Creating A To-Do List In WordPress

If you are running a growing business or managing a team, there never seems to be enough hours in the day to get everything done.

There is just so much work to do and things to remember. You have deadlines to meet, urgent tasks to complete, priorities to attend to, fires to put out, deliveries to make, schedules to keep and so on. The “doing” never seems to stop.

Now … add the extra dimension of promoting and growing your business online and keeping your website updated with fresh content and everything can suddenly begin feeling unmanageable and chaotic.

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

A simple proven method that can help you save time, create a sense of order and manageability, and allow you to take control is to use a “to-do” list.

To-Do Lists – Benefits

A “to-do” list can help to keep you on track and measure your progress when trying to get tasks completed. Your to-do list can be detailed and specific, or serve as a concise reminder of the things that need doing over a given period of time.

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

Create Order

A to do list helps you create order, keep things organized and reach goals sooner.

Be More Strategic

After creating and organizing a to do list, you can see the bigger picture and come up with a strategy to get everything done on budget and on time.

Document Your Work

A to-do list allows you to keep documented logs of what has been done. You can use this to provide evidence of work to employers or clients, or just as a way of helping you monitor your own productivity and efficiency.

Stress Relief

Stress can result from feeling overwhelmed by the fact that there is so much that needs doing and so little time to do it all in. Using a to do list lets you work on important things that need to get done immediately, and reschedule tasks that can be addressed at a later time. This can help you stress less.

Collaborate Better With Others

Creating to-do lists and other project management tools is essential for getting other people involved on some of your larger or more complex projects.

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

What about using a to-do list on your WordPress website?

In this detailed tutorial you are going to learn how to add to do lists to WordPress to improve business efficiency and productivity using a great little plugin called Cleverness To-Do List.

Cleverness To Do List

Download The Plugin

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

Description

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

Plugin Features

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

You can configure Cleverness To-Do List with private to do lists for each user, 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 assign to-do items to a specific user (this includes emailing new to-do items to the assigned user) and optionally to have those items be viewable by that user. You can also assign different permission levels to different users based on user roles. There are also settings to enable the display of deadline and progress fields. Category support is also included in the front-end administration.

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

A sidebar widget is available as well as short code to display the to do list items on your blog. There are 2 shortcodes for front-end list administration. Category management is accessed via the back-end.

If you plan to run a multi-author blog you can use the plugin to create custom to do lists for your post planners if you also download a copy of the Post Planner plugin from the same developer.

Installing The Cleverness To-Do List Plugin

Log into your site’s admin area and select Plugins > Add New …

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

Locate the Cleverness To-Do List entry in the Search Results tab and click Install Now …

Click “Activate Plugin” …

Note: You can also activate this plugin in the Plugins section …

Once the plugin has been activated, click on Settings …

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

This brings you to the plugin ‘Settings’ page …

Let’s go through the plugin configuration process …

Setting Up The Plugin

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

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

Let’s now review each of these sections.

To-Do List Settings

Categories

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

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

This allows you to add categories to your to-do 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 sidebar widgets or shortcodes (only when ‘Sort Order’ is set to ‘Category’)

List View

List View allows you to choose how your to-do lists are viewed. You can select 3 kinds of list views:

• Individual – Select this option if you want each user 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 – This option allows you to have a master list for all users, where users have their own individual completion of items. If using the ‘Master’ list view, make sure that you set the User Permissions appropriately in the ‘User Permissions’ tab (see further below).

Sort Order

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

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

Show Added By

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

Note: This setting only works when ‘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 your to-do tasks …

Show Progress

If enabled, you can 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 Dashboard Admin bar …

Use WYSIWYG Editor

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), you can 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 plan to run a multi-author website or blog, you can integrate the Cleverness To Do List plugin with a plugin called WordPress Post Planner, developed by the same plugin author that provides you with a complete WordPress editorial solution …

For more details about using this handy plugin, go here: WordPress Post Planner – WordPress Multi-Author Publishing Plugin

After you have finished configuring your options, click the ‘Save Changes’ button to update your settings …

Advanced Settings

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

This brings up the ‘Advanced Settings’ section …

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

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

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

In this section you can customize your To-Do List …

You can configure the following settings in this section:

Date Format

This section lets you specify how to display dates in your to-do list (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 (important), middle (normal) and lowest priority items …

Items given the highest priority are color-coded in red and low priority items display in a lighter shade of grey …

Show To-Do Item ID

If this option is enabled (‘Yes’), item IDs show on the list …

Show Date To-Do Was Added

Enabling this option shows the date your table of items was added …

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

If you have selected 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 …

The following options can be configured in this section:

Assign To-Do Items to Users

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to 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

Enable this option (‘Yes’) to display items only to users who have been specifically assigned those items. Leave this option disabled (‘No’) to display to-do items to all users.

