How To Create To Do Lists In WordPress

When you are running a fast-paced business or managing a team, time always seems to be in short supply.

There are just so many things to do and remember. You have deadlines to meet, project tasks to complete, meetings to attend, fires to put out, appointments to make, schedules to keep and so on. The amount of things that need ”doing” never stops.

Now … on top of all this, add the extra workload of trying to promote and grow your business online and keeping your website or blog updated with new content and everything can start becoming unmanageable and chaotic.

Whether you are running a business, website, blog, or managing a project, it’s important to be able to organize and manage your daily activities.

One proven tool that can help you save time, reduce stressful workloads, and allow you to gain some control is to use “to do” lists.

Benefits Of Using A To-Do List

A “to do” list helps you keep track of your progress as you work towards completing tasks. Your to do list can be minutely detailed and specific, or act as a concise reminder of the things that need to be done over a given period of time.

Here are just a few of the many benefits of using to-do lists:

Create Order

Having to-do lists help you create order, stay organized and achieve goals sooner.

Better Strategic Planning

Creating and organizing to do lists helps you break larger projects into more doable tasks and create a strategy for getting tasks done on time and on budget.

Document Your Work

A to-do list lets you maintain documented logs of what has been done. You can use this to provide evidence of work done to employers or clients, or simply as a method of helping you track your own productivity and efficiency.

Relieve Stress

Stress can come from feeling overwhelmed by so much to do and very little time to do it all in. Using a to do list lets you prioritize important tasks that need to get done within the time you have available, and reschedule tasks that can be addressed later. This can help you stress less.

Sense Of Accomplishment

Crossing items off to do lists not only makes you feel more productive, motivated and in-control, it also allows you to relax more, as you can objectively see (or show) that work is indeed getting done and that things are moving forward.

As you can see, there are many benefits to using to-do lists, both in business and in your personal life. Creating to do lists, prioritizing tasks and working towards completing the items listed improves productivity and efficiency in your business.

What about using a to do list on your website or blog?

In this detailed step-by-step tutorial you are going to learn how to create to-do lists in WordPress to improve business efficiency and productivity using a customizable, multi-featured to do list plugin called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To Do List

Download The Plugin

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

Description

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

Features

Note: the plugin features listed below will be discussed in more detail in the tutorial section.

You can set up the plugin to assign private to do lists for each user, to have all users share the same to-do list, or to have a master list with individual item completions.

The shared to do list has a variety of settings available. You can delegate to-do items to specific users (this includes emailing new to-do items to the user) and optionally to have those items be viewable by that user. You can also assign different permission levels to different users. There are also settings to display deadline and progress fields. Category support is also included as 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 be displayed on a dashboard widget.

A sidebar widget is also available as short code to display the to do list items on your blog. There are 2 shortcodes for front-end list administration. Management of categories is accessible through the back-end admin section.

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

Installing The Plugin

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

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

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

Activate the plugin after installing it …

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

After you have activated the plugin, click on Settings …

Note: You can also get to the plugin’s settings area by selecting To-Do List > Settings from your admin menu …

This takes you to the ‘Settings’ section …

Let’s go through the plugin setup process …

How To Set Up The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

The Settings screen is divided into four sections:

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

Let’s now take you through each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

Categories

Select ‘Enabled’ to organize lists into categories, otherwise leave this option set to ‘Disabled’.

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

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

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

Private categories will not be visible when 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 choose three kinds of list views:

• Individual – Selecting this option allows users to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Use this option if you want all users to share one to-do list.
• Master – Use this option to create one 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 configure the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (this is covered further below).

Sort Order

‘Sort Order’ lets you specify how to order to-do list items.

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

Show Added By

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can display which members on your site have added an item to your to-do list.

Note: This setting only works if ‘List View’ is set to ‘Group’.

Show Date Completed

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

Show Deadline

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you will be able to specify deadlines for your to-do tasks …

Show Progress

If enabled, you will be able to specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), the ‘To-Do List’ menu displays in your WordPress 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 this option is enabled (‘Yes’), automatic paragraphs are used to display content in your to-do list items.

Integrate with Post Planner

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

Visit this site to learn more this plugin: WordPress Post Planner – WordPress Editorial Solution Plugin

When you have configured your plugin options, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to update your settings …

Advanced Settings

Once you have configured the settings in the To-Do List Settings tab, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab to continue …

This brings you to the ‘Advanced Settings’ area …

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

Let’s step 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 lets you customize your To-Do List …

You can configure the following options in this section:

Date Format

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

Note: To learn more about how to format dates in WordPress, see the relevant section of the WordPress Codex below:

WordPress Codex – Formatting Date And Time

Priority Labels

This section lets you customize your labels for highest, normal and lowest priority items …

high priority items display in red in your lists and lowest (low) priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), the item’s ID display on your list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

If enabled, the date the to-do list was added shows up on your items table …

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

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

Note: This setting must be set to ‘Yes’ for the settings below it to work.

