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Struggling with the difference between template view and live task view

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Level 2
Hey everyone! One of the biggest struggles we are immediately having in 2019.1 is how the template view and (live) task view look SO different and we've lost a major design element that we didn't fully realize how much we relied on. In the template task list, you still have bold text going all the way across the screen for a parent task: It's a wonderful visual cue to see where parents start/stop so you can ensure that your steps/milestones are in their proper round, especially when you're viewing on wider screens or using a view w/a lot of columns. But once you use the templates in a project... Most of the formatting is gone: (The sudden left/right scrolling and lack of screen responsiveness is also a major problem for my team as we are constantly docking/undocking our laptops, but that's neither here nor there right now. ;-) I worked w/the WF folks a few weeks ago in Beta and showed them how we used this screen. I emphasized that losing the bold was making it really hard for me to figure out where I'm supposed to be in our tasks. While I forewarned my PM team of the change, now that it's live, the complaints are rolling in fast and furious from both inside and outside of my group. My biggest take away is that everyone had visually trained themselves to find the bold copy and then down to the deadlines (one of the farthest right columns). Without that cue, people are literally using their fingers to trace across the screen to make sure they're on the correct task line. Seems like we're taking an analog step backwards here. Naturally, we have a lot (a LOT!) of templates and hundreds of active projects right now, so I'm trying to get this "fixed" as quickly as possible to help everyone. I've temporarily added a "Can Start" column (which we use in our dashboard reports and people are familiar with) to add a pop of color and push dates a little closer to their names. I'm not a huge fan of adding this column because it's indicating "READY" on a Round 2 parent task that is very much NOT ready. Does anyone have any suggestions for a quick-fix way to replicate the template where the parent task--just the parent task--is in bold? Or somehow make it clear where groupings begin/end? ETA : Literally two minutes after I posted this, one of my designers came up to me and asked "Did you do something to my Workfront? Can you put my task screen back to how it was?" Thanks!! Bree Main General Nutrition Centers, Inc.
7 Replies

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Level 10
Hi Bree, As a workaround for the recent release that drops parent task bolding, you might consider adding "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217195897-Using-Conditional-Formatting-in-Views">conditional formatting in your most used task view(s) that makes the entire row bold if Number Of Children is > 0 (meaning it is a parent task). Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

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Level 2
This works perfectly! Thanks for giving me a very succinct answer to my very long question/problem! :-) I had been tinkering around with conditions on individual columns, but it just didn't cover it like a Number of Children conditional format does. Next question... How do I hide this new column so it doesn't confuse my users? I tried to use the "Hiding a Column in a View" ("https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/360001028853-Understanding-Common-Uses-of-Text-Mode">Understanding Common Uses of Text Mode ), but I just can't get the column itself to hide (I was able to make the actual number of children disappear). Any idea there? Thanks, Doug! You're always so helpful!! Bree Main General Nutrition Centers, Inc.

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Level 10
My pleasure Bree; thanks for letting me get away with such a minimal suggestion and running with it. Similarly (now I'm pressing my luck), on occasion, I'll move such columns to the far right of the view and set the column alias to "." (out of sight, out of mind); especially for sorting fields that I'm using to match groupings, but don't want to repeat in text. As a bonus, even with the dot, you can still sort on the column. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

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Level 2
Thanks again! (My aforementioned designer and fellow PMs were VERY happy to see the bold back after I stumbled around for a bit this afternoon!) Bree Main General Nutrition Centers, Inc.

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Level 3
I hate the new format but more importantly what happened to the add new task quick add on the bottom that can be then moved and dropped where needed? Susan Bose Gojo Industries

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Level 3
I figured it out - somehow the grouping was on. Susan Bose Gojo Industries

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Level 8
Doug - this is genius. What didn't I think of that! Adina Pierce