Posey's Tips & Tricks
Microsoft Improves Planner
While it's much more useful than it used to be, it's still missing some key features.
I have always thought of Microsoft Planner as being the most underrated of all the Microsoft 365 apps. While Planner is admittedly somewhat simplistic, it works really well for basic task management.
Prior to adopting Microsoft Planner for example, I used the marker boards in my office to keep track of my writing assignments. I had three calendar boards and would write assignments and due dates on those boards using dry erase markers. This technique worked relatively well, and I used it for years, but it wasn’t perfect.
One of the biggest issues with using marker boards to keep track of my schedule was the simple fact that because my schedule wasn’t online, I couldn’t access it remotely. When I would travel, I always found myself making notes within a Word document so that I could keep track of what I needed to work on while I was away from my office.
Another drawback to the manual approach that I used to use was that marker boards limited the amount of text that could be included for each assignment. With Planner, I can include extensive notes for each task that I create.
Overall, I have been happy with my decision to adopt Planner. Even so, I have always wished that Planner was just a bit more sophisticated than it is. When you create tasks in Planner, you can organize the tasks into buckets. You can also set a start date, a due date, and a priority. It’s also possible to track the task’s progress, although the progress options are limited to Not Started, In Progress, and Completed. You can see what this looks like in Figure 1.
[Click on image for larger view.] Figure 1. This is what the Assign Task screen looks like in Panner.
Although Planner meets my needs, there are two features that I have always wished that Planner had. The first of those features is integration with my accounting software. It would be great to be able to automatically generate an invoice when I wrap up a project as opposed to having to manually create the invoice within a separate piece of software.
The other capability that I have long wished for in Planner is the ability to create custom fields and to change the available options in some of the existing fields. As a technology author, it would be great to be able to create fields for things like the name of the piece that I am going to be writing, who I am supposed to submit the piece to, the target word count, and that sort of thing. As at stands right now, I include these and other details in the Notes section of the tasks that I create.
As mentioned, I would also like to be able to modify some of the existing fields - particularly the Progress field. In addition to the existing options (not started, in progress, and completed), I would like to add a few additional steps in my workflow such as written, reviewed, and submitted.
Although I haven’t gotten exactly the feature set that I have wished for, Microsoft has introduced a new premium version of Planner. This premium version is called Planner Plan 1. A license currently costs $12 per month, although you can get a discount if you opt to pay upfront for a 1 year or a 3 year subscription.
The premium version of Planner offers more advanced capabilities than the basic version of Planner that is included in Microsoft 365. Many of the new features are similar to those found in Microsoft Project. You can find the full list of features here.
Although I have not yet had the chance to try the new Planner in a production environment, it does have some intriguing features. For example, it is finally possible to create custom task fields and to use conditional coloring. You will also be able to create dependencies between tasks and you can even define goals. Some of the other noteworthy features include color coded buckets, custom calendars, and the ability to review task history information.
Perhaps the biggest news with regard to Planner Premium is that Microsoft is integrating Copilot. With Copilot you will be able to create detailed plans based on a description of what you need. You will also be able to use Copilot to track a plan’s progress, figure out who is overworked, and also to spot issues that are likely to cause problems with completing the tasks within your plan.
About the Author
Brien Posey is a 22-time Microsoft MVP with decades of IT experience. As a freelance writer, Posey has written thousands of articles and contributed to several dozen books on a wide variety of IT topics. Prior to going freelance, Posey was a CIO for a national chain of hospitals and health care facilities. He has also served as a network administrator for some of the country's largest insurance companies and for the Department of Defense at Fort Knox. In addition to his continued work in IT, Posey has spent the last several years actively training as a commercial scientist-astronaut candidate in preparation to fly on a mission to study polar mesospheric clouds from space. You can follow his spaceflight training on his Web site.