# Track work on Tasks and projects > Read the board and the list, filter them and save views, steer a task with comments, and group work in projects. Every piece of work in Troopy is a task. A task can come from a person, a routine, a trigger or a hand-off between teammates. This page tells how to read the board and the list, steer a task, and group tasks in projects. ## Open Tasks Select **Tasks** in the sidebar. The page shows the board or the list at full width. **Projects** is under **Tasks** in the sidebar while one of the two is open. A task has a key, such as VIR-12, made from the name of the workspace. ## The statuses of a task | Status | What it means | | --------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Backlog** | Nobody works on it. A task for a person or for nobody starts here. | | **To do** | It waits for its teammate or person. A teammate starts on a task only in **To do**. | | **In progress** | Its teammate works on it now. | | **Needs you** | Its teammate asked a question, or a call waits for a yes. It continues after the answer. | | **In review** | The work is done, and waits for a person to read it. | | **Done** | Finished. | | **Canceled** | Stopped for good. | Only a teammate puts a task in **Needs you**. A person picks each other status. ## The board and the list - The board shows a column for each status. The list shows one row for each task. - A click on a card or a row opens the task over the page. A double click opens the page of the task. - Drag a card to another column to change its status. The change shows at once. If the server refuses it, the card goes back. - Drag a row of the list to another group to give it the status, the assignee, the priority or the project of that group. In Backlog, To do and In progress, a blue line shows where the row lands. Selected rows move together. - **New task (C)** makes a task. Press C on the board to open it. - The **+** of each column and group makes a task there, with the value of the group: its status, its assignee, its priority or its project. A task for a teammate that you make in progress waits at the top of To do, so that the teammate starts it. A task that you make in Needs you is in review. - The arrow at the left of a group of the list folds it or opens it. On the board, the arrow of a column folds it. Your browser keeps the folds, so a reload keeps them. ### Change the display Select **Display** to change how the page shows the tasks: - **List** or **Board**. - **Grouping** (the list only): the groups by status, assignee, priority or project, or no groups. - **Ordering**: by hand, by priority, by the date made or changed, or by the due date. In an order other than by hand, a card or a row that you drag changes column or group only. A row keeps its place in the list only when it is grouped by status. - **Order completed by recency**: the done and canceled tasks come last, the newest first. - **Show sub-tasks** and **Show empty groups**. - **Display properties**: the parts of a row or a card that show, such as the ID, the labels or the due date. A view keeps its display. With no view open, your browser keeps the display. **Reset to default** puts it back. Tasks opens as you left it in the workspace: the same view, filters, area and layout. ### Filter, search and save a view 1. Select **Filter**, or press F. Pick a category: status, priority, assignee, creator, labels, project, milestone or due date. Then pick one value of it or more. 2. To find a value at once, type its name in the menu, such as "urgent". 3. Type in **Search tasks** to find tasks by their words. 4. To keep the filters and the display, select **Save** at the right of the chips. - In your own view, **Save** keeps them in that view. - In any other view, **Save as view** asks for a name and makes a new view of yours. **New view** does the same. Each category shows as a chip under the toolbar, such as "Status is any of To do, In progress". Select the chip to change its values, and its X to take it off. After a save, the filters are the view's own, and their chips go. ### Views The views are the pills of the toolbar, after the menu of the area: - **All tasks**, **Active**, **Open**, **My tasks**, **Humans** and **Agents** are in every workspace. - Active holds the tasks to do, in progress, and those that need you. - Open holds the tasks in the backlog, to do and in progress. - Humans holds the open tasks of people, and Agents the open tasks of teammates. - In **Filter**, the assignee **Any person** or **Any teammate** picks the same tasks. - Then come your own views, and the views that other people shared. - A view keeps its filters, and a view that you saved keeps its display too. The page hides the filters of the open view. A filter that you add shows as a chip, and the pill of the view shows a dot. - Right-click a view, or double-click it, to open its menu: **Edit...**, **Duplicate...**, **Copy link**, **Share it with the workspace** and **Delete...**. The arrow of an open saved view opens the same menu. - **Edit...** shows the name and every filter of the view. It is the place to see the filters that a view keeps. Change them, then select **Save**. A built-in view, or a view that someone else shared, saves as a new view of yours. ### The Engineering tab On the **Engineering** tab, the board shows the statuses of all its tasks. Select **Steps** to see the steps of an engineering ticket instead: Analyze, Plan, Build, Test and Ready to release. Only tickets show there. See [Ship code with engineering tickets](/docs/engineering). ## Read and steer a task The page of a task shows the title and the brief first. Its properties are beside them, or under the title in a peek. They are the status, who has it, the priority, the due date, the labels, the project and the area. | Part | What it does | | --------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Brief | Write it where it stands. It saves after a pause, when you leave it, or with Cmd or Ctrl and Enter. | | Comments | Write to the teammate of the task. An @mention calls on another teammate. A comment starts the teammate again. | | Reactions | React to the task with any emoji, under the brief. | | Sub-tasks | Split the work. A task has one level of sub-tasks. | | Files | Attach files, or paste a picture into a comment. | | What the teammate did | The last answer, the pictures and the docs of the work. | | Watch | Follow the task. You hear of its comments and moves in your bell. | On its page, a task has the actions of a person at the right of the first row: message, watch and delete. ### What a teammate does with a task - A teammate starts on a task when the task is in **To do**. One run works on a task at a time. - When it needs a person, it asks on the task, and the task moves to **Needs you**. Your answer moves it on. - When it finishes, it moves the task to **In review** or **Done**, and posts the result in the troop chat. - If you move a task out of **In progress**, Troopy stops its run. ### When a task gets its area and its teammate Each task is in an area: Engineering, Marketing or Operations. The area comes from what you say, from the parent task, or from the teammate. A task that nobody took goes to the only teammate of its area. If the area has no single teammate, the task goes to the Chief of Staff. ## Projects A project keeps the tasks and the talk about one client or one piece of work in one place. 1. Open **Projects** and select **New project**. 2. Name it, and write its description in the shared editor. 3. Add tasks to it from the **Project** property of each task. A project has milestones and status updates. A teammate can post a status update to a project. ## Who can do what - Owners, admins and members make, change and delete tasks. - Approvers move a task that waits on a person to **Done**, or send it back. They change nothing else. - Viewers read the board. - Guests see Tasks and projects only when someone shared them. A guest comments, reacts and watches. ## Related - [Give your troop work that it can finish](/docs/give-work) - [Answer what needs you](/docs/needs-you) - [Ship code with engineering tickets](/docs/engineering) - [Statuses and what they mean](/docs/statuses)