Projects
What is a project
A project is a way to organize your tasks. Everything that requires more than one step to complete can be a project. It can be a large goal (“Website redesign”, “Family Vacation 2023”) or a category of things you need to do (“Marketing”, “Chores”).
How to create a project
It’s very easy to create a new project in Nozbe. To do so, hit the “Add New Project” button visible in the “Followed projects” section in the left panel to open the project set-up form.
You can also tap the “All” button on the list of Followed Projects, open the All Projects list in the left-hand side menu, and tap the “+” icon next to the “Active Projects” section to create a project this way.
But that’s not all. You can also open a task, tap on its project attribute, and create a new project directly there.
While creating a project, you can tap on “More options” to specify additional details of your project. Here you can add a project purpose, create the project from a template, set its color or specify the groups to which it will belong.
By default, new projects are open. This means that they are visible to anyone in your team. Thanks to it, you can immediately start working on them and assign tasks to your team members. Other team members can edit the name of an open project, change its purpose, or mark it as done.
Of course, you can create a private project or invite selected people to a project by choosing the “Invited members” option while setting it up. Your team projects will be marked with a “dot”, invitation-only ones with a “ring”, and the personal projects will have a padlock icon next to their names. Please note that this option is available for Premium users only.
Project’s menu
Enter a project, tap on the “…” icon next to its name in the top bar. There are a few different options in the drop-down list:
- Manage: use it to change this project’s details
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General: change the name of the project, check who is the project’s author, and set the project’s purpose - purpose serves as a useful description, especially in shared projects. Here you can also enable time attributes for tasks in that project: time needed and time spent
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Color: use color to highlight your project
💡Pro-tip: You can use a suggested color for your projects. You can freely toggle between your color and suggested color within project settings. Team color is automatically set for every new project. It can then be changed only by project managers.
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Members: tap on it to see the list of users you share this project with. Here you can also change the status of that project from open to invite-only, or invite another team to work together on it.
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Share a project with another team: you can do it by providing the email address of another team’s owner or admin.
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Groups: you can select to which project groups this project should belong.
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End project: use it to mark your project as completed.
- Follow: mark a project as followed to receive updates about it in Activity, and to have a quick access to it from the sidebar on the left.
- Favorite: mark your project as favorite to see it on the top of the list on the left side.
- Add section: you can divide your project into different sections. It is helpful when your project is getting bigger and more complex.
- Show all completed: it will allow you to see completed tasks.
- Select tasks: you can choose several tasks simultaneously and edit them.
- Copy task list link: you can generate a link to your task list.
- Clone: you can create a copy of the project, its sections, and active tasks.
- Create a template: create a template based on that project to easily manage recurring procedures.
- Add tasks via email: you will find the project’s unique email address you can use to send tasks to it via email.
- Export to CSV: create a CSV file containing information about the tasks currently displayed on the task list within that project.
Project Managers
When you create a project, you automatically become its manager.
As a manager, you can change the project from open to invite-only and the other way around.
In an invite-only project, you can add new people or remove them from that project. You can also edit that project’s name.
Note that if you wish to leave a project, and you’re currently its only manager, it is necessary to grant the manager permissions to someone else first. Only then, the new manager can remove the previous manager from the project.
If a manager leaves a project and the team admin is a member of it, the team admin can can become a new project manager.
Sections
Sometimes tasks in a project serve different purposes, especially when a project is vast and complicated. So to keep your workload in order, use project sections! Put your tasks under various sections to easily organize your project.
How to create a project section
To create a new section, tap the “…” icon next to the project’s name and choose “Add section”.
How to add your tasks to specific sections
When creating a new task, you can use the “+” icon in a specific section to ensure the new task will be added right there.
You can also drag and drop all tasks between the sections in a project.
Change the section order
Use the drag and drop option to move the section up or down.
Cloning sections
Sometimes you may need to duplicate an entire section with all tasks within it and their parameters. Nozbe allows you to do so.
To clone a section, tap the “…” icon next to the section’s name and choose “Clone”.
