Creating To-Do Lists In WordPress

If you are a busy person trying to run a business or manage a team, time always seems to be in short supply.

There is just too much to do and remember. You have so many deadlines to meet, tasks to complete, priorities to attend to, fires to extinguish, calls and appointments to make, commitments to keep and so on. The stress of trying to get things done on time never stops.

Now … add the extra dimension of promoting and growing your business online and maintaining your website updated with new content and things can start becoming unmanageable and out of control.

Whether you are running a business, website, blog, or managing a team, you need to be able to organize and prioritize your activities, track your progress and daily accomplishments, and, if necessary, delegate tasks and responsibilities to team members efficiently.

A ”tried and true” tool that can help you save time, create a sense of order and manageability, and allow you to take control is to use “to-do” lists.

To Do Lists – Benefits

A “to do” list can help you track your progress when working towards specific goals. Your to do list can be very detailed or specific, or serve as a concise reminder of the things that need to be done over a given period of time.

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

A To-Do List Helps Stay Organized

A to-do list helps you create order, stay organized and achieve your goals sooner.

Better Strategic Planning

Creating and organizing to-do lists helps you view the larger picture and formulate a strategic plan for getting tasks completed effectively.

Document Your Work

A to do list lets you retain documented logs of the work you have done. You can use this as evidence of work to employers or clients, or simply as a means of helping you monitor your own productivity and efficiency.

Eliminate Stress

Stress can come from feeling overwhelmed by so much to do and very little time to do it all in. Creating a to do list allows you to prioritize important things that need to be completed immediately, and push out tasks that can be addressed at a later time. This can reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed and help to alleviate some of the stress you may be feeling.

Better Delegation

Having a to do list helps you delegate work to other people better. This is also important when collaborating within a team (see further below).

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 on your list improves efficiency and productivity in your business.

Let’s turn now to using a to-do list on your website or blog. More specifically, adding a to-do list to WordPress.

In this step-by-step tutorial we are going to show you how to add to do lists to WordPress to help get things done online  faster and more efficiently using a great little plugin for WordPress called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To-Do List

Plugin Download URL

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

Plugin Description

This plugin provides users with a to do list feature.

Plugin Features

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

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

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

A new menu item is added to the admin backend to manage your lists and the to do lists can also appear on a dashboard widget.

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

If you plan to set up a multi-author blog you can use this to do lists plugin to create custom to-do lists for your post editors if you also download the Post Planner plugin for WordPress.

Installing The Plugin

Log into your WP administration section and click on Plugins > Add New …

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

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

Click Activate Plugin …

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

After the plugin has been activated, click on Settings …

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

This takes you to the ‘Settings’ page …

Let’s go through the plugin setup process …

How To Configure The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

The “To-Do List” plugin ‘Settings’ area is divided into 4 tabs:

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

Let’s now configure each of these tabs.

To-Do List Settings

To-Do List Categories

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

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

Private categories are not visible using widgets or short codes (only when ‘Sort Order’ is set to ‘Category’)

List View

List View allows you to specify how to-do lists will be viewed. You can select 3 to-do list views:

• Individual – Select this option if you want each user to create and manage their own private to-do list.
• Group – Choose this option if you want all users to share the same to-do list.
• Master – This option allows you to create a master list for all users, where users have their own individual items to complete. If using the ‘Master’ list view, make sure to set the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (this is covered further below).

Sort Order

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

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

Show Added By

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you display which of your users has added an item to your to-do list.

Note: This setting only applies 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

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

Show Progress

Enabling this option lets you specify task progress indicators for your to-do items …

Show Admin Bar Menu

If enabled, the ‘To-Do List’ menu will display in your WP Admin bar …

Use WYSIWYG Editor

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

Use Auto Paragraphs

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to display content in to-do lists using paragraphs.

Integrate with Post Planner

If you are running a collaborative site or blog, you can integrate the Cleverness To-Do List plugin with a plugin called WordPress Post Planner, developed by the same author that provides you with a complete WordPress editorial solution …

To learn more about using this handy plugin, visit this site: WordPress Post Planner – Plugin For WordPress

Once you have configured your plugin options, remember to click the ‘Save Changes’ button …

Advanced Settings

Once you have configured the general settings, click on the ‘Advanced Settings’ tab to proceed …

This brings you to the plugin’s ‘Advanced Settings’ section …

This section lets you customize your To Do lists, assign to-do items to users and carry out plugin database maintenance.

Let’s take you 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’ screen allows you to customize your To Do List …

You can configure the following options in this section:

Date Format

Here you can specify how to display dates in your todo lists (e.g. month/day/year, day/month/year, etc.)

