evrenvarol/outlook-taskboard

Kanban Board for Microsoft Outlook Tasks

Outlook Taskboard

Outlook Taskboard is a kanban board style view for Outlook Tasks.

It uses the main "Tasks" folder as Back Log and utilizes 5 individual subfolders (InProgress, Next, Focus, Waiting and Completed) as each task lane for personal kanban workflow.

There are 2 ways to use the taskboard.

1. Outlook Folder Home Page (recommended)
2. Directly from Internet Explorer

Moving Tasks between task lanes

Filtering Tasks

Platforms supported

Only tested with Outlook 2013 and 2016 running on Windows 8.1/10.

It may also work with earlier Outlook versions, and possibly work with Windows 7.

The taskboard can also be opened in Internet Explorer. Due to limitations with ActiveX controls, only Internet Explorer 9/10 and 11 are supported.

Basic Setup

1. Download the latest release zip file and extract it to a folder in your local hard drive.

2. In Outlook, create following folder structure under your Tasks folder (it is easier to use the Folders view to create these folders):

   

3. For Outlook Home page:

• Create another folder (of any type) and name it something like "Taskboard" or "Kanban", etc. (Alternatively you can use the main account folder as a home page as well)

• Right-click the folder, and then click Properties. Select the Home Page tab in the Properties dialog box.

• In the Address box, browse to the folder you have just extracted the Taskboard files and select the kanban.html file.

• Click to select the Show home page by default for this folder check box and then click OK.

  

  _{If you receive above warning, simply click X icon to close both warning prompt and the Properties window.}

• Troubleshooting : Home Page tab is not visible

  In newer versions of Outlook the Home Page tab is usually not visible in Outlook folder properties. This feature was disabled by default to limit security vulnerabilities. To re-enable this you need to add a new DWORD value in your windows registry settings.

  For this please open the Registry Editor by

  • pressing Windows + R,
  • typing regedit and
  • clicking OK.

  Inside the Registry Editor

  • open Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\<VERSION>\Outlook\Security,
  • right click to add a new DWORD (32-bit) value,
  • set the name EnableRoamingFolderHomepages and
  • the value 1.

  

  After this please close the Registry Editor and also close and re-open Outlook. The Home Page Tab should be available in the properties window of the folder now:

  

  For more information please also have a look at : https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/outlook-home-page-feature-is-missing-in-folder-properties-d207edb7-aa02-46c5-b608-5d9dbed9bd04

4. For Internet Explorer:

• Open Internet Explorer and go to Tools > Internet Options > Security tab. Select the Local Intranet Zone and click on the Custom Level button. Ensure the "Initialize and script ActiveX controls not marked as safe for scripting" option is set to Enabled

• Double-click on the kanban-ie.html file to open the page in Internet Explorer.

  _{On Win10, you will need to right click on the file, select Open With -> Internet Explorer to open the page in IE11. Otherwise it tries to open in Edge which is not supported.}

Advanced Setup

The configuration file (config.js) under the js folder can be edited to customise task lane limits, titles and some other settings.

Task Lane Folder Names and Titles

    'FOCUS_FOLDER':     { Name: 'Objectives-2016', Title: 'OBJECTIVES', Limit: 0, Sort: "[Importance]", Restrict: "[Complete] = false", Owner: '' },

• Task lane folders names can be customised by changing the Name value. (Do NOT change the folder identifier - i.e. FOCUS_FOLDER)

• The `Title' value represents the title showing on the task lane.

Task Lane Limits

    'INPROGRESS_FOLDER':   { Name: 'InProgress', Title: 'IN PROGRESS', Limit: 5, Sort: "[Importance]", Restrict: "[Complete] = false", Owner: ''},
    'NEXT_FOLDER':       { Name: 'Next', Title: 'NEXT', Limit: 0, Sort: "[Importance]", Restrict: "[Complete] = false", Owner: ''},
    'FOCUS_FOLDER':     { Name: 'Focus', Title: 'FOCUS', Limit: 0, Sort: "[Importance]", Restrict: "[Complete] = false", Owner: '' },
    'WAITING_FOLDER':     { Name: 'Waiting', Title: 'WAITING', Limit: 0, Sort: "[Importance]", Restrict: "[Complete] = false", Owner: '' },

• The Limit value can be amended to set limits in each task lane.