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

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can display items only to users who have been specifically assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled (‘No’) displays to-do items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Checking the boxes in this area Contributor displays the type of users that can be assigned todo items. If you don’t want to assign to-do items to a role, then leave its check box unticked.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), WordPress will automatically send users an email with their assigned to-do items …

If you don’t want emails sent out to users, then leave this option disabled (‘No’).

Note: If you disable this option, skip the remaining settings in this section.

Add Category to Subject

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

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

If you don’t want to display categories in the email subject, then leave this option disabled.

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enable this option to display the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This option is useful if, for example, your site has various 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 emails to users. You can enter your company name, your domain, your name, or anything you like in this field …

From Email

Add into this field the email address that you would like showing as the “sent from” email address …

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

Type into this field a subject field for the email that will be distributed automatically to users when new items have been assigned to 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

This section lets you carry out database maintenance operations related to plugin data inside the plugin settings area …

This function is useful if, for example, you see that items you have deleted are still appearing on your site.

The tasks below can be performed in this section:

• Delete Tables – Remove any custom database tables that you no longer use.
• Delete All To-Do Items – Delete all of your to-do items.

Actions that you perform on the database from this screen cannot be reversed. If you are sure that you want to proceed with any of the database operations available in this section, then remember to backup your database first.

If you don’t want to back up your data yourself, then consider using professional support services, or use a WordPress backup plugin. Learn about a great WordPress backup plugin that we recommend using to perform automated site backups here:

• Back Up, Copy And Keep Your WordPress Web Sites Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

User Permissions

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

If you are using Individual List, the only item applicable in this section is the View To-Do List permission …

If you are configuring user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types, select the highest level capabilities that you want users to be able to perform for each option …

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

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

Note: When using the Master list type make sure that you only permit non-admin users to view and complete items, otherwise they will be able to edit the Master list itself.

Let’s go through the settings in this section:

View To-Do List

This setting allows the selected capability to view to-do 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 selected capability to mark items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

This enables the selected capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

Here you can enable the chosen capability to modify existing items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

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

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

Here you can allow 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

Here you can enable the chosen capability to delete individual to-do items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

Here you can allow the selected capability to purge all the completed items.

Add Categories Capability

This setting permits the selected capability to add new categories.

Import/Export

Being able to import and export to-do list data can be very useful. For example, you may decide to copy over 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 …

Here you can import and export your to-do list data and plugin settings …

Exporting To-Do List Data

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

This opens up a window allowing you to view or download your data in a plain text file (e.g. Notepad) to an internal or external hard drive …

In addition to exporting to-do list data from the ‘Import/Export’ tab, you can also export data by going to your main menu and choosing Tools > Export …

You can include to-do list data in a WordPress 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 a storage medium…

Importing To-Do List Data

To import a list data file, 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’ …

Once uploading the data file, click on the ‘Import Settings’ button …

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

Now that you have configured all plugin settings, you can begin create and edit your lists.

How To Use The Plugin

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

This brings up the ‘To-Do List’ page …

Adding New To Do Items To Your List

There are a number of ways to add a new item to your to-do list.

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

You can also add new to-do items to your list inside the Dashboard by clicking on the ‘Add To-Do item’ link …

You can click on the ‘Add New Item’ link in the ‘To-Do Items’ section (note: only use this option if your To-Do list contains many items, since the link will simply send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section at the bottom of the page) …

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

Depending on the way you have set up your plugin, you may or may not see certain options displayed when adding new to-do items.

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

Note: If you have selected a list type that allows you to assign tasks to 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) …

After After adding a new item, the item will be listed as an entry in the ‘To-Do Items’ table …

Repeat this process to keep adding new items to your to-do list …

Editing And Deleting To Do Items From Your List

To edit or delete an item, click on the ‘Edit’ or ‘Delete’ buttons next to items under the ‘Action’ column …

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

Once you have created your to-do list, users can view the list when logged into their own user dashboard …

When users assigned with the item complete the task and tick the item check box …

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

And appears in the ‘Completed Items’ section located in the ’To-Do List’ screen …

Additional Information

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

Using The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin Widget

To add a to-do list to your site using widgets, go to the ‘Widgets’ section (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 in the widget and click the ‘Save’ button …

The to-do list will appear where you have added the ‘to-do-list’ widget (e.g. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• How To Use s

Using The Cleverness Plugin Short Codes

Cleverness To-Do List also lets you display lists and checklists to your site using shortcodes.

To access the plugin’s shortcode documentation, click on To-Do List > To-Do List from your dashboard menu …

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

Click on the ‘Shortcodes’ menu entry to access the Shortcode Documentation …

This section explains various ways to configure and use short codes to display lists on your content.

Once you know what information you want to display on your site, create or edit a new or existing post or page and either type or paste the shortcode inside the content editor …

After publishing your page or post, you should see the list showing exactly where you entered the short code …

To learn more about this plugin, visit the plugin website:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you know how to create and add a to-do list in WordPress.

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