There should be a way to write and see a Description on an item when you open that up, without having to add an item view. Coming from Asana and Wrike, this seems like a basic feature to me and I’m surprised it doesn’t exist in Monday. Our tasks require a detailed description for the assignees (creative brief) and right now we have to break that out into multiple columns instead, which they have to open and click to see the information. It’s not very user-friendly.
Updates is not a viable alternative because we can’t edit those as a team if some of the task specs need to change.
We have tried adding item view cards as well, but again run into usability issues and the need for too many clicks and manual processes.
Ideally the description would also include rich text editing, like I have seen in other competitors.
The workdocs are great for project or board collaboration, but I don’t see a way to easily create them from within a task.
Accessing a traditional task description would be one click from the task itself, but with a workdoc it looks like I have to go to the workspace, create a doc, copy the doc link, then go to the board, select the item, and add the link into a column. Then I would have hundreds of docs.
What you are describing is one way to create them.
For your purpose, I would recommend creating a file column expressly for this use. From there, it is one click to see or edit and 2 clicks to create. To create in the file column, click the blue plus icon then click workdocs. Done.
We gather all of our task information through a form, do you know if there’s a way that can all be automated to go into a doc on the task instead? Right now we have to add it all in multiple columns. This is what we ideally would want added to a single description field instead, so the assignee can see it all in one place easily with one click.
Unfortunately, no. At least not with workdocs… not yet. Workdocs are very new. I fully expect that there will be API and/or automation access to workdocs eventually. Hopefully, soon.
I think that your best bet in the short term is to use an automation to create an update when the item is created to hold all of the data that you want. You could then use it as is or copy it manually to a workdoc, or a long text column.
I am working on making the copy of update data to a column automatically, possible. But that could be as much as a month away.
If I am understanding your workflow correctly, you could move your form to a seperate board then create the update and move the item to your current board with an automation. Then you could remove the additional columns from the current board.
I would think a full text editor description field would be default to any task management or PM tool. This is quite surprising for such a mature app not to have this basic feature. It is a deal breaker for us.
To any above me or any after me, know this feature exists!!!
But it’s only in their “Monday Dev” product which is in Beta.
It’s slow, clunky, and does not support rich text or hyperlinks…but a lot of their other fields do…go figure, it’s beta.
Truthfully, this ended up being the deciding factor for our company to not go with Monday.com.
Outside of a task’s title, this is the most basic need of functionality for any project/task management software.
Jim, I have been exploring the updates automation. Do you know if there is a way to create a “form” in the update so the requestor can fill in the project request information? I saw in another thread that this can be done with check boxes. TIA
I think that you are referring to what monday calls checklists.
If so, these are an underutilized monday feature that adds another option to keeping track of subtasks. These can be created manually or you can use a recipe available in the Update Magic #1 app in the monday marketplace to create them automatically.
Thank you, Jim. I don’t think we are ready to purchase any additional features, but if there is a way to do this manually, it would be great to learn how!
Mirror Magic: Numbers