• Only InProgress, Next, Focus and Waiting folders accept limit settings. BackLog and Completed lanes do not have limits apply.

• Setting the Limit to 0 removes the limit.

Task Lane Sort Order

By default, the tasks are sorted by priority.

    'NEXT_FOLDER':       { Name: 'Next', Title: 'NEXT', Limit: 0, Sort: "[DueDate]", Restrict: "[Complete] = false", Owner: ''},

• The Sort value can be updated to change the order.

• It is also possible to add multiple order criteria like Sort: "[DueDate][Importance]"

Task Template

When a task created using the Add button on task lanes, a new task created with a default template.

    // Default task template
    'TASK_TEMPLATE':        '\r\n\r\n### TODO:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n### STATUS:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n### ISSUES:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n### REFERENCE:\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n'

This template can be customised by changing the TASK_TEMPLATE setting.

Task Note Excerpt

If there are some notes entered in the task, only first 200 chars are visible by default configuration.

// Task Note Excerpt Size
// number of chars for each task note
// 0 = makes no notes appear on the each task card
'TASKNOTE_EXCERPT':    200,

The TASKNOTE_EXCERPT value can be updated to change the number of characters shown in the task board view.

Note: If the default task template used to create the task, only the first part of the task notes are visible. (until first the '###'' section).

outlook-taskboard's Issues

Issue on ability to create or drag and drop for certain categories

First off thank you for an excellent Kanban board within Outlook. This is a very useful view and technique. I followed the instructions and got the setup completed. Strangely, I have no ability to add or drag and drop tasks into any of the categories except the Backlog. Thoughts on what I can do to resolve this? I am using Outlook 2016. Thank you.

Show customer properties on the card

Hello,
I have a number of custom task fields defined. However, I am not able to pull them on to the card.
Is it anything that can be configured?
Thank you,
IK

new tasks font size is 1638, where to set a different default?

when I create a new task, the font-size is 1638 - maing it impossible to read.
I tried changing the settings in app.js without success.

Usage in German Outlook Version

In Outlook 2016 (German version) only the Backlog Lane works fine.
I am not able to use the other lanes (not any function works).

For me it seems to be a language problem...

Any concerns about how to make it run for Outlook Versions in other languages, e.g. German)?

Organizing different projects by categorizes and tabs

Hello,

I really like your tool. Thanks to you guys for implementing Kanban in Outlook.

To enhance the experience even further I would appreciate it if different projects could be organized by different tabs by using the outlook task categories. By clicking through the tabs only tasks from one category/project will be displayed.

Somehow like this:

For the beginning a manually adding of project-tabs would be very helpful.

Thanks a lot and best wishes

Changing the Order of List

Love this Add-On, it's super useful. My only complaint is that I'd like a way to change the order of the different lists. Right now, it looks like the lists will always display Backlog, Next, InProgress, Focus, Waiting, Complete. I'd like to display in order of InProgress, Next, Waiting, Backlog, Complete (I plan to remove Focus). Any guidance is much appreciated.

Descending order not practical when sorting by Date

Just did an update, and saw the new(?) sort feature.
I would like to sort most of the taskboard by date to have items with a due date stay on top of the lanes.
This also works, but unfortunately the sorting is in descending order. I guess this is due to the fact that when sorting by "importance" this makes sense.

