Creating To-Do Lists In WordPress

There never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done, especially if you run a growing business.

There is just too much to do and remember. You have deadlines to meet, tasks to complete, priorities to attend to, fires to extinguish, appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The amount of things that need to get done never stops.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra workload of promoting and growing your business online and keeping your website or blog updated with new content and things can quickly start to become unmanageable and out of control.

Whether you run a business, website, blog, or manage a team, you need to be able to organize and manage your daily activities.

A proven tool that can help you save time, alleviate stressful workloads, and allow you to regain control is to use a “to-do” list.

To Do Lists – Benefits

A “to do” list can help you track your progress when trying to achieve specific goals. Your to do list can be detailed and specific, or serve as a concise reminder of the things that need doing today, tomorrow, this week, this month, etc.

Here are some of the many benefits of using to-do lists:

Think More Clearly

Creating a to-do list means you won’t have to keep remembering stuff or store excessive information inside your brain. Once things are jotted down on a to-do list, your brain is free to process other information and you can focus on other important areas.

Better Strategic Planning

Creating and organizing to-do lists helps you see the bigger picture and create a strategy for getting things completed on time and on budget.

Log Your Work

To-do lists allow you to maintain documented logs of what work has been done. You can use this as evidence of work done to employers or clients, or simply as a way of helping you monitor your own productivity and efficiency.

Reduce Stress

Stress can come from feeling overwhelmed by so much to do and so very little time to do it in. Creating a to do list lets you work on important items that have to be completed immediately, and reschedule items that can be addressed at a later time. This can help reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed and take away some of the stress you (and your team) may be feeling.

Collaboration

Creating to-do lists and other project management tools is essential for collaborating with others on some of your larger or more complex projects.

As you can see, there are many benefits to using a to-do list, both in business and in your personal life. Create a list, prioritize your list items and work in a systematic way and efficiency and productivity in your business will improve.

What about adding a to do list to your WordPress website?

In this step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to easily add a to-do list to a WP website or blog to improve business efficiency and productivity using a great little plugin for WordPress called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To-Do List

Plugin URL

http://wordpress.org/plugins/cleverness-to-do-list/

Plugin Description

This WordPress plugin provides users with a to do list feature.

Plugin Features

Note: the features described below are discussed in more detail in the tutorial section.

You can configure the plugin to have private to-do lists for individual users, to have all users share a to-do list, or to have a master list with individual completion of items.

The shared to-do list has a variety of settings available. You can assign to-do items to a specific user (this includes a setting to email a new to do item to users) and optionally to have assigned items only viewable by that user. You can also assign different permission levels using capabilities. There are also settings available to enable the display of deadline and progress fields. Category support is included as well in the front-end administration.

A new menu item is added to the backend to help you manage your list and your to-do lists can also display on the dashboard widget.

A sidebar widget is also available as short code to display the to-do list items on your blog. There are two shortcodes for front-end list administration. Category management is accessible through the back-end admin section.

If you plan to set up a multi-author site you can use the to do lists plugin to create custom to do lists for your post planners if you also download a copy of the developer’s premium plugin, Post Planner.

Installing The Plugin

Inside your site’s dashboard area, go to the menu and choose Plugins > Add New …

In the Install Plugins screen, type in “cleverness” into the search field and hit Enter on your keyboard …

Locate the item in the Search Results tab and click Install Now …

Click “Activate Plugin” …

Note: You can also activate the plugin from the Plugins area …

When you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

Note: The plugin’s ‘Settings’ section can also be accessed by selecting To-Do List > Settings from the dashboard menu …

This brings you to the plugin ‘Settings’ area …

Let’s go through the plugin configuration process …

How To Configure The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

The Settings area is divided into four tabs:

• To-Do List Settings – This section lets you specify the main plugin settings.
• Advanced Settings – This area is where you can customize your to-do lists, assign tasks to other users and perform database maintenance tasks.
• User Permissions – This section is where you can configure user permissions and capabilities for Group and Master List types.
• Import/Export – Here you can export and import your to-do plugin and list data settings.

Let’s now configure each of these tabs.

To-Do List Settings

To-Do List Categories

Choose ‘Enabled’ to organize your to-do lists into categories, otherwise leave this option set to ‘Disabled’.

Note: If you enable this option, a ‘Categories’ item is added to the To-Do List plugin menu …

This allows you to add categories that can help organize your lists (see ‘Plugin Usage’ section further below for more details) …

You can create ‘public’ and ‘private’ categories for your lists.

Categories set to ‘private’ are not visible using widgets or shortcodes (only when ‘Sort Order’ is set to ‘Category’)

List View

List View allows you to choose how to-do lists are viewed. You can select three kinds of list views:

• Individual – Choose this option if you want each user to be able to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Selecting this option lets all users share the same to-do list.
• Master – Choose this option to have a master list for all users, where users have their own individual completion of items. If you choose the ‘Master’ list view, make sure that you adjust the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (this is covered further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how list items will be sorted.

