Task Types

With Task Types, you can customize your tasks and your teams’ tasks to best fit your style of management and business needs. You can reuse them to save time and be more efficient in your digital workplace.

Creating and editing Task Types are Slingshot and Slingshot Enterprise features. If you are using Slingshot on the free version, you can still use and assign an existing type to a task.

Why would I use Task Types?

For example, we wanted to have a custom task type for a Customer Support team, who can use it to create tasks about different cases in the team's workspace. This way other team members can jump in and lend a hand where help is needed.

We named it Support. For better visibility, we wanted to include a few required labels, such as Chat and Email, so we could see from which channel each case was coming.

We also wanted to have a better overview of the Status of each task.

In order to get as much info as possible regarding cases, we marked the Long Text field as required.

For tracking purposes, we wanted to keep the default Assignee field for this task type. That way we can see the number of tasks that each team member has in the workspace.

Lastly, we also kept the Start Date and Due Date field for better management of the tasks.

What is a Task Types Library?

The Task Types Library is essentially a list of task types stored in a specific location.

You can have task types for your organization, different workspaces, different projects, and your personal tasks. This means that you can have one library for your organization, one for each workspace and its projects, and one for your personal tasks.

Task Types Library in an Organization

If you want to see what types of tasks your organization has created and edit them, you can:

1. Open the overflow menu of your organization.

2. Choose Organization Settings.

3. Open Task Types Library to see the full list of task types in the organization.

[!Note] Only users with owner permissions can remove task types in an organization.

Task Types Library for personal tasks

If you want to have an overview of all the task types that you have created for your personal tasks, you can:

1. Go to the upper right corner and select your profile image.

2. Choose Manage Personal Libraries.

3. Here you will find lists of all your personal task types, task templates, and task fields.

When you store task types in your personal library, they will be available only to you.

Task Types Library in a workspace and its projects

If you are a part of a workspace and want to see the whole list of available task types in that workspace, as well as it’s projects, you need to:

1. Open the overflow menu of the workspace.

2. Click/tap on Workspace Settings.

3. Choose Task Types Library. Here you can see the list of task types that are being used both in the workspace and its projects.

From the Task Types Library, you can edit a type, duplicate it, or remove it. You can also create a new task type from +Type button.

Everyone who has contributor or owner permissions in a workspace can modify the library. This means that they can edit, duplicate or remove a type. They can also create new task types.

Only the owners of an organization can remove task types from the library. Contributors can edit and duplicate a type, as well as add a new type.

When you edit a task type, the changes will be applied to all tasks that use this type.

[!Note] When you remove a specific type, the tasks of that type will continue using it. However, the removed type cannot be edited and can no longer be used for the creation of new tasks.

How can I create a Task Type?

To create a Task Type, you can:

1. Open the overflow menu of a task list or the overflow menu of a task.

2. Choose Button Action.

3. Click on Task Types Library.

4. Click/tap on +Type.

5. You will be presented with a dialog where you can add the title and the description of the task type as well as add and remove Custom Fields. In the example below we added Campaign Type as a new field.

6. When you are ready, click/tap on Done and then Save.

[!Note] If you mark a custom field in a task type as required, that field will need to be filled in only when you create a new task from the same task type.

How can I add a Custom Type to a Task?

There are a few ways for adding a custom type to a task.

If there are no tasks in a tasks list, you can assign a default task type for the whole list while creating the first task. This way you can save time and be certain that all tasks from that list cover the same criteria.

To do this, you need to:

1. Click/tap on +Task.

2. You can choose from the recently used task types or open the Task Types Library of the workspace or its project and choose a type from the list of task types.

3. The name of the task type will be visible in the upper left corner of the task. Add the title of your task as well as other details that are important to you.

4. Click/tap on Create to save the task.

5. You will notice that the default button for tasks in the upper right corner has changed. (as shown below)

If you have a list of tasks without any types assigned to them, you can convert them to a specific -type all at once with the following steps:

1. Open the overflow menu of the task list.

2. Click/tap on Convert List to.

3. Choose the task type that best suits your goals.

4. The tasks will convert to the chosen task type. With this action, you are also setting up the default task type for the task list.

If a task list already has a default task type, but you think another type fits better your team’s requirements, you can change the type with Button Action.

To do that, you need to:

1. Open the overflow menu of a task list.

2. Click/tap on Button Action.

3. Choose the task type that best suits your goals.

4. You will see the new task type in the upper right corner.

[!Note] The tasks that already exist in the task list won’t be affected. With Button Action, you can only change the default task button. When you want to create a new task, you can save time and directly use the default task type and its fields.