Now you can set up the clone: change its name or choose which project you’d like to add it to. You can choose to clone both active and completed tasks, or just the active tasks. You can also decide if all comments should be cloned, or only the pinned ones.
Confirm cloning the section by hitting the “Clone” button.
Please note that you’ll become the author of all tasks and comments in the section clone you create.
How to convert a section into a project
If a section becomes too complex or the number of tasks within it starts getting overwhelming, you can convert it into a project.
To do this, navigate to the section, then hit the “…” icon next to its name. Press the “Convert into a project” button and confirm your choice.
How the section is converted
When you convert a section into a project, Nozbe will create a new project with the same name as the original section.
All active tasks from the original section will be moved to the new project, along with all comments added to them. Completed tasks from that section will not be transferred.
If the original section belonged to a project you shared with other people, the new project will also be shared with them. All tasks transferred from the original section will keep their delegation settings.
If the original section belonged to your private project, the new project will also be marked as private.
Nozbe will archive the original section and all completed tasks within it. You can restore that section at any time.
Archiving and deleting sections
If you don’t need a particular section anymore, tap on the “…” icon next to its name and choose the “Archive” option to move it to Nozbe’s archive. You won’t see it anymore in your project.
Tasks from an archived section will remain in the project without a section specified.
To restore the archived section, you first need to tap on the “…” icon next to the project’s name and choose the “Show all completed” option. You will see your archived section on the list - tap on the “…” icon next to its name and choose “Restore” to retrieve it.
Once the section is archived, you can delete it permanently. Please make sure that you won’t need it anymore - this action cannot be undone.
Collapsible sections
You can also hide tasks from sections by collapsing them:
This feature may be really useful when you want to focus on tasks from a particular section.
Time attributes
In each project, you can enable time attributes - time needed and time spent - for its tasks.
To enable time attributes, hit the “…” icon next to the project’s name and choose “Manage”. Here you can toggle the “Enable time attributes” option.
Once this option is enabled, you’ll be able to set time needed and time spent parameters in your tasks.
If your project is divided into sections, then the summary of time needed and time spent will be shown for all active tasks in a section below the section’s name. The information about overall time needed and time spent for all active tasks in a project will also be visible in the project’s top bar.
Please note that when time attributes are enabled, every person who has access to that project can change those parameters in tasks.
Followed and favorite projects
If a team member creates a new project, it will appear in the Activity view of other team members.
If a project is important to you and you want to stay updated about changes, you should follow it. Tap on the newly created project’s name in Activity and choose “Follow”. From now on, you will see new comments added to the tasks in this project within your Activity section. You can also easily access the followed projects directly from the sidebar on the left.
Mark the most important projects as your favorite. They will be displayed in a separate section in the sidebar (right above the followed projects list), and you will be able to access them even more easily.
All projects
Right under the “Followed projects” headline, you will see the list of all projects you follow. If you want to see the list of all projects you have access to (also the ones you don’t follow), tap the “All” button next to that headline.
When someone mentions you in a task from a project you don’t follow, the task will show up in your Incoming. If you have push notifications enabled, you will also be notified about this task. You will also always see that task in your Activity each time new comments are added. Of course, you can unfollow the task anytime.
Grouping projects
You can also manage projects and combine them into groups. It is a helpful feature for users who have many projects and want to manage them more effectively. Please note that it’s a Premium feature, so it’s not available for Free teams.
How to create a project group
Tap on the “All” button displayed next to your “Followed Projects” to see all the projects that you have access to. Once you are in that view, tap on the “Groups” tab and the “Create new group” button.
Group’s privacy
While creating a group, you can select who can see it. Team admins can choose whether they want the group to be visible to everyone or keep it private. A team member can also create a project group, but only they will see it.
Choosing projects that belong to your group
If you select the “Manage projects” option, you will be able to choose projects you want to have in that group. When you finish, click on “Create” and you will see your project group on the list.
You can also add a project to several different groups. Just go to a project and hit the “…” icon next to its name, then choose “Manage”. Then tap on the “Groups” option and choose the groups for your project. Tap on “Done” to confirm, and that’s it. Your project belongs to all the groups you have checked.