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

WordPress Codex – Formatting Date And Time

Priority Labels

This section lets you customize your labels for prioritizing important, middle (normal) and low items …

Items given the highest (important) priority are shown in red and lowest (low) priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

If enabled, item IDs show up on the list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

If enabled, the date your to-do list was added will show on the To-Do 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 settings in this area and assign to-do items to other users …

The following settings can be configured in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to assign tasks 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

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to display items only to users who have been specifically assigned those items. Leaving this option disabled will display items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Check the boxes in this section Subscriber) to display the type of users that can be assigned todo items. If you do not want to assign to-do items to a specific role, then leave its check box unticked.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

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

Leave this option disabled if you don’t want emails sent out to users.

Note: If this option is disabled, you can skip the other 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 categories to show the email subject.

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

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) displays the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This is a useful option if your site has multiple 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. You can enter your company name, your domain, your name, or anything you like in this field …

From Email

Enter the email address that you would like displayed as the “sent from” address …

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

Enter a subject field for the email that will be automatically sent out to users whenever new items have been added in your to-do list …

Text in Emails Sent to User

Type into this field 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 operations related to plugin data directly from the plugin settings area without having to log into your web server …

This function is useful if, for example, you see that to-do items you have previously deleted are still displaying on your site.

You can perform the tasks below in this section:

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

Any actions that you perform on the database from this screen cannot be undone. If you are comfortable to proceed with any of the database operations available in this section, then make sure to backup your WordPress database first.

If you don’t want to back up your files manually, then consider using a professional service, or use WordPress backup plugins. You can read about a WordPress backup plugin that can automate your site backups here:

• Back Up, Duplicate And Keep Your WordPress Site Protected With Backup Creator Plugin For WordPress

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 setting that applies in this section is the View To-Do List permission …

If you are setting up user permissions and capabilities for Group or Master List types, select the highest level capabilities that you would like users 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 non-administrator users should only be permitted to view and complete items, otherwise they will have the ability to edit the Master list itself.

Let’s review the settings for this section:

View To-Do List

Here you can permit the chosen 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

Here you can allow the selected capability to mark items as completed or uncompleted.

Add To-Do Item Capability

Here you can enable the selected capability to add new to-do items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

Here you can enable the selected capability to modify existing to-do items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

Here you can enable the selected capability to delegate items to individual users.

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

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

Delete To-Do Item Capability

This permits the selected capability to delete individual to-do items.

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This setting enables the chosen capability to purge all the completed items.

Add Categories Capability

Here you can permit the chosen 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 an existing to-do list to another website, or export the data for backup or reporting purposes.

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

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

Exporting To-Do List Data

You can export and download your to-do list data settings by clicking on the ‘Download Export File’ …

This will open up a window allowing you to view or download your data as plain text to a storage medium …

As well as exporting to-do list data from the ‘Import/Export’ section, you can also export data by going to your WordPress dashboard 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 the ‘Download Export File’ button to save your file to a storage device…

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 file and click ‘Open’ …

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

Your file data will be imported.

Now that you have configured all of the plugin settings, you are ready to begin creating and editing to-do lists.

How To Use The Plugin

To create a new to-do list, log into your WordPress dashboard, 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

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 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, as the link is only going to send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section down the screen) …

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, some options may not display when adding new to-do items.

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

Note: If you are using a list type that lets you assign tasks to specific users, select a user from the drop-down list and assign them the item …

You can also assign items to multiple users (click on ‘x’ to delete users) …

After the item has been added, it will display as an entry in the ‘To-Do List’ table …

Repeat the above process to keep adding items to your to-do list …

Edit And Remove To-Do Items From Your List

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

Depending on your plugin configuration settings (discussed in the previous section), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive an email notification in their inboxes …

After creating your to do list, users can view the list from their own user dashboard …

When users assigned with completing an item click on the item checkbox …

… the item disappears from the “To-Do” list …

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

Additional Plugin Information

The Cleverness To-Do List plugin offers additional functions that let you display a to-do list on your site using widgets, and add a list to any page or post using shortcodes.

Using The Plugin Widget

To add to-do lists 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 (or footer) menu where you want your list to show …

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

The to-do list will appear on your site where the ‘to-do-list’ widget has been added (e.g. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

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

• How To Use Widgets In WordPress

Shortcodes

You can also create to-do lists and checklists to your site by inserting shortcodes into your content.

To access the documentation on using short codes, click on To-Do List > To-Do List from the WordPress admin menu …

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

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

The documentation section explains various ways to configure and use short codes to display lists on your posts and pages.

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

Publish your page or post and you should see the list displayed in the location where you entered the shortcode …

To learn more about this plugin, go here:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

Congratulations! Now you can add a to-do list to your WordPress site.

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