Demo Instruction

Open the Project Center from the Start menu, select Programs…EasyTaskLink…Project Center or click the Project Center icon located on your desktop. Before the Project Center opens for the first time a screen will appear which requires you to enter your name and email address. This will be used by EasyTaskLink to add you as a Project Manager into the system. Be sure to use a valid email address since EasyTaskLink will send notifications to you at this address.

EasyTaskLink supports both Microsoft Project (MPP) and non-Microsoft Project users. For non-Microsoft Project users please refer to Section I and for Microsoft Project users please refer to Section II.

SECTION I - For non-Microsoft Project Users

1. Start by creating a brand new project. Click the Project button and select Create Projects...New Project Plan. This operation creates an empty project plan so you can customize the structure yourself.
2. On the New Project screen, give your new project a name and other auxiliary information.
3. The project you just created will appear on the Project Center screen.

   

4. Upon completion of Step 3. You should be back to the Project Center screen. Double click the project plan you have just created or select Project...Tasks. A screen is displayed similar to Windows Explorer. The project structure on the left is organized as Folders. The right side shows the tasks for the highlighted Folder.  Notice that there is a summary task created automatically. This is the summary status of all tasks in this folder.
5. On the left panel, you will see a label called Task. Highlight the Task Folder then right click and select New...Folder to create a Folder. Continue to create as many folders and structures your project requires by clicking on the New button.
6. Once you have defined the basic Task Folder in tree structure, you can use single click to select the task folder, and then right click to show a menu. Select New...Task. From this new task panel, you can enter the task name (Title), description, and other pertinent task information into the system.

   

7. As you enter a task, you should enter the Start Date and Finish Date in the Assignment Tab (the Duration will be automatically calculated for you). You may also assign the task to the assignee at this time. Click the Add button in the lower right corner then from the Assignee drop down menu select the user that you want to assign this task and click OK. Select File...Save And Close to exit the task panel.
8. If you want your team member to file a status report to you, you have to deploy the task to a team member.
9. From the EasyTaskLink Task select File...Send Task to TM's Outlook. (Note: Outlook needs to be open when deploying tasks.)

   

10. The assignee (team member) should receive an email to install the client component. Once the tasks appear in their Outlook Tasks Folder, they can file a status report. How team members can file status reports.
11. After a status report has been filed from their Outlook, you can then click the Status Report button in the Task Detail screen to see the status reports filed. To go to the task detail screen, simply double-click on the task you want to view. You will see the tabs displayed.
12. Please check out our extensive Notification features.

Other things to do at this time

1. If you have Excel installed, try this: from the Project Center, click Reports...Export Summary to Excel. All the projects in the Project Center will be shown in an Excel spreadsheet.
2. Note that the bottom section of the Project Center shows a list of tasks. If you do not see any tasks, click All My Tasks/My Project Tasks button on the right side of the screen. (Note: Only the tasks that are assigned to you will appear in this Tasks Panel.) Select any task, click New Journal Entry. This is a quick way to enter a Journal into the task.
3. Now click File Status Report. This is also a shortcut for you to enter a status report.
4. Double click any task on the Project Center screen to show a detail of your tasks or the task of any selected assignee.

Getting reports from the Project Center

1. From the Project Center Screen, select any project (single click will do) and then click Reports...Status Report, or Status Summary Report, or Overdue Status Report. Seeing these project reports will give you significant insight into the project you are managing.
2. If you want to see the overall statuses across project, do the following from the Project Center: select/highlight the project(s) you are interested in (To select multiple projects to report, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the projects you want to include in the dashboard reports). Click Reports...Dashboard and select a Dashboard Template then click Run. An Excel report of all tasks will be displayed.

For the EasyTaskLink User Guide, please refer to our Help file.

To learn more on how to use EasyTaskLink please click here.

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SECTION II - For Microsoft Project Users

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Publishing a Project Plan

1. Start Microsoft Project Plan as you normally do.
2. Click Publish Project from the toolbar.

   

   If you do not see this toolbar, please make sure the integration is on. To check the status, click the Start menu Programs...EasyTaskLink...Configuration. This tells you which Microsoft Office product you have configured in EasyTaskLink. Make sure the appropriate check boxes are checked.

3. Place a check mark next to the Microsoft Project optional fields that you want your Team Members to see in the tasks detail. Then click Next to continue.

   

4. Enter each Team Member's email address so that they can receive their tasks in Outlook Tasks Folder. Click Continue.

   

5. After you have published the project plan, you may now deploy tasks to the Team Member's Outlook Tasks. From Microsoft Project, select the task you want to send, click Send Task to TM's Outlook then choose Send Selected Task or Send Entire Project (note: Outlook needs to be opened when deploying tasks.)
6. The assignee (team member) should receive an email to install the client component. Once the tasks appear in their Outlook Tasks Folder, they can file a status report. How team members can file status reports.
7. After a status report has been filed from their Outlook, you can then click Status Report in your Microsoft Project environment to view the Status Reports that have been filed from your team members.

Other things to do at this time

1. If you have Excel installed, try this: from the Project Center, click Reports...Export Summary to Excel. All the projects in the Project Center will be shown in an Excel spreadsheet.
2. Note that the bottom section of the Project Center shows a list of tasks. If you do not see any tasks, click All My Tasks/My Project Tasks button on the right side of the screen. (Note: Only the tasks that are assigned to you will appear in this Tasks Panel.) Select any task, click New Journal Entry. This is a quick way to enter a Journal into the task.
3. Now click File Status Report. This is also a shortcut for you to enter a status report.
4. Double click any task on the Project Center screen to show a detail of your tasks or the task of any selected assignee.

Getting reports from the Project Center

1. From the Project Center Screen, select any project (single click will do) and then click Reports...Status Report, or Status Summary Report, or Overdue Status Report. Seeing these project reports will give you significant insight into the project you are managing.
2. If you want to see the overall statuses across project, do the following from the Project Center: select/highlight the project(s) you are interested in (To select multiple projects to report, hold down the Ctrl key and click on the projects you want to include in the dashboard reports). Click Reports...Dashboard and select a Dashboard Template then click Run. An Excel report of all tasks will be displayed.

For the EasyTaskLink User Guide, please refer to our Help file.

To learn more on how to use EasyTaskLink please click here.

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