The New Tasks Page – Kordiam Support

In this post, we introduce the new Tasks page, which was redesigned as part of our relaunch and released on September 5, 2024. We introduced the new Tasks page in webinars. The recordings of the webinars can be found here: Webinar Tasks Page

Scope of the Release

The new Tasks page completely replaced the old Tasks page.

In the following months, subsequent releases will be made with minor and significant improvements.

Benefits of the New Tasks Page

Content types have greatly expanded in recent years, including interactive graphics, videos, and audio, all tailored for different platforms.

This shift has increased the need for coordinating editors to view assignments comprehensively. At the same time, teams have adopted various task management tools - photographers might use custom software, the video team uses Airtable, and the graphics team prefers Asana.

The new Tasks page enables coordinating editors to manage all assignments efficiently, regardless of the type of deliverable (e.g., a long-form video versus a short social media clip).

It also enhances editors’ visibility into daily and weekly story flow workflows as the assignment information is fed directly into the story lists they are working with.

Highlights

While just about all functionalities of the page have been redone and improved, the following stand out:

For Photo Assignments I: Filter by Appointment Time

Generic task management tools filter tasks primarily by the task deadline. However, photo assignments are mostly related to events and appointments.

Kordiam provides an appointment feature for users, such as photographers, to have their assignments in their (mobile phone’s) calendar. A coordinating user, such as the Head of the Picture Desk, can now filter and group the list of photo assignments by the date of the event the photographer has to attend.

Kordiam - Tasks page - screenshot time filter 2024-08-20.png

For Photo Assignments II: Location

It is often important to see the location of an assignment for the coordination of a team of photographers. These addresses and other location details can now be entered and reviewed in the list.

For Photo Assignments III: Separate Appointments

Often, a photographer needs to be on assignment at a slightly different time than the start of the main event he is supposed to cover. In Kordiam, these are called “Separate Appointments.”

Kordiam has long allowed users to manage these different times.

These separate appointments can now be entered and reviewed in the task list.

Tasks per Issue

For periodical publications such as newsletters or magazines, a number of tasks related to the issue's stories must be completed. In some cases, they may be spread out across months.

Kordiam allows you to see all tasks related to one or multiple editions, whether daily, monthly or at any other frequency.

Manage Different Task Types

Kordiam’s Custom Field feature enables admins to define different fields for different types of tasks. For example, an assignment for an interactive graphic may require other information, such as a static graphic.

Such different assignments and their unique fields can now be displayed and managed together in one list.

Basic Features

The Tasks page is based on the functionality of the Story List and thus provides you with the following general improvements:

Custom Column Selection and Order: Just need to see four columns? Or 20? Select those columns you need to see (click on the settings wheel) and re-order them with drag & drop.
More Filtering, Sorting and Grouping Options: Compared to the old page, there are now vastly more options to filter, group and sort the list.

Like almost all other pages in Kordiam, it is automatically kept up-to-date, and assignments can be moved from grouping to grouping with drag-and-drop.

Feedback

Feel free to provide us with your questions and comments at support@kordiam.io.