October 2020 Newsletter: Rich-text Comments

We've made some nice enhancements across the platform recently, and are working on some potentially significant improvements to the recently-released details trays that we'll be sharing with you soon for your feedback.

What's New

• Details Trays
  • Resizing tray width.  You can now drag the tray to your desired width, and Workzone will remember that width for all your trays.
  • Scrolling of background content.  While a tray is open, you can now scroll the task list, project request dashboard and file list in Documents (main pane, not the left navigation).
  • Update request status from the Requests section of the project tray.
• Rich-text formatting of comments. You can now format text (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough), add lists (numbered, bullets) and mark text blocks (quote, code). When we add threading for comments in a few months, we'll also be adding the ability to add reaction emojis (thumbs up, etc.) to comments.  
• Request Dashboard
  • New 3-dot "more" menu (to the left of attachments column) has options for copying request link and emailing link to a request
  • New filter for specific text in Notes field (e.g., all requests with "FY 2020" in Notes)
• Reports
  • To-Do List Late items now sort oldest first. Previously we showed most-recent items first in the Late bucket to accommodate users with lots of late items (so they wouldn't miss new ones).  But that non-standard sort order is confusing to most users and inconsistent with sorting elsewhere in Workzone (and in other tools). Users should make sure to update old late items by rescheduling them or marking them complete.
  • You can now filter for multiple Users on the Recent Comments report.
• Work in different workspaces in different browser windows.   Previously, Workzone remembered the last workspace you were in when you opened a new window.  For users who need to work simultaneously in multiple workspaces (e.g., those in client service), that limitation was a hindrance.  We've stopped remembering your last workspace, so that if you open a new browser window you'll be able to switch to a new workspace, without affecting other open browser windows. Note: Workzone still remembers all other filters, so if you're filtered in one browser window, those filters will carry over to all other open windows the next time they are refreshed.  This remembering of filters is one of the most useful aspect of Workzone for the majority of users who only work in one window at a time.  Apologies in advance for those working in multiple windows with different workspaces, as you won't be able to have distinct filters in each window.

Internet Explorer support ends Dec 31, 2020

What We're Working On / Exploring

• Adding tabs in details trays to make information easier to find. Trays are great for seeing information in one place, while maintaining context of where you are within a project or list. However, in busy projects, the details tray can have an overwhelming amount of information, requiring a lot of scrolling. Moreover, the limited real estate of a single tray page led us to remove valuable information that was previously available in the separate details pages -- request comments, file versions and easy access to the overall comments page. We're building out a tabbed version of trays that reinstates these features and adds some new ones, particularly the ability to see comments for files, directly from the project/task trays.  This will allow seeing all project comment in the Projects module, without needing to go to the Documents module.
  
  Based on your feedback, we'll decide whether to proceed with this new approach.  We expect to have this alternate version ready for your review and feedback, using your real data, by the end of October.  We'll send you a separate email and in-app message with access instructions. 
• Edit own comments. Ability for users to edit their own previously posted comments. This should be available by the end of November.
• New project state of "Cancelled". This should be available by the end of November.
• Threaded comments. Currently each item has a single string of comments.  Frequently these comments can involve several distinct sub-topics, and it's very useful to be able to group these sub-topics into their own "threads", so that related comments stay together. Threaded comments will also allow for adding reaction emojis (e.g., thumbs up) to another user's comment. This should be available by the end of this year.
• Allowing tasks to have no start or end date. This should be available by the end of January.
• Board view for projects, as alternative to list and Gantt views. This should be available by the end of Q1-2021.