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Tasks List Update

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Level 4
Hey, all, As you have already noticed, with last week's release we've updated the Tasks list under a project. I'd like to outline the key improvements that you can expect with this change: Improvements in performance of list interactions - One of the main goals of this update is to improve the performance of list interactions. This means you can now efficiently interact with your tasks list regardless of the amount of data you have there and without feeling any delays in the actions. As an example, selecting all items on a 2000 items list now takes 200ms compared to 3 seconds on the previous version. View more information on your screen by default - We're now loading up to 2000 tasks on a page by default, so you can now enjoy seeing all of your tasks on the screen without having to change the items per page setting manually. Undo-Redo your changes on the list when you're in Gantt mode - The updated version of task list allowed us to implement Undo/Redo functionality for list actions when you're viewing the Gantt Chart. You can now reverse the changes to the task hierarchy, add/delete items, make inline edits etc. and save time in the process, as you will be able to save only once when you're done editing your project plan. We are hopeful that the mentioned updates will help you manage your work more efficiently. This is one of the most used areas of our product so we analyze all your feedback from various channels to make sure we address your concerns and reported problems with urgency. We've patched fixes for several reported problems and will continue to fix the rest with higher priority. Other than the bugs, below are the main points that we've received a lot of feedback on, along with our plans to address them: List Scrolling - In the new version, the list separates from the page to enter and exit full screen mode when the users scroll up and down. We're working to improve this experience and are looking into ways to scroll the whole page instead of separating the list. Column sizes - We got feedback in Preview phase that the distribution of column sizes needs improvements. We adjusted the sizes for all the columns in default Workfront views, but did not have a quick way to update column sizes on the custom views. We're working on improvements for custom views as well to display the information in a more convenient way and will make it available asap. In the meantime, you can manually resize columns on your views, which will stick even after logging out and logging back in. Browser search limitations - To improve the performance of lists, we've used lazy rendering, which means that the browser renders only the currently visible portion of the data. As a result, the browser search only finds items that you can actually see, so the items down the list are not found. To address this, we've introduced Quick Filter functionality, which allows filtering on the whole page data. We're planning to introduce a keyboard shortcut for Quick Filter soon, which will allow you to activate the quick filters and use it via the keyboard. Please feel free to email me any further feedback you have at lilitmkrtchyan@workfront.com, or "https://calendly.com/lilitmkrtchyan/lists-discussion"> book a call to discuss your use cases in more detail. We are committed to improving the experience for planners in this core area, and I'll continue to update here with the progress of improvements we make. Thanks! Lilit Lilit Mkrtchyan Workfront
85 Replies

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Level 8
"List Scrolling - In the new version, the list separates from the page to enter and exit full screen mode when the users scroll up and down. We're working to improve this experience and are looking into ways to scroll the whole page instead of separating the list." I am sure you have heard it 100 times now, but this list separation is killing our PMs. It really just makes the experience hard to manage and ends up being more of a hindrance than benefit. Are there any plans to revert back to the previous view settings in the meantime? Brandon Pritchard System Administrator iNHouse Marketing - Nationwide pritcb1@nationwide.com

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Level 4
Hello, Brandon, Improving the scroll experience is the highest priority for us and we're working on a fix to get rid of the list jumps asap. Thanks! Lilit Lilit Mkrtchyan Workfront

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Level 7
Fixing this scrolling issue is absolutely number 1 priority for us. I would reiterate Brandon's comments that it is a hindrance and massively impacting resource managers and PMs ability to work in the tool effectively. We'd be happy to revert back to how it used to work in task lists. Louise Reynolds Premier Farnell Senior Global Marketing Workflow Specialist

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Level 10
I responded to Lilit privately, but two of the relevant issues my PMs have with the full screen mode is that high volume PMs with multiple Projects open (multiple project tabs) no longer have a way to distinguish between projects, and that when they begin scrolling, they lose access to the first few task lines. Those tasks stay with the project header. So, you can see the project header + 4 tasks -- or -- you can see the rest of the tasks + no header -- and -- experience the disorientation of having to navigate between these two states. -skye

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Level 10
For those who might have missed it, I invite you to search "https://community.workfront.com/discussions/community-home/digestviewer/viewthread?MessageKey=30b481b8-a12f-49c5-a4d2-7c0c37da2d7d&CommunityKey=aaafaff0-5e4e-4e38-8903-f1f990935567&tab=digestviewer#bm30b481b8-a12f-49c5-a4d2-7c0c37da2d7d">this thread for the "Classic Task List" workaround that I'm using in the interim. Regards, Doug Doug Den Hoed - AtAppStore Got Skills? Lend a hand! https://community.workfront.com/participate/unanswered-threads