If you have already created a task or are in the process of creating one, you can choose a type when you:

1. Click/tap on the +Task button in the upper right corner of a task list.

2. Open Convert To from the task icon in the upper left corner of the task.

3. You will have the option to choose from task types that are in your task list or in your workspace. If none of them fit your goals, you can create a new task type.

4. Once you have added the type to your task, you will notice the changes in the upper left corner of the task.

If your task already has a type, but you want to use another type with different fields, you can:

1. Open the overflow menu of the task. In the example below, we wanted to change the type of a task named Feedback.

2. Click/tap on Convert To.

3. Choose the new type. In this case we chose Content Creation.

You will be presented with the following dialog box. Here you can decide if you want to keep fields from the initial type or not.

If you decide to keep some of the fields, they will be transferred to the new type. All other tasks that have been using the same type will be updated to reflect the changes. This means that the new fields will be added to those tasks. If the fields are not in the Task Field Library you will have the option to add them.

5. Once you have saved your changes, the task icon will change, showing the new type.

[!Note] If you decide to change the type of a task, the assignees in the task will get notified. Also, when they open the task with its new type, the assignees will see which fields got removed or added.

You can also change the type of a task by following the steps below:

1. Open the task.

2. Click/tap on the task type in the upper right corner to choose a type. In this case, we chose Content Creation.

3. As mentioned above, if the new type has different fields, you will be presented with an option to keep the fields. If you choose to keep the fields, all other tasks that have been using this same type will be updated to reflect the changes.

4. When you are ready, click/tap on Convert To.

How can I add a Custom Type to a Subtask?

If you have a big and complex task, you can always break it down into subtasks for better visibility.

As subtasks don’t take the type of their parent task, you can convert them to a specific type while creating them. There are two ways to create a subtask.

If you have already opened a task, you can:

1. Scroll down to Subtasks and then click/tap on +Add Task.

2. In the subtask dialog, you can add a title for it as well as choose which task type to use. Every task type will have different task fields. Choose the type that best fits your goals. In this case we chose Campaign Type.

3. When you are ready, click/tap on Create.

4. You will see the subtask under its parent task in the task list.

If you are going through a task list and notice that a task needs to be divided into small subtasks, you can:

1. Open the overflow menu of the task.

2. Choose Add Subtasks.

3. Here you can choose which task type to use for your subtask.

4. Depending on which type you have selected, you will be presented with different task fields.

5. When you are ready with the changes, click/tap on Create.

6. The subtask will appear under its parent task in the task list.

If your subtasks share the same criteria, you can set a default type for them, so every new subtask will have the same type.

To set a default type for subtasks you need to:

1. Open the overflow menu of a parent task.

2. Click/tap on Manage Fields.

3. Open the overflow menu of Subtasks Fields.

4. Click/tap on Button Action.

5. You will be presented with a list of different task types. Choose the one that best fits your goals.

6. Once you have chosen the default task type, it will show up under Subtasks. Click/tap on Update to save the changes.

7. Instead of +Task button for new subtasks, you will see the task type title in the parent task.

How can I remove a Task Type?

Only users with contributor or owner permissions can remove task types from a Task Types Library in a workspace.

When you remove a specific type, the tasks of that type will continue using it. However, you will no longer be able to edit the type or use it for creating new tasks. This action cannot be undone.

To remove a task type, you need to:

1. Click/tap on the +Task button in the upper right corner of the interface or under the last task in a list.

2. Click/tap on Task Types Library.

3. You will be presented with a list of task types. Open the overflow menu of the one that you want to remove.

4. Choose Remove.

5. You will see the following warning, informing you that if you remove that specific task type, you won’t be able to edit it or use it for new tasks. Old tasks that are using this type won’t be affected. If you still want to remove the task type, click/tap on Remove.

You can also remove a task type when you open the Task Types Library from the settings of a workspace or from the settings of one of its projects. You can do that with the following steps:

1. Click/tap on overflow menu of a workspace or project. In this case we chose to edit a workspace.

2. Click/tap on Workspace Settings.

3. Choose Task Types Library.

4. Click/tap on Remove from the overflow menu of a type.

5. You will again see the following warning, informing you that if you remove that specific task type, you won’t be able to edit it or use it for new tasks. Old tasks, that are using this type won’t be affected. If you still want to remove the task type, click/tap on Remove.