Understanding the Task Spreadsheet

The Task Spreadsheet is the heart of your project. It’s where you will track all project progress and see full details for any Objects, Tasks, associated Versions, etc., once your project is underway.

Image: the Task Spreadsheet and its controls

Select Your Attribute Columns

Attribute Columns are the columns that store all of the information you may require visibility on for the data you are tracking on your projects. This can include information such as:

• Which user is assigned to a task
• How much time a user has logged against a task
• The status of an object or task
• The due date of an object or task
• And much more!

All of this information can be displayed against the corresponding tasks or objects in the Task Spreadsheet so that you can effectively track the progress of these data points as your project progresses.

There is a range of different Attributes available to select out-of-the-box to help get your Task Spreadsheet set up quickly. However, if there is any additional information you need to track that may be specific to your organization or the kinds of projects you are tracking, you can also create and customize your own.

Image: The headers for a selection of Attribute Columns

Filtering and Grouping Your Data

The filtering options in ftrack Studio allow you to drill down into different information that lives in your project and surface it easily, so you don’t have to scroll endlessly through tasks to find what you’re looking for. Some examples of information you may want to filter for are:

• If you are managing/coordinating a specific department on a project and want to only see tasks of the Task Type that is linked to that department.
• If you are interested in seeing only the tasks that are due within a specific date range, such as the current week or a 3-week sprint.
• If you want to check how many tasks remain in a specific status, such as ‘Not Started’, ‘In Progress’, or ‘Pending Review’.

The ability to change how your data is grouped will allow you to look at your data in different configurations, depending on what you are searching for or updating. Some examples of useful reasons to change the way your data is grouped are:

• Grouping by Task Type to see how many tasks remain for that particular type of work.
• Grouping by Task Assignee to see user schedules and be able to more easily update or balance their workloads.

Image: Controls grouping the Task Spreadsheet by Task Type

Image: Task Spreadsheet displayed with tasks grouped by Task Type

Creating Saved Views

After adding any additional Attribute or Custom Attribute columns to your Task Spreadsheet, and filtering and grouping to find the information you need, you can use Saved Views to easily recall those settings at the click of a button rather than needing to reset it each time.

Saved Views are used to save any custom configurations of the Tasks Spreadsheet, such as views with specific Attribute or Custom Attribute columns and/or custom Grouping and Filtering. This allows you to access a view you often use at the click of a button without reconfiguring your Task Spreadsheet every time you need to see certain data.

Multiple Saved Views can be created on the same project, kept as private views for personal use, or shared with the rest of your team to help facilitate sharing and referencing relevant data.

Some examples of Views that may be helpful on your project could be similar to your reasons for filtering and grouping your data:

• Creating a dedicated View for a specific department’s work that is filtered by the related Task Type, and grouped by the task Assignee
• Creating a dedicated View for all tasks due within a specific date range to stay on top of imminent deadlines.
• Creating a dedicated View for all tasks that have the status of “In Progress” and/or “Not Started” to gauge how much work is remaining on your project.

Image: A list of Saved Views displayed in the Views dropdown menu

Task Columns

Another option, when configuring your Saved Views, is to display your information as Task Columns instead of navigating the default hierarchical layout of the Task Spreadsheet.

The reason for choosing this view could be to have more detail for each task visible at a glance, or simply personal preference.

Image: Task Columns displaying status, dates, and assignees for different task types.