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Level 4
Hi Lilit - just an FYI that I booked a call with you for tomorrow to discuss some of the struggles my organization is having with the changes. Look forward to going into them in more depth - I've also uploaded them here as a word doc. Thanks! Mike McGovern Deloitte

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Level 4
Hey, Mike, Thanks for the summarized document. Looking at it, most of the cases will be covered soon as we're going to improve the page scrolling. Happy to discuss them further over today's call. Looking forward to talking to you! Lilit Lilit Mkrtchyan Workfront

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Level 4
Doug, thanks for coming up with the workaround while we're working on the improvements! Lilit Mkrtchyan Workfront

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Level 10
Hi - some work definitely needs to go into preventing the right-click menu from being cut-off (as mentioned on Mike's list). David Cornwell

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Level 10
Hi - one other thing I just came across today (logged with Support) is that the custom drop-down fields are narrower than on the old task list. This causes items with longer labels to be cut off. Resizing the column width makes no difference to the width of the drop-down box when you click on it. Hopefully the width can be put back to the same as the old task list, or at least provide a tooltip on mouse-over for each item.. Thanks David Cornwell

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Level 4
Subscribed - glad to hear that this is being worked on! Greg Troester CHG Healthcare

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Level 2
Hi Skye, We are seeing the same thing. Lilit, it would be great to see the current header that includes the project name and owner simply collapse into a smaller thin header above the column names - only taking up one row, but still allowing the PM to see the project name, actions, edit, planned completion and status. Additional, it would be nice to still see subtabs for projects when on the full screen. We have users toggling between issues and tasks and it is now very difficult when in full screen task list mode. Matthew Preston HealthPartners

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Level 10
As Brandon & others have stated, the "List Scrolling "changes are killing us. This change makes us much less efficient & unproductive. Please roll back this change or at least provide the WF Admin an Opt-out option, so that we can return our users to the Classic view. Marie Kelly The MetroHealth System

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Level 2
I had entered this into the idea exchange almost 2 years ago... Please upvote! :) "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115007314408-Visibility-of-Global-Navigation-Bar-and-Project-Header-when-scrolling">Visibility of Global Navigation Bar and Project Header when scrolling Giselle Quintero Cross Country Home Services

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Level 6
I can see we all agree the new task list separation wasn't the best enhancement. This feature has been problem some to our users as well. I agree with all previous comments. Additionally, the fact that we can no longer do a ctrl+F to search for a task name has posed a problem. We have many projects with over 200 tasks for projects that span multiple years. Historically we've always used crlf+F to search for a task keyword, once we found the task we needed we would look at other tasks around it to make sure timelines and predecessors were accurate. We can no longer do this. If we use the search filter button the tasks around the task we're looking for disappear. We can filter, find the task number of the task, remove the filter, scroll to find the task and then try to work in this new bouncy task list. It's not ideal.

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Level 10
Hi - I agree that it would be useful but only if the project name header info shrinks down into a single line when you scroll. It would cripple us if the top half of the screen remained fixed in place permanently and you can only scroll the task list in the bottom half (especially on smaller laptop screens). If Workfront were to revert to giving us only half the screen to use, we would be moving to a different project management system. David Cornwell

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Level 10
Hi Amanda - I very much agree with the comments regarding the way the filter button works. This is useful in some cases, but not a good replacement for ctrl-F. As you said, you have to use the filter button to find the task number then switch the filter off and manually scroll through the list to find the task number. Lilit has said they are looking into adding some kind of 'jump-to' functionality equivalent to ctrl-f, with a keyboard shortcut. David Cornwell

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Level 5
I agree with everyone's comments in this discussion. I'd also like to see it go full screen even for smaller projects. I have some that are only 14 tasks long and they remain in the small window so I can't see all of the tasks at once. Big or small, I should be able to view the project holistically and not in chunks within a small window. Also, any plans to make the parent task bold across the row as it was previously? Certainly helps the eye focus better, especially on large projects. Janelle Hicks Lifespan Corporation

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Level 10
Agreed!! Nothing like looking at 2 tasks at a time in a 1 inch window when you have a 14 task project.

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Level 4
Hey, everyone, As I had mentioned earlier, we're changing the scrolling experience. That took a bit longer than we hoped for, but we're ready to release it to Preview early next week (hopefully Monday morning). Based on your feedback from Preview, we'll move the changes to Production asap. I'll post here additionally as soon as we have the updates in Preview. Thanks! Lilit Lilit Mkrtchyan Workfront