I would like to suggest to either set the sort order for "Date" to ascending. For me personally setting this order for Date as fixed would be sufficient, as I cannot think of a usecase where I would like to see the least pressing things on top. However on alternative could be to make the order for each sort key configurable.

using multiple projects

Hi I just downloaded the pckg looks great,

i work on multiple projects at the same time and i was wondering if it would be possibel to have a tag or something in the task identifying the project. if so than perhaps it would also be possible to sort the kaban view per project or for that matter any other tag??

kind regards Martijn

Buttons and lanes not working

I use Outlook 2016 ProPlus (Office 365). I have installed the outlook-taskboard. The board is shown in Outlook.

I experience some issues:

• I can only add items to the backlog, all other + buttons are not working.
• I cannot drag-and-drop items from the backlog to other lanes.
• When I change the progress manually the items don't show in the lanes (as you can see in the picture above)

To-dos vs Tasks utilized

Hello,
Seems like all task items appear to become actually 'To-Do' list items thus cannot be shared or used by other programs which are looking for tasks.
Can we set tasks as Tasks, to appear in Outlook in Tasks folder, not To Do folder (you need to review this through the list of Folders , usually hidden option at the bottom of the outlook items panel) and you will see what I mean).
Please advise.

Cannot work around the "Could not obtain offline settings for the address..." error in the homepage setup

Hello
I tried to setup the task board according to the instructions. However, when the "Could not obtain offline settings for the address..." error pops up, I cannot simply close it by clicking on the [X]. Microsoft must have closed this gap. I tried to prepend "html://" and "res://C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\1033\OUTLWVW.DLL/" (as for the account home page) but had no success.
Any idea?
Cheers,
Kurt.

Drag and Drop is not working in Outlook 2016

I have followed your basic set up guide and after that I have setup it correctly but still it is not working. Specially when I tried to move task from one lane to another, it does not do anything.

Can anyone give me idea how do I solve this?

Task Runtime on Card

hello
I have the following questions:

1. Lane Completed
   Would it be possible to determine and display the runtime in days for a task (datetime status completed - datetime status in Progress)?
2. Lanes InProgress and Waiting
   Would it be possible to determine and display the runtime in days from the current date (current
   date - datetime Status in Progress)?

I don't have any knowledge for the implementation, otherwise I think the board is perfect.

best regards
Jochen

Touch suppport

Is it possible to have it support touch devices like surface pro with Windows 10?

Encoding issue

When i open any of the two .html files in either sublime or notepad++ and save it. The buttons are there, but the icons aren't shown, means i can still click on them. at least in outlook. If i open it in notepad it doesn't happen. I have tried to save with specific encodings like UTF-8 or ISO8859-1, but that doesn't help

Unable to change Date Format in Taskboard view in Internet Explorer

I am using Internet Explorer to view my taskboard. How can I change the date format so that it displays as MM/DD/YY?

Object doesn't support this property on the method

Environment
Windows 7x64, Microsoft Outlook 2013

Test case

1. Create the structure for tasks
   
2. Download & unzip outlook-taskboard
   
3. Create a new task folder Kanban
   
4. Set the default page for Kanban task folder
   
5. Press OK
   Expected result
   

Actual result

Notes not shown in outlook

The notes are not shown in outlook. Only the heading are shown
I have attached a screen shot of it.

Is it possible to have the outlook layout more like the IE?

• sharp corners
• complete icon
• stacked lanes
• due date in the header

Flagged messages in overview

Is it possible to get my flagged messages in this overview?
I work with a system where incoming mails are handled with the flag system and non-support items are created through tasks in outlook. I could create a task per email but the mail would lose it's history and only keep a copy of the email as far as I can see (creating an extra copy).
Completing an email in the completed tab could run a quickstep for actions and editing could open the mail.

Thanks in advance

Adding a column

Hello,
I have manipulated the files and added another column. It appeared in the lineup and button +, however it is missing the count and does not display items which are dropped there.
How can I make this column work to display items like any other column?

Manage columns

Great job with the design, it is exactly what I was looking for.
I'd like to ask if it would be possible to add a feature to manage the columns dynamically?
Or at least provide instruction to customize the names or number of columns.

