The Tasks Module

Click on Tasks in the Navigation Pane to get to the Tasks Module

Outlook's Tasks Module is the place to experience the full richness of Outlook's time management system. Like the To-Do Bar and the Daily Task List, the Tasks Module shows flagged mail and contacts, along with all of their tasks from Outlook, SharePoint, OneNote, and Project server.

Tasks Module

By default, the reading pane is on and is on the right side so that you can read your tasks just like mail (even your RSS feeds!) If you want to change the reading pane to the bottom to see more task columns, or turn it off so you can see more tasks, just click on View -> Reading Pane. Like the other modules (Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Journal, and Notes), you can search in the Tasks module.

The Task Module gives you a place to focus just on tasks and pivot your task data in different ways. For example, you can see a simple list of your tasks, or look at a more detailed view by clicking on the different view options in the Navigation Pane. You can also filter the view to only show you active tasks or just the ones that you have completed. I find that the completed view is really useful for rolling up status for my boss each week.

You may also notice that there are multiple "task" folders listed in the folder section of the Navigation Pane. The top folder is the "To-Do Bar Task List," which is a search folder (essentially a virtual folder that persists a search query) that includes all flagged mail, flagged contacts, and tasks from across your different stores, including tasks in subfolders. The "To-Do Bar Task List" is the same folder that populates the tasks in the To-Do Bar and the Daily Task List, and it is the default folder of the Tasks Module. The second folder, "Tasks," just contains tasks in the current store and is a regular folder. Why two different folders? In Outlook, search folders cannot be shared through Exchange, cannot be drop targets when items are dragged to them, and cannot have subfolders, so we continue to show the Tasks folder to satisfy these scenarios. (If you see multiple "To-Do Bar Task List" folders, that is a known bug.)

Look for tips on the Task Module coming soon.