In addition to creating tasks for yourself in Outlook 2007, you can also assign tasks to others. For example, you might manage a staff of several people and frequently need to assign them projects or certain tasks in a project. The main benefit of using Outlook 2007 to assign those tasks is that you can receive status reports on assigned tasks and view these status reports in your Tasks folder. Outlook 2007 automates the process of sending task requests and processing responses to those requests. You’ll learn more about assigning tasks in the sections that follow. First, however, you need to understand task ownership.
When you create a task, you initially own that task. Only a task’s owner can make changes to the task. This means that you can modify the properties (the percent complete, the status, the start date, and so on) of all tasks that you create and own. When you assign a task to someone else and that person accepts the task, the assignee becomes the owner of the task. You can then view the task’s properties, but you can no longer change them. Similarly, you become the owner of tasks assigned to you when you accept them, and you can then make changes to those tasks.
A task’s Owner property is a read-only value, which appears in the Owner box on the Task page. You can click the value, but you can’t change it directly. The only way to change owners is to assign the task and have the assignee accept it.
Assigning a task to someone else is a simple process. In general, you create the task, add details, and specify options for the task. Then you tell Outlook 2007 to whom you want to assign the task, and Outlook 2007 takes care of generating the task request and sending it to the assignee.
Follow these steps to assign a task to someone else:
In Outlook 2007, open the Tasks folder, and create a new task.
Add information and set options for the task such as start date, due date, status, and priority.
On the Task tab, in the Manage Task group, click Assign Task. Outlook 2007 changes the form to include additional options, as shown in Figure 22-7.
In the To box, enter the address of the person to whom you’re assigning the task, or click To to browse the Address Book for the person’s address.
Outlook 2007 automatically selects the following two check boxes. Set them as you want, and then click Send to send the task request to the assignee.
Keep An Updated Copy Of This Task On My Task List. Select this check box if you want to keep a copy of the task in your own task list. You’ll receive updates when the assignee makes changes to the task, such as a change in the % Complete status. If you clear this check box, you won’t receive updates, nor will the task appear in your task list.
Send Me A Status Report When This Task Is Complete. Select this check box if you want to receive a status report on completion. The status report comes in the form of an e-mail message that Outlook 2007 generates automatically on the assignee’s system when the assignee marks the task as completed.
Note
For information about task updates and status reports, see "Tracking the Progress of a Task" later in this chapter.
Note
Click Cancel Assignment on the Ribbon to cancel an assignment and restore the original task form.
When you click Send, Outlook 2007 creates a task request message and sends it to the assignee. If you open the task, you’ll see a status message indicating that Outlook 2007 is waiting for a response from the assignee, as shown in Figure 22-8. This message changes after you receive a response and indicates whether the assignee accepted the task.
Figure 22-8. Outlook 2007 indicates that it is waiting for a response to a task request for a selected task.
When you receive a task request from someone who wants to assign a task to you, the message includes buttons that allow you to accept or decline the task. Figure 22-9 shows the buttons on the InfoBar when the Reading Pane is displayed.
Figure 22-9. You can easily accept or decline a task request by clicking the Accept or Decline button on the Reading Pane InfoBar.
You can click either Accept or Decline to respond to the request. If the Reading Pane isn’t visible, you can open the message and then click Accept or Decline in the Respond group on the message form’s Ribbon. When you do so, Outlook 2007 displays either an Accepting Task or a Declining Task dialog box, giving you the option of sending the accept or decline message as is or editing it. For example, you might want to add a note to the message that you’ll have to change the due date for the task or that you need additional information about the task. Select Edit The Response Before Sending in the dialog box if you want to add your own comments; select Send The Response Now if you don’t want to add comments. Then click OK to generate the message. The next time you synchronize your Outbox with the server, the message will be sent.
You have one more option in addition to accepting or declining a task request that’s waiting for your response—you can "pass the buck" and assign the task to someone else. For example, assume that you manage a small group of people. Your supervisor assigns a task to you, and you want to assign it to one of the people under you. When you receive the task request, open it, click Assign Task, and then select the person to whom you want to assign the task. Outlook 2007 creates a task request and sends it to the assignee. When the assignee accepts the task, his or her copy of Outlook 2007 sends an acceptance notice to you and adds both the originator’s address and your address to the update list on the Details page of the task form. This means that changes to the task by the assignee are updated to your copy of the task and to the originator’s copy.
