Microsoft Planner

Overview

Take the chaos out of teamwork and get more done! Microsoft Planner is an unifying experience that makes it easy for your team to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files, chat about what you're working on, and get updates on progress. It’s naturally integrated with the familiar Office applications and is built from the ground up on the Microsoft Office 365 global, secure cloud.

Features

  • Organize Work Visually: Each plan has its own board, where you can organize tasks into bucks. You can categorize tasks based on their status or on whom they're assigned to. To update the status or change assignments, just drag and drop tasks between columns.
  • Visibility: The My Tasks view provides a comprehensive list of all your task and their status across all your plans. When working together on a plan, team members always know who is working on what.
  • Collaborate: With its integration into Office 365, Planner lets you work together on the same tasks, attach captured photos directly to them, and even have conversations around tasks without switching between apps. With Planner all your team's discussions and deliverables stay with the plan and don't get locked away across disparate applications.
  • Work Across Devices: Planner works across all your devices. And with Planner, everyone is always on the same page. Continue conversations and update tasks while on-the-go or at your desk.

How do I access Microsoft Planner?

Microsoft Planner is accessible via web browsers on your desktop, or laptop computer, as well as an app on your mobile device. You may find yourself using one, or more of these options as you stay engaged with your team.

Mobile Device Clients

Start using Microsoft Planner

  1. Start a web browser, and login to your UA Office 365 account.
  2. In the top left corner click the App launcher, if necessary click All apps, then click Planner.
  3. Start using Planner.

HELP RESOURCES

Use the help resources listed below to learn how to successfully use Microsoft Planner.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can I restrict who has access to a Plan?

    Yes. When you create a new plan you are provided with an option to set the Plan's privacy settings. You can select from the following options:

    • Public - Anyone in my organization can see plan contents
    • Private - Only members I add can see plan contents.

    Additionally, you have the option to use an existing Office 365 group to manage access to your plan.

  • What options for accessibility does Microsoft Planner support?

    Microsoft Planner supports various screen reader solutions to allow individuals to explore and navigate. Further details and information is available in the Microsoft Planner Accessibility Support pages.

  • Can I use Planner with Teams?

    Good news for fans of organization and collaboration—Teams and Planner go hand in hand!

    To start using them together, add a Planner tab to Teams. Just click Add a tab + next to your tabs at the top of a channel. Select Planner, then do one of the following:

    • Click Create a new plan and type a name for the new Planner board.
    • Click Use an existing plan and select an existing Planner board from the menu.

    If you'd like to dive deeper into the details of managing your Planner tasks in Teams, see Microsoft Teams: Using Planner to stay organized.

  • Are there any functionality differences between using Planner directly vs using Planner within Teams?

    The standalone Planner web app, and Planner within Teams both use the same underlining Planner service. However, there are a few minor feature differences. The following table lists the functionality differences between the two.

    Features Teams Tab Planner for web
    Create a plan Yes Yes
    Add tasks to a plan Yes Yes
    Create buckets Yes Yes
    Add a checklist to a task Yes Yes
    Comment on a task Yes Yes
    Set and update task progress Yes Yes
    Delete a task Yes Yes
    Use labels for tasks Yes Yes

    Set a task preview picture

    Attach files, photos, or links to tasks

    		 Yes Yes

    Add task start and due dates

    		 Yes Yes

    Assign people to tasks

    		 Yes Yes

    Mark plans as favorite

    		 No Yes

    Delete a plan

    		 No Yes

    View your plan's progress (charts view)

    		 Yes Yes

    Get email about tasks

    		 No Yes

    Add people to your plan

    No at the plan level

    Yes at the channel level from within Teams

    		 Yes

    View your tasks on a calendar (schedule view)

    Yes

    		 Yes
  • Can I open a Plan created in Teams in Planner for the web?

    Yes. After you've created a plan in a Teams channel, you can access that plan both from Planner for web and from Teams.

    Open your plan in Planner for web

    • From Office 365
      1. Login to your UA Office 365 account.
      2. Click the App launcher, then click Planner.
      3. In the Planner Hub, scroll to find your plan either under Recent plans, or All plans.
    • From the plan tab in Teams
      1. In Teams, select your team and channel.
      2. Select the plan tab you want.
      3. To the far right of your tabs, click the Go to website icon.

     

  • Are there any keyboard shortcuts?

