Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Now You Can Access Google Tasks In Mail, Calendar and Mobile Applications

Finally, Tasks are part of the Google calendaring application. The Task feature has been available for a while now, but it wasn’t available as part of the calendaring system, where I believe most people want and need to use a task management system.

As is typical with Google, it’s not a flashy part of the calendaring system. Looking at the image below, you can almost miss it if you weren’t paying attention.

tasks-link-on-google-calendar-page

Just like adding a calendar event, when you click on a time line or day box, a bubble window pops up, giving you the ability to add an event or a task. Once you have entered the text for your tasks, you will immediately see the task show up on the day you want the task due. You will also see in the Task pane on the right of the calendar, you can see it in a pane on the right of GMail, and as you can see from my iPhone I was able to see the task immediately.

googloe-task-entry-screen

google-task-in-calendar

google-task-on-iphone

So as it stands today, Google has basically made tasks available across all the application you would expect to see it, GCal, GMail and in mobile applications.

One feature I hope they implement soon are multiple task buckets. You can create tasks on the iPhone in a sort of bucket, but all calendar and mail task entries end up in the default task list. That isn’t a big deal, but I have tasks separated into groups (like things I do every Monday as an example).

There are several actions available when you have the task list pane open. You can edit, indent, sort, and several more. You will find the actions at the bottom of the task list.

This is a great step for this feature. I use tasks all the time, now I can see them across all my Google apps.

[Update: 05/14/09]I wanted to make a small change to this post. It appears that you can move a task to another list once you have created it. There is a small drop down at the bottom of the bubble form when you are editing a task that lets you move it to a new list. Didn't see that before. That drop down list should also be on the new entry form. Hello Google?
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5 comments:

  1. Its nice to know that. Thanks for this information.

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  2. as is suggested in the project notes for taskalone, I created the Chrome tear away option for tasks. But, this project seems pretty cool too.

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  3. as is suggested in the project notes for taskalone, I created the Chrome tear away option for tasks. But, this project seems pretty cool too.

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  4. i think that gadget allows you view your agenda without having to open your browser.

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  5. johannabartleyJuly 20, 2010

    I'm glad the task management system is available and I would like to be able to use it under Google's Calendar service. Still, some people need to use just one of the too, the tasks or the calendar, so this is why I think Google chose to separate the two services.
    Johanna @ Domain name registration

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