User Roles to Show

Check the boxes in this area Editor to display the type of users that can be assigned todo items. Leave the checkbox unticked for any roles that you don’t want to assign to-do items.

Email Assigned To-Do Items to User

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

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

Note: If this option is disabled, you can skip 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 in the subject of emails sent to users …

Leave this option disabled (‘No’) if you don’t want to show to-do categories in the email subject.

If you don’t want categories to appear the email subject, then leave this option disabled (‘No’).

Show Who Assigned the To-Do Item in Email

Enabling this option (‘Yes’) lets you display the user who assigned the to-do item in the email. This is a useful option if you have various project managers assigning to-do items to users …

From Field for Emails Sent to User

Use this field to customize the “From” field when sending out emails to users. Add the name of your company, your domain, your name, or anything you like into this field …

From Email

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

Subject Field for Emails Sent to User

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

Text in Emails Sent to User

Type in 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 associated with plugin data directly from your plugin settings area without the need to access your server …

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

The following tasks can be performed:

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

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

If you don’t want to back up your data manually, then get assistance from a WordPress professional, or use a backup plugin. You can read about a great WordPress backup plugin that can automate your backup process here:

• Back Up, Clone And Protect Your WordPress Website With Backup Creator Plugin For WP

User Permissions

This section lets you configure user permissions and capabilities for Group and Master List types …

If you have selected Individual List, the only setting that is applicable in this section is the View To-Do List option …

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

The default general capabilities for 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.

Below is a description of the settings in the User Permissions tab:

View To-Do List

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

Add To-Do Item Capability

This option allows the selected capability to add new items.

Edit To-Do Item Capability

Here you can permit the chosen capability to modify existing to-do items.

Assign To-Do Item Capability

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

View All Assigned Tasks Capability

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

Delete All To-Do Items Capability

This permits the selected capability to purge all the completed items.

Add Categories Capability

This option permits the chosen capability to add new categories.

Import/Export

The ability to import and export to-do list data can be very useful. For example, you may need to copy over data from one site to another, or store your 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 export and import your data and plugin settings …

Exporting To-Do List Data

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

This opens up a window allowing you to download and save the data in a plain text file (e.g. Notepad) to a storage device …

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

You can include to-do list data in a WordPress export file (in XML format), either by selecting ‘All content’ (includes everything – pages, posts, etc…), or just select ‘To-Do’ from the ‘Choose what to export’ section and click on the ‘Download Export File’ button to download your file to an internal or external hard drive…

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 and click ‘Open’ …

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

Your file data will be imported.

Now that you have configured all of the plugin settings, you can begin create and edit to do lists.

Plugin Usage

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

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

Adding New To-Do Items

There are several ways to add new to-do items.

For example, you can add new to-do items from your WP admin toolbar …

You can also add new to-do items in 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 already contains many items, as the link will simply send you to the “Add New To-Do Item” section at the bottom of the page) …

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

Depending on the way you have configured the plugin settings, some options may not display when adding new to-do items.

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

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

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

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

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

Editing And Removing 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 how you have configured the plugin (see previous section), users assigned to completing tasks may also receive email notifications …

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

When a user assigned with completing an item ticks the item checkbox …

… the item is then deleted from the “To-Do” list …

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

Additional Information

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

Using The Plugin Widget

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

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

Your list will appear where the widget was placed (i.e. the sidebar menu, footer, etc.)

To learn more about how to use WordPress widgets, see the tutorial below:

• Using Widgets In WordPress

Shortcodes

You can also add lists and checklists on your site by placing short codes into your content.

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

Click on 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 short codes to display lists on your content.

Once you know what information you want to add to your site, create a new post or page and either type or paste the short code inside the content editor …

After publishing your page or post, you will see the list showing exactly where you have added the short code …

Visit this site to download this plugin:

• Cleverness To-Do List WordPress Plugin

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

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