Changing group’s parameters
You can, of course, change the group’s parameters anytime you want. Just tap on the “…” icon next to the group’s name. You can manage projects added to the group, rename it, show it in sidebar, show all completed projects, or delete it. Don’t worry - deleting a group won’t delete the projects added to it.
Please note that only the admin or the owner can modify public groups.
Showing groups in sidebar
If you’d like to always have a certain project group at hand, you can choose to show it in the sidebar.
To do this, tap on the “…” icon next to the group’s name and choose “Show in sidebar”. The project group will now appear in the app’s sidebar. It show up below the list of your followed projects.
You can also choose to display multiple groups in the sidebar, and change their order there by dragging and dropping them up or down.
Joint projects
You can share projects also with other teams. If you wish to collaborate on a project with users from a different team, open the project, then hit the “…” icon next to its name. Tap on “Manage” and go to the “Share project with another team” section.
Type in the email address of another team’s owner or admin and confirm.
The project will be shared and visible to the other team once they accept the invitation on their end.
Every project can be shared. Once a team project is shared with another team, it’s changed to a limited access project.
One team can be invited to multiple joint projects.
You can also send an invitation to a project to someone who doesn’t use Nozbe yet. They will receive an email with an activation link in it. If they follow that link, they will be able to set up a team in Nozbe and access the project.
You can cancel an invitation to a joint project before the other team accepts it. Once the invited team accepts the invitation, you won’t be able to revoke their access to it. However, you will be able to end that project.
Joint projects are available as a Nozbe Premium feature only - the team inviting must be Premium, the team accepting can be a either a Premium or a Free team. A Free team can only accept the invitation to a joint project if it doesn’t exceed the Free plan’s limit of 5 active projects.
How to clone a project
To clone a project, open the one you want to copy, tap on the three dots next to the project’s name and choose the “Clone” option.
The app will copy the project’s attributes, sections, and tasks. Tasks attributes (such as due dates, tags, delegation etc.) will also be cloned.
You can choose whether you want to clone both active and completed tasks, or active tasks only. As for the comments, you can decide whether all comments, or only pinned comments should be cloned.
You will find the link to the original project in the cloned project’s description.
Please note that you will become the author of the entire copy if you clone a project, including all tasks and comments within it.
You can also clone a project to a different team. It’s a great option if you manage multiple teams and you have to set up projects for procedures with similar steps.
Just tap on “…” next to a project’s name > Clone > select team you want to clone this project to:
How to change a role or remove someone from a project
If you wish to remove a person from an invite-only project, tap the “…” icon next to the project’s name and choose “Manage”. Now go to the “Members” section. Hit the “>” button next to the name of a person you wish to remove.
In this view, you can change that persons' access settings in this project. Use the “Remove from Project” option. Save the changes with the “Done” button and confirm your choice by hitting the “Confirm” button.
In the same view, you can also grant someone a Manager status. A manager can change a project’s name, as well as add new users to the project or remove them from it.
How to archive a project
To archive a project, you have to end it. Open the project, then hit the “…” next to its name and choose “Manage”. Tap on the “End project” section. Confirm ending the project.
Your project will now be archived. Its name will be displayed as crossed out, and it will disappear from the Active projects list. It will also no longer show up on the Followed projects lists of anyone who followed it. The information about that project being ended will also show up in the Activity view of all people who has access to it.
Restoring a project
If you wish, you can restore it by going to the All Projects list. To restore a project, hit the “All” button next to the “Followed projects” section in the left panel, then hit the “…” icon. Select the “Show ended” option. Find the project you want to restore and tap on it. Now hit the “…” icon next to its name, choose “Manage” and select “Restore”. Confirm your choice.
Your project and all tasks within it will be restored.
Deleting a project
You can delete a project only after ending it.
Once you end a project, hit the “…” icon next to its name again, choose “Manage” and select “Delete”. You will be asked to enter the project’s name - it’s an extra step to make sure that you’re deleting the right project.
Please note that once you remove a project, you won’t be able to retrieve it. That’s why we suggest ending your projects instead of removing them from our database.