    Yes! Microsoft Planner offers many different keyboard shortcuts. See the table below for details.

    To do this Press
    Move forward to next area or item Tab
    Move back to previous area or item Shift + Tab
    Activate an item Enter
    Exit a menu, dialog box, or mode Esc
    On a Board page, move to the next or previous task bucket Arrow keys
    On a Board page, move the selected task buck up one position on the page Ctrl + Up Arrow
    On a Board page, move the selected task bucket down one position on the page Ctrl + Down Arrow
    On a Board page, when a column header is selected, move the selected column one position to the left on the page Ctrl + Left Arrow
    On a Board page, when a column header is selected, move the selected column one position to the right on the page Ctrl + Right Arrow
    When a scroll bar is shown in the left navigation pane, scroll down. Or, if a dialog box is too long for the screen, move down in teh dialog box Down Arrow
    When a scroll bar is shown in the left navigation pane, scroll up. Or, if a dialog box is too long for the screen, move up in the dialog window Up Arrow
    Go back on page in the web browser Alt + Left Arrow
    Go back one page in the web browser (same as Alt + Left Arrow) Backspace
    Go forward one page in the web browser Alt + Right Arrow
  • What web browsers are currently supported?

    Use the most recent versions of the following browsers for the best experience with Planner.

    • Microsoft Internet Explorer 11
    • Microsoft Edge
    • Google Chrome
    • Mozilla Firefox
    • Safari
  • Will I have any issues using Planner if my account is not Exchange enabled?

    If you are using Microsoft Planner, and your account has not been Exchange enabled please note:

    • Individuals may have issues with viewing or adding comments to a task
    • Individuals may have issues viewing their favorite plans in Planner

    Note: Individuals do not have to use Exchange as their primary UA Email account. Having their account Exchange enabled, and a mail forward set to their UA Gmail account should address this issue.

  • Can people outside the University of Alaska be invited to participate in a plan?

    Yes. Guest access allows you to invite people who are not part of the University of Alaska to participate in a plan. Guests will have limited functionality, but can perform the following tasks:

    • Create and delete tasks and buckets
    • Edit task fields
    • Attach a file or link to a task, if given additional permission
    • Edit the plan name

     

  • Does Planner integrate with Microsoft Project Online?

    No. Planner is currently a separate product and has no connections to Microsoft Project Online.

  • Is there a limit to the number of checklist items that can be on a Task?

    Yes. Currently each task is limited to a maximum of 20 checklist items.

  • Can I turn a checklist item into a Task?

    Yes. If a checklist item starts to get more complicated, yu can turn it into a separate task in your plan.

    1. Select the task to bring up its details.
    2. Point to a checklist item.
    3. Then choose Promote Item.
  • Can I close or archive a plan when it's completed?

    This is not currently supported in Planner. When work on a plan is done, you have three options:

    • Option 1: Remove yourself from the plan. If you're not the plan's administrator, you can leave the plan, which removes it from your Planner hub. The plan's files, tasks, conversations, and other elements are left in place. If you are the plan administrator, you can't remove yourself from the plan.
    • Option 2: Delete the Plan. If you're the plan administrator, you can edit the group to delete the plan. Before you do this, make sure that no one else is using the group for things outside Planner. There is no way to recover a plan (or its files, converstations, and other data) after it has been deleted. Consider saving the group's files to another location, and copying any critical information from the group's conversations and OneNote notebook to another location, before deleting the group.
    • Option 3: Do nothing! There really isn't anything wrong with just walking away from the plan when you're done. It will still show up on your Planner hub, but you can remove it from your Favorite plans, which will help you focus only on current work. It's a good idea to clean up old plans later (using the suggestions in Option 2), but there's no reason you can't just let a plan sit untouched for a while to make sure your files, conversations, notes, and other information are still available.
  • Can I print plans or tasks in Planner?

    Currently you cannot print plans or tasks from Planner.

    If you're interested you can watch Office 365 Roadmap to see what the Planner team is working on next.

  • Where are the files kept in Planner?

    Planner plans are associated with Office 365 Groups, and the files for Office 365 Groups are stored in an associated SharePoint document library. To find your Planner files, select the three dots (...) to the right of the plan name, and choose Files.

 

Other related information

Need additional help or have issues

For additional assistance contact the IT Services Technical Support Center via phone at (907) 786-4646, toll-free at (877) 633-3888, or email at uaa.techsupport@alaska.edu.