well if your project starts to grow and your goals get ambitions, you could end up with arrows pointing in all directions:
This is when you’ll want to seek out our Show or Hide filters. Within this filter menu you have the option to show dependencies for a ‘Selected Task Only’, meaning that the arrows will only show when you’ve clicked a task and therefore expressed some interest in it. This filter helps to keep your project clean, so you only see what’s important to you at that time.
5. Sharing is caring
Spreading the word and inviting friends and family to join you in DropTask allows you to remain seamlessly productive across each area of your life; whether you’re organising whose turn it is for the school run, planning your wedding, or making a start on that business venture you’ve been putting off. But we understand that it can be tricky to get everyone on the same page, so we’ve created Visibility Settings that you can adjust as the project owner.
Visibility Settings allow you to set projects from ‘Private’ to ‘Public’ (just check that you don’t have any sensitive information that you need to keep private first), and you can share the link with anyone – even if they don’t have an account. What’s more, with ‘read-only’ access you can sit back, relax and share your ideas and goals with complete peace of mind that they can’t be changed in the slightest.
Have you recently discovered a feature that you didn’t know existed? Let us know in the comments below!