If you choose Alphabetical, ID or Category, ID, Category or Alphabetical options, items will be first sorted by priority.

Show Added By

If this option is enabled, you can display which of your users has added an item to your to-do list.

Note: This setting only applies when ‘List View’ is set to ‘Group’.

Show Date Completed

If this option is enabled, completion dates will display for your to-do tasks.

Show Deadline

Enabling this option lets you specify deadlines for your to-do tasks …

Show Progress

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

Enabling this option lets you display the ‘To-Do List’ menu in your WordPress Dashboard Admin bar …

Use WYSIWYG Editor

This menu option lets you add and edit items on your to-do list using the WordPress WYSIWYG Editor …

Use Auto Paragraphs

If enabled (‘Yes’), automatic paragraphs are used to display content in to-do list items.

Integrate with Post Planner

If you plan to run a multi-author site or blog, you can integrate the Cleverness To Do List plugin with a plugin called WordPress Post Planner, from the same plugin developer to help make managing a multi-author WordPress site easier …

To learn more about using this plugin, go here: WordPress Post Planner – Plugin For WordPress

After configuring your options, remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button …

Advanced Settings

After configuring the general settings, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab to proceed …

This brings up the ‘Advanced Settings’ area …

This screen lets you customize your To Do lists, assign to-do items to users and perform database maintenance tasks.

Let’s go through how to configure the plugin’s ‘Advanced Settings’ section …

To-Do List Advanced Settings > Customize The To-Do List

This section of the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab allows you to customize your To Do List …

The following options can be configured in this section:

Date Format

This section lets you specify how to display dates on your to-do lists (e.g. month/day/year, day/month/year, etc.)

Note: To learn more about formatting dates in WordPress, visit the relevant section of the WordPress Codex below:

WordPress Codex – Formatting Date And Time

Priority Labels

Here you can customize the labels for important, middle (normal) and lowest priority items …

high priority items display in red in the lists and lowest priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

If enabled (‘Yes’), the items’ IDs display on the list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

If enabled, the date your to-do list was added will display on your To-Do Items table …

To-Do List Advanced Settings > Assign To-Do Items Settings

If you have chosen either ‘Group’ or ‘Master’ View for your to-do list, you can configure the options in this area and assign to-do items to other users …

You can configure the following options in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enabling this option lets you assign tasks to other users …

Note: This set this option to ‘Yes’ for the settings below it to work.

Show a User Only the To-Do Items Assigned to Them

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) displays to-do items only to users who have been specifically assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled (‘No’) displays items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Checking the boxes in this section (Administrator, Editor, Author, Contributor, Subscriber) displays the type of users that can be assigned todo items. Leave the check box unticked for any roles that you do not want to assign to-do items.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

If you enable this option, WordPress will automatically send an email to users with their assigned to-do items …

Leave this option disabled (‘No’) if you don’t want emails sent out to users.

Note: If this option is disabled, you can skip the other items in this section.

Add Category to Subject

If you have enabled categories in your plugin settings and select ‘Yes’ for this option, the to-do category will display on the subject of your emails …

Leave this option disabled (‘No’) if you don’t want to display categories in the subject of your emails.

If you don’t want to show to-do categories in the subject of your emails, then leave this option disabled (‘No’).

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can display the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This option is useful if, for example, your website has a number of project managers assigning to-do items to users …

From Field for Emails Sent to User

This field allows you to customize the “From” field when sending out email notifications. Type your company name, your domain, your name, or anything you like in this field …

From Email

Type in the email address that you want showing as the “sent from” address …

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

Type into this field a subject field for the email that will be automatically distributed to users when a new item has been assigned in your to-do list …

Text in Emails Sent to User

Add the body of the email message that will be sent out automatically to users when a new item has been assigned to your to-do list.

To-Do List Advanced Settings > Database Cleanup

In this area of the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab you can perform database maintenance tasks related to plugin data inside your plugin settings area itself without the need to log into your server …

This is useful if, for example, you see that old to-do items are still showing up on your site.

The tasks below can be performed:

• Delete Tables – Delete custom database tables that are no longer being used.
• Delete All To-Do Items – Erase all to-do items.

Any database operations you perform from this screen cannot be undone. If you are sure that you want to perform database operations in this section, then remember to backup your WP database first.

If you don’t want to do your own site backups, then consider using professional assistance services, or use a WordPress backup plugin. You can learn more about a great WordPress backup plugin that we recommend using to completely automate your file and database backups here:

• Back Up, Clone & Protect Your WP Sites With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

User Permissions

In this area you can configure user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types …

If you are using Individual List, the only configurable option that is applicable for this section is the View To-Do List permission …

If you plan to set up user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types, select the highest level capabilities that you would like users to have access to for each option …

The default general capabilities of each user role are configured as follows:

• Subscribers: Read
• Contributors: Edit Posts
• Authors: Publish Posts
• Editors: Edit Others Posts
• Administrators: Manage Options

Note: When working with the Master list type non-administrators should only be allowed to view and complete items, otherwise they will be able to edit the Master list itself.