I am thinking about using it for more than one folder, with different sets of columns.

If you allow me to, I would probably spend some time trying to implement this feature.

Where is the zip file?

I don't see a link to a zip download anywhere.

Account Selection

I have multiple mailboxes added to outlook. I can change the app.js file to select which account to read tasks from, but the Journal used is still my logged on account. I'd like to be able to set which account to read tasks AND use the journal for. This was I can use this project for a shared mailbox and all team members can utilize it.

Colored indicator of categories

It would be cool to have categories in a colored box based on the category color that's being set in Outlook client.

Field Attachments

Hi
i need your help.
Can you display whether an attachment exists for the task or not (there is a Standard field attachments wich returns yes or no)?
Thanks
Jochen

Failed to instantiate module taskboardApp

When trying to load the IE specific html page, I get this error message in the browser console:

[$injector:modulerr] Failed to instantiate module taskboardApp due to:
Error: [$injector:modulerr] Failed to instantiate module taskboardApp.config due to:
Error: [$injector:nomod] Module 'taskboardApp.config' is not available! You either misspelled the module name or forgot to load it. If registering a module ensure that you specify the dependencies as the second argument.
http://errors.angularjs.org/1.5.0-rc.0/$injector/nomod?p0=taskboardApp.config
at Anonymous function (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:2000:11)
at ensure (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:1924:5)
at module (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:1998:7)
at Anonymous function (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:4569:11)
at forEach (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:340:11)
at loadModules (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:4553:5)
at Anonymous function (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:4570:11)
at forEach (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:340:11)
at loadModules (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:4553:5)
at createInjector (file:///C:/OSVA/outlook-taskboard-master/lib/angular.js:4475:3)

What am I doing wrong ?

Display tasks without comment

I need some help for the outllok tasklist,
It is possible to display only the subject (name of the task) without comments in the board?

Thank for your help

Ralf

glyph icons

Any idea why the glyphicons do not display in outlook? opening the page in an internet browser works fine

Port to Outlook in OSX

It should be possible to run the plugin on outlook in mac OSX.
Was there any attempt to try this ?

KB4011178

Installing microsoft security update KB4011178 the functionality of setting a alternative home page for task folders is lost. The tab to configuring a home page is lost. The taskboard is not working any more.

Did Auscomp use this code without permission?

https://office.auscomp.com/kanban/

Great Add-On to my Outlook - but seems there is a bug

Hi there,

i'm very surprised and excited by setting up my copy of this great addon. Thanks to you guys for providing kanban in my outlook! top!

I just tried to use drag&drop in a filtered kanban. Drag&Drop is still working somehow, but it selects an task randomly. Seems that Drag&Drop ignores filtering.

Do you have the same issue with your copy in Outllook out there?

Best wishes
Harald

How to change the root folder to place the subfolders

I would like to use the taskboard with a SharePoint team. Outlook can Access to Sharefile tasks. Anyone can tell me how to change the js code to Access to the sharefile task folder? I guess it is defined in the code by a Taskfolder number. How can I know which is the folder number?

thanks

conversation overview in task

related to: #7

a great feature is to flag emails and then when dragging them to the backlog column, create a task with a copy of the email - so far so good (works really cool).

however, to have all related emails that may be received in the future also visible in the task, it would be great to have either ...
option 1: a button on the card to display related emails (like wih the search or conversation view)
option 2: have a HTML frame embedded in the task where related emails are listed. this might even be better as it would enable to add multiple such frames in the task to have all related emails listed even if they are not from the same conversation.

note: this outlook-taskboard is a very great tool. we have so many ticketing-systems and sources for tasks in our company that it is difficult to keep the overview. this personal kanban board is already helping me a lot!

Drag and Drop missing / not working

Is it possible to drag and drop items from one lane to the next?

Using with Outlook Web App possible?

