Recurrence for tasks

Whenever we enter a task (eg watering plants) we also have the opportunity here, to create a recurrence pattern.
Just click the “Recurrence” button in the standard toolbar of the task.

This opens the “Task Recurrence” dialog:

Select the type of recurrence in the left column, Daily, Weekely, etc..
Depending on the type chosen, make the selections in the right column.
Specify a start date, end date or the number of times that this task should be repeated.
Click OK when you’re happy with your settings.
When you want to delete a recurrence pattern, select the task and click the “Delete”  button in the toolbar of the task.
Outlook asks you whether you want to delete all or only that occurence.
Make your choice and click OK.

Creating a task request

Outlook allows us to assign tasks to others.
Chances are, that you will have to do that when you are appointed as responsible for a project.
In order to create a task request, we click “File” – “New” – “Task request” in the menu bar.
The “Task” dialog opens:

There is lot of difference in this dialog box than when a regular task is opened.
First is the “To …”, where we give the email address of the person to whom we wish to entrust the task.
The second are the checkboxes “Keep an updated copy of this task on my task list” and “send me a status report when this task is completed.”
I think this is clear.
Click “Submit” when finished.

Responding to a task request

When you receive a task request it will appear in the Inbox.
Double-click the task request to open it.
Then the person you entrusted with the task, must accept or reject the task.

If you accept this task, it will be added to your list.
A message is sent to the person who has assigned this task.
You can add some comments on this email.
If you refuse this task, it is also sent to the person giving you the task proposed, you can still attach comments here.

Sending a Status Report

When the status of your task needs to be sent for its 100% completion, open the task by double clicking on it, and click “Actions” – “Send Status Report” in the toolbar.
The people who had asked for an update will automatically be added in the “To:”, but if you wish, you can add multiple people manually.

If a job is finished 100% , and you have noted it in the status of this task, the people in the update list will automatically be informed.

Monitoring of tasks

We can use the standard features of Outlook, we can automatically update versions of our tasks in our task list, and automatically receive a status report when the job is done.
Click on “Tools” – “Options” in the menu bar.
This opens the “Options” dialog, where we click on the “Task Options”.
In the window that appears, we can set the color of overdue tasks, and tasks performed.
And we have some choices to handle our task.
Make your choices and click OK.

Click OK in the “Options” dialog.

Managing tasks

We can keep an unassigned copy of an assigned task.
Before we assign a task, you should have the “Keep an updated copy of this task on my task list” box checked.
When you have done so with this dialog box in the task request, you can open dialog of the assigned task by double-clicking.
Choose the “Details” tab.
Click on the “Unallocated copy”.

This makes a Unallocated copy of the assigned task, which we may assign to another.
When we click this button, we also get the following message:

Click OK when you are satisfied with this.

Conveniently, when you get back a rejected task, you can offer it again to someone else.
For this, we place them back in our list.
Select the rejected task in your Inbox folder, choose “Actions” – “Place Back in tasks” (this option is only available for rejected tasks).

Also useful is a list of the various tasks assigned.
Click in the menu bar “View” – “Current View” and select “Assignments”.

Delete tasks

As mentioned earlier, to remove a task from the list, we select the task and click the “Delete” button on our keyboards.
Or we choose “Edit” – “Remove” in the menu bar.

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