Let’s go through the settings in this tab:

View To-Do List

Here you can enable the chosen capability to view items in the dashboard widget and on the To-Do List page under the ‘Tools’ section.

Complete To-Do Item Capability

This option allows the chosen capability to mark to-do items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the chosen capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

This option permits the selected capability to edit existing to-do items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the chosen capability to assign items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

Here you can permit the chosen capability to view all tasks even if “Show Each User Only Their Assigned Tasks” is set to ‘Yes’.

Delete To-Do Item Capability

This option allows the chosen capability to delete individual items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This setting allows the selected capability to purge all the completed to-do items.

Add Categories Capability

This allows the selected capability to add new categories.

Import/Export

Being able to import and export to-do list data can be useful. For example, you may decide to transfer data from one site to another, or export your data for backup or archiving purposes.

To access this function, click on the ‘Import/Export’ tab in your plugin settings area …

Use this section to easily import or export your list data and plugin settings …

Exporting To-Do List Data

To export and download your list data settings click on the ‘Download Export File’ …

This will open up a new window allowing you to view or download the data as plain text to an internal or external hard drive …

In addition to exporting list data from the ‘Import/Export’ section, you can also export data by going to your WordPress admin menu and selecting Tools > Export …

You can include to-do list data in an export file (in XML format), either by checking ‘All content’ (includes everything – posts, pages, etc…), or selecting ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and clicking on the ‘Download Export File’ button to download your file to your storage device…

Importing To-Do List Data

Importing a previously saved to-do list data file is easy. Just click on the ‘Browse’ button next to the ‘Choose File to Import’ field …

Locate the previously saved to-do list data file in your hard drive or external drive and click ‘Open’ …

After your data file has been uploaded to your settings area, click on the ‘Import Settings’ button …

The data from the existing to-do file will be imported.

After configuring all plugin settings, you can start create and edit your lists.

Plugin Usage

To create a new to do list, log into your WordPress admin, then scroll down the menu and select To-Do List > To-Do List …

This brings you to the ‘To-Do List’ page …

Adding New To-Do Items To Your List

There are a number of ways to add new to-do items.

For example, you can add new to-do items to your list from your dashboard toolbar …

You can also add new to-do items from the ‘To-Do List’ dashboard section by clicking on the ‘Add To-Do item’ link …

You can also click on the ‘Add New Item’ link in the ‘To-Do Items’ section (note: only use this option if your To Do list already contains many items, as the link is only going to take you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section further down the screen) …

All the above methods will take you to the ‘Add New To-Do Item’ area.

Depending on how you have set up your plugin, some options may not display when adding new to-do items.

Select the options you have enabled for your to-do items, add appropriate information into the relevant fields and click on the ‘Submit To-Do Item’ button to add the item to your list …

Note: If you have chosen a list type that allows you to assign items to specific users, select a user from the drop-down list and assign them the item …

You can also assign multiple users to the same item (click on ‘x’ to remove a user) …

Once a new item has been added, it will be listed as an entry in the ‘To-Do List’ table …

Repeat this process to continue adding items to your list …

Edit And Delete Items

To edit or delete an item, click on the ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ buttons associated with each item under the ‘Action’ column …

Depending on how you have configured the plugin (discussed in the previous section), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive email notifications …

Once you have created your to-do list, users can view it from their own user dashboard …

When users assigned with completing an item tick the item checkbox …

… the item no longer appears in the “To-Do” list …

And gets added to the ‘Completed Items’ section located in the main screen of the ‘To-Do List’ plugin …

Additional Plugin Information

The Cleverness To-Do List plugin provides additional functions that let you display to-do lists on your site using widgets, and display lists on content inside a post or page using short codes.

Widgets

To add a to-do list to your site using widgets, go to the ‘Widgets’ page (Appearance > Widgets) and drag the ‘To-Do List’ widget to the location in your sidebar menu where you want the list to display …

Configure the settings on the widget and click the ‘Save’ button to update your settings …

The to-do list will appear where you have inserted the widget (i.e. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

To learn more about using WordPress widgets, see the tutorial below:

• How To Use Widgets In WordPress

Using Plugin Short Codes

You can also display lists and checklists to your site with shortcodes.

To access the plugin’s short code documentation, select To-Do List > To-Do List from the dashboard menu …

Click the ‘Help’ tab on the corner of your screen …

Click on the ‘Shortcodes’ tab to access the Shortcode Documentation …

This section explains different ways to configure and use shortcodes for displaying lists and checklists on your content.

Once you know what information you would like to add to your site, create a new page or post and either type or paste the short code into the content section …

After publishing your page or post, you will see the list showing where you added the shortcode …

For more details about this plugin, go here:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you know how to add to-do lists to your WordPress site or blog.

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