Hello,
is it also possible to use this Outlook taskboard with the Outlook Web App?? Because if you're on Business trip with a IPad i think it's not working because there is no normal Outlook on an IPad.
Thanks for the Information.

Kind Regards

Ordering Backlog Tasks

Hi,

I'm trying to order Backlog tasks using a FILO system. First in, Last Out. So the new tasks added were at the top of the lane.

I modified the config.js using the property "-creationtime" for the Backlog folder, however nothing happens.

Please, is this property supported? or is it named differently?

Thank you.
Br

shared task folder

Hi evrenvarol,

I like your kanban System for Outlook. it is a great idea!
What I'm trying to do is to share a task folder with my colleges and show it in the kanban view.
The problem is, that the person who receive the task folder can not show it in the kanban view, because it didn't find the shared folder.
In the folder settings is no path where the shared folder could be.
Do you have a solution for that?

I'm looking forward to your answer.

Best Greetings
Michael

Outlook Home Page feature is missing in folder properties

After installing the October Public Update, folder home pages no longer appear and the Home Page feature is missing in Outlook folder properties. This feature was disabled by default to limit security vulnerabilities.

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/outlook-home-page-feature-is-missing-in-folder-properties-d207edb7-aa02-46c5-b608-5d9dbed9bd04

How to add current date to email subject

In app.js, line 195, there is "mailItem.Subject = "Status Report"

How can I add the current date so that the email subject would read "12/10/2018 Status Report"

Subfolders

Dear, is it possible to use this solution with Subfolders? This is because my different projects have tasks in different subfolders which are shared with different teams.
I would need (for example) the "Sales" folder as backlog (as this task folder is shared with the sales team) and in that folder I would need every subfolder needed for the Kanban...
I've tried to change the folder in the settings file 'Sales\Folder Name' but this doesn't work.

THANKS

[Windows 7] Drag & Drop doesn't work

Hello,

I know that current version was tested on Windows 10.
Is it possible to backport this feature to Windows 7?

Thanks a lot for answer,
Yurii

Compatability with Exchange Server

I am having issues with getting the taskboard to populate with any tasks at work. I use it at home and love it. At home I have Outlook 2016 running standalone, but at work we are on Outlook 2010 using an exchange server. I was wondering if anyone has experience using taskboard on 2010 or an exchange server. Thanks!

Screenshot formatting in README.md

Just a formatting issue, but the screenshots do not get displayed when viewing the README.md on Github in the browser, as you can see below:

The links work, so I think the space characters between [title] and (link) have to be removed in order to repair formatting.

IE error

I get the attached view when opened in IE 11. I have made the security settings as described.

One other question is it possible to change which lanes/columns you want in outlook?

Adding owner to the card

Hi,
First, thank you~ Really helps me manage my team's tasks.
However, I can't get the owner of the task to be displayed in the card.
Am I missing something here?

Change Font Size of Search Bar

Hello,

I would like to be able to change the font size of the search bar. I managed to change it for the lane header and tasks (both header and body) by playing around with the CSS, but I wasn't successful doing the same with the filter bar. Any pointers?

Thanks a lot

Maybe i just did not find the right setting ... but how to show only due tasks?

Hi,

maybe i did not find the right setting, but how can i achieve to see only taks that have reached the start date? I do not want to see tasks in my backlog that will start maybe next year.

Many thanks and best wishes
Harald

restriction a list of completed tasks

Hello.
Please tell me how to display a list of completed tasks for the current week, or 7 days prior to today
What should be changed in this line:
{Name: 'Completed', Title: 'COMPLETED', Limit: 0, Sort: "-duedate, -priority", Restrict: "[Complete] = true", Owner: ''}

Deleting Task via its ribbon "delete" button leaves Taskboard out of sync

Hi,
I just noticed, that when a task is opened (in a separate window), and I use the "Delete" button in the ribbon on that task, then the taskboard will not reflect that change.

Further interacting with the stale item on the taskboard, will lead to scripting errors.