Troubleshooting
Task requests keep disappearing
After you accept or decline a task, Outlook 2007 automatically deletes the task request from your Inbox. Unlike meeting requests, task requests are always deleted—Outlook 2007 doesn’t provide an option that allows you to control this behavior. Outlook 2007 does, however, keep a copy of the task request in the Sent Items folder. Outlook 2007 also deletes task update messages after you read them. These messages are generated automatically when someone modifies an assigned task. Outlook 2007 sends the task update message to the people listed in the update list on the Details page of the task form. Although you can manually move these update messages out of the Deleted Items folder, Outlook 2007 provides no way to prevent them from being deleted.
When a response to a task assignment reaches you, Outlook 2007 doesn’t automatically act on the response. For example, if someone accepts a task that you assigned, Outlook 2007 doesn’t consider the task accepted until you open the response. Until that point, the InfoBar in the Reading Pane still indicates that Outlook 2007 is waiting for a response. When you open the response, the InfoBar in the message form indicates whether the task has been accepted or declined, depending on the assignee’s action. Outlook 2007 deletes the response when you close the message. You have no options for controlling this behavior—Outlook 2007 always deletes the response.
If an assignee declines your task request, you can easily assign the task to someone else (or reassign it to the same individual). Open the response, and click Assign Task on the form’s toolbar just as you would when assigning a new task.
Your tasks won’t always be accepted—you’re bound to receive a rejection now and then. When you do, you have two choices: assign the task to someone else, or reclaim ownership so that you can modify or complete the task yourself. To reclaim a task, open the message containing the declined task request, and then choose Actions, Return To Task List.
In some situations, you’ll no doubt want to assign a task to more than one person. As a department manager, for example, you might need to assign a project to the people in your department or at least to a small group. Outlook 2007 is somewhat limited in task management: it can’t track task status when you assign a task to more than one person. You can certainly assign the task, but you won’t receive status reports.
What’s the solution? You must change the way you assign tasks, if only slightly. Rather than assigning the whole project as a single task, for example, break the project into separate tasks and assign each one individually, or break a specific task into multiple tasks. Use a similar name for each task to help you recognize that each one is really part of the same task. For example, you might use the names Quarterly Report: Joe and Quarterly Report: Jane to assign the preparation of a quarterly report to both Joe and Jane.
When you assign a task, you can choose to keep an updated copy of the task in your task list. This copy allows you to track the status of the task. As the assignee adds or changes task information—such as changing the Total Work value—that assignee’s copy of Outlook 2007 generates an update and sends it to the addresses listed in the task’s update list (on the Details page of the task form). Typically, the update list includes only one name—the name of the person who assigned the task. If the task was delegated (passed on from one person to another), the update list shows all persons in the assignment chain.
Note
If you assign a task to multiple people, Outlook 2007 can no longer track task status. This limitation is one reason to subdivide a task, as explained in the preceding section.
As mentioned, Outlook 2007 sends task status messages to the update list addresses when an assignee makes changes to a task. When you receive a status message, Outlook 2007 updates your copy of the task when you read the status message. Outlook 2007 then deletes the status message, with one exception: when the assignee marks the task as completed, Outlook 2007 sends a Task Completed message to the update list addresses. When you receive and read the message, Outlook 2007 marks your copy of the task as completed but does not delete the task completed message. Figure 22-10 shows a Task Completed message.
As you work on an assigned task, you’ll probably want to send status updates to the person who assigned the task to you. Sending task status reports is more than easy—it’s automatic. Outlook 2007 generates the updates each time you modify the task, such as when you change the % Complete value. Because you can’t force another update without changing the task, you might want to make a small change in one of the task’s properties—for example, increasing the % Complete value by 1 percent—to generate an update.
Outlook 2007 allows you to create an unassigned copy of a task that you have assigned to someone else. This unassigned copy goes into your task list with you as the owner. You can then work on the task yourself or assign it to someone else. For example, suppose that you assigned a task to someone but you want to work on it too. You can create a copy and then work on the copy, changing its dates, completion status, and other information as you go.
Creating an unassigned copy has one drawback, however: You will no longer receive updates for the assigned task. This makes it more difficult to track the other person’s progress on the assigned task.
Follow these steps to create an unassigned copy of a task:
In Outlook 2007, open the Tasks folder, and then click the assigned task.
Click the Tasks tab on the Ribbon, click Details, and then click Create Unassigned Copy.
Outlook 2007 displays a warning that creating the copy will prevent you from receiving updates to the assigned task. Click OK to create the copy or Cancel to cancel the process.
Outlook 2007 replaces the existing task with a new one. The new task has the same name except that the word copy is appended to the name in the Subject box. Make changes as needed to the task, and then choose Save & Close to save the changes.