Gmail adds simple Task lists

Hamish Taylor
Wednesday, 10 December 2008 07:46

Business IT - Networking

Tasks in Gmail is one of the most often requested features. In an early Christmas present for many people, in the past few days, Google has released a Labs application which enables a simple Task List in Gmail.

Let's get the bad news over with before we have a good look at it. Tasks is limited in scope, lacking the ability to, amongst other things, assign priorities, share tasks or get reminders about tasks. Now that you know what you can't do (and they may add these and other features at some stage), let's have a look at what you can do.

The official Gmail Blog has some useful info on how to  get started. "To enable Tasks, go to Settings, click the Labs tab. Select "Enable" next to "Tasks" and then click "Save Changes" at the bottom. Then, after Gmail refreshes, on the left under the "Contacts" link, you'll see a "Tasks" link. Just click it to get started."

The Task list can be popped out into a separate browser window (the same way the Chat window can be popped out), which is useful if you want to be able to use Tasks and Gmail at the same time.

Tasks are added simply by clicking and typing. You can drag tasks around to reorder them. You can also indent tasks, creating sub-tasks. To delete a task, simply delete the text and it will disappear.

When adding a task you can click on the arrow on the right-hand side to access some additional options, such as a due date and notes. I haven't played with it or long enough to find out what happens when a due date occurs.

You can also have multiple task lists, which is useful if you want to separate personal and work related tasks, or have a list for a particular project.

Emails can be directly added to the task list. When in the email, go to the More Actions menu to find "Add to Tasks". From what I can see, it adds the Subject line as the task and the email as a kind of attachment. When you click on the link in the Task it opens the email in Gmail.

Google make it clear that this is an experimental Labs feature and may be subject to change. Whilst this is usually for the better with the addition of new features, very occasionally things disappear.

I, for one, will find this very useful. I might be able to get rid of the bits of scrap paper with all my tasks on them! Will you find this useful?