TeamworkPM’s Engine Room

Create tasks and messages via email

You can now create tasks and messages via email thanks to our new Email Dropboxes! We have been testing this with a few customers for a few weeks and we love it! Try it now...

Creating a message by email: 

 Each project will have a link at the bottom left of the messages page. This will display the unique email address for that project. To send a message via email, copy this address and compose a new email in your email client. A new message will be created in the project in a mesage category called Inbox. You can file away these messages to other categories when you are back in Teamwork.

• The subject of the email will be used as the title of the message in Teamwork
• The body of the email will be used as the body of the message in Teamwork
• Files attached to your message will also be attached to the new message in Teamwork.

Options when creating a new message by email:

• By default, notifications are not sent to other members of the project. If you want to notify all people on the project, simply add notify+ to the email address
• If you would like to create a private message, simply add private+ to the email address.
• You can chain multiple options together, for example:
  • private+notify+example@messages.teamworkpm.net
• Because alot of people have signatures in their email and there is no standard way of knowing what part of an email is a signature, you can add #End. to the end of your message. Anything after this will be ignored.
• Unfortunately, any signature images will be added as file attachments as we have no way of knowing if they are part of a signature.
• Creating a message via email can be done by:
  • Forwarding an email to the unique address
  • Writing an email directly to the unique address
  • CC'ing the unique address

Creating a task or tasks by email:

Each project will soon have a link at the bottom left hand side of the task page. This will display the unique email address of the project you are working in. Alternatively the drop down menu in-front of each task list name will also display the unique email address for that specific task list.

To send a task via email all you have to do is email the unique address, from the same email account that you use within TeamworkPM. It will then create a new task list called Inbox if you used the general task email address. If you used the email address specific to a task list, it will create the task or tasks in that list:

• The title of the task will be the subject of your email.
• The body of your email will then become the description of the task.
• Files attached to your email will be uploaded and attached to the new task in Teamwork.
• To create multiple tasks, just leave the subject blank and add one task per line in the body of the email.
  • Note: If you are creating multiple tasks, file attachments are ignored

 

Options when creating new tasks by email:

• By default, notifications are not sent to other members of the project. If you want to notify all people on the project, simply add notify+ to the email address
• If you would like to create a private task, simply add private+ to the email address.
• You can chain multiple options together, for example:
  • private+notify+example@tasks.teamworkpm.net
• Because alot of people have signatures in their email and there is no standard way of knowing what part of an email is a signature, you can add #End. to the end of your email. Anything after this will be ignored.
• Unfortunately, any signature images will be added as file attachments when you are creating a single task. We have no way of knowing if they are part of a signature.

Handy Tips:

• You can customize the unique email addresses per project
• Save the unique address to your address book so you can find it easily
• If a client emails you directly, drag them back into Teamwork by forwarding the email to your project
• For best results, always add #End. just before your email signature so we know what to ignore

Its that easy. Try it now!

Bulk import tool for users.

Bulk importing of users is due to be rolled off the production line during our next update over the weekend. This new feature will give you the ability to export your contacts from Outlook or Gmail and import them directly into your TeamworkPM account as users. No more adding users one by one.  Once you import the users we use their email address as their login and we automatically generate a password for them. When you are ready to give them access to a project just send them a welcome email and they are good to go. Once this feature is available you will find the link to access the user importer at the bottom of the People & Companies page.

 

Improved Markdown support

Thanks to everyone who supplied us with feedback on the new Markdown feature we rolled out last month for messages and comments. We implemented an exact Markdown processor in Teamwork which didn't 100% suit our requirements.

The main drawback was the way line-breaks are interpretted. In pure Markdown, line-breaks are ignored except when there is a blank line above and below the sentence. This in effect ignores line-breaks except when your prose is in paragraph style.

To get around this we have implemented what we like to call Teamwork Flavoured Markdown. Line breaks are displayed exactly as you write them, URL's and email addresses are auto-linked and we also implemented a few other touches of our own!

And Yes, we are investigating integrating Markdown in other areas of the app such as Task List Descriptions ;-)