Add Attachments, Notes, and Checklist Items

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Add Attachments, Notes, and Checklist Items

Add file attachments, useful notes, and checklist items (subtasks) to tasks in the project plan. 

When to use

We add attachments, notes, and checklist items when we want to add more information to a task and keep everything in one place within the project. 

Instructions

Attachments, notes, and checklist items give us a way of adding more useful information to a task in a project. We could attach a Word file that contains a list of quotes from suppliers. We could attach a Visio drawing of the completed renovation project. We might have an Excel spreadsheet that breaks down the costs. 

In addition, we might choose to add our own notes to a task and checklist items. Checklist items are effectively subtasks. 

If we add any of these things to a task, we can see an indicator icon in the Quick look column. 

Add an Attachment

We can add an attachment to our task. That might be a Word file, Excel spreadsheet, or maybe a PDF. 

  • Click on the 'i' to open the task details pane. 
  • Scroll down to the bottom.
  • Click Add attachment. 

We can attach files stored on our computer, files stored in Microsoft Teams or we can link to a webpage using a URL. 

  • Click From computer. 
  • Navigate to the course files folder. 
  • Select 'Contractor Quotes.docx'. 
  • Click Open. 

The file will now be uploaded. We can see a new paper clip icon in the Quick look column to indicate the task has a file attachment. 

Add a Link

Let's also add a link to a website. 

  • Click on the 'i' to open the task details pane. 
  • Scroll down to the bottom.
  • Click Add attachment. 
  • Click A link to a URL. 
  • Type the URL in the URL address field. 
  • Type the Text to display. 
  • Click Add. 

Add a Note

It's very simple to add a note to a task. 

  • Click on the 'i' to open the task details pane. 
  • Click the Add a note link. 
  • Type the note. 
  • Click the close button. 

Add Checklist Items

Checklist items are mini-tasks within a task. For example, we might have a task titled 'Paint Walls' but within that task, we have checklist items of 'Test Paint Colors', 'Select Paint', and 'Buy Paint'. 

  • Click on the 'i' to open the task details pane. 
  • Scroll down to Checklist. 
  • Click Add an item. 
  • Type the first checklist item. 
  • Repeat this process for all checklist items. 

We can mark checklist items as complete by clicking the circle next to each. We can see how many checklist items have been completed in the Quick look column. 

Hints & tips

  • Any file uploaded to Project for the Web is effectively uploaded to a Sharepoint library. 
  • Marking all checklist items as complete does not change the completion status of the task they belong to. 
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  • 00:04 I mentioned in a previous lesson that the Quick Look column, the second column
  • 00:10 that we can see in our project plan, is where we can see an indicate icon as to
  • 00:15 if a task contains any file attachments, any notes, or any checklist items.
  • 00:20 And if you recall a few lessons ago, we added a note into task number 3.
  • 00:26 And we can see this little note icon just here, so I know that when I click on this,
  • 00:32 it's going to open up the Task Details pane, and I can see that note at the top.
  • 00:37 So let's take a look at how we can add attachments and also checklist items.
  • 00:42 Now, I'm going to close down this particular task and
  • 00:46 I'm going to go to task ID number 6, Gather Paint Swatches.
  • 00:50 Let's click on the I to open up the Task Details pane.
  • 00:54 And I'm going to add a little note in here.
  • 00:57 Paint should be in the orange/beige color palette, so
  • 01:00 everybody knows the type of swatches that we're looking for.
  • 01:04 Once again, as soon as I click away,
  • 01:06 you can see that I now have that little note icon appear in the Quick Look column.
  • 01:11 And maybe I also have a document that contains some sample paint swatches.
  • 01:17 So if I want to attach that to this task, I can scroll down, and
  • 01:21 right at the bottom, we have an Add Attachments area.
  • 01:24 So let's click Add Attachment, and I get a choice.
  • 01:27 I can attach a file from my computer, so if you have it saved off to the C drive,
  • 01:32 or maybe in the cloud, you can attach it from there.
  • 01:35 If you have a file stored in Teams, you can pick that up from here.
  • 01:39 And you can also directly link to a URL.
  • 01:41 So maybe you have a useful website that you want to add, you can do that also.
  • 01:46 Now, in this first example, we're going to attach a file from our computer.
  • 01:50 And you can see I've got a file here called Paint Swatches.docx.
  • 01:54 So let's select it and click on Open.
  • 01:56 It's going to take a few seconds just to upload that.
  • 01:59 Now, once again, notice the URL.
  • 02:01 It's actually uploading it into your SharePoint library.
  • 02:05 So now I have this attachment, take a look at the Quick Look column.
  • 02:09 I can now see another indicator icon in there, this paperclip with a 1 next to it.
  • 02:14 So this is telling me that I have one attachment in this task.
  • 02:18 If I was to attach another file, this is going to change to 2.
  • 02:22 So I can always see how many files are attached to each individual task.
  • 02:27 Now, when it comes to the type of files that you can attach,
  • 02:29 you can attach pretty much everything.
  • 02:31 So it might be a Word document, an Excel spreadsheet, PowerPoint, PDF,
  • 02:36 an image file, anything like that.
  • 02:38 So I'm going to open up another task.
  • 02:40 Let's go back to Get Inspired on Pinterest.
  • 02:43 I'm going to click on the I to load it up into the task pane.
  • 02:46 I'm going to add an attachment from my computer.
  • 02:51 And this time, I'm going to upload a PDF file, Ideas from Pinterest.
  • 02:56 Let's click on Open.
  • 02:58 Once again, that's going to take a few seconds.
  • 03:00 And when it's finished uploading,
  • 03:02 we're going to get that indicator icon in the Quick Look column.
  • 03:06 Let's attach one more file.
  • 03:07 I'm going to scroll down to task number 24, Research Electricians.
  • 03:11 I'm going to click on the I to open up that pane.
  • 03:15 We're going to add an attachment from computer.
  • 03:18 And this time, we're going to upload an Excel file,
  • 03:21 which just contains a short list of electricians.
  • 03:24 Let's click on Open and just wait a few seconds for that to upload.
  • 03:28 And once again,
  • 03:29 we have that file attachment showing in the Quick Look column.
  • 03:32 Now, what about if I want to link to a particular URL?
  • 03:36 So again, if we go up to Get Inspired on Pinterest and click the I to open it up in
  • 03:41 the Task Details pane, I'm going to add another attachment, but this time,
  • 03:46 I'm going to add a link to a URL.
  • 03:48 And instead of uploading a file, I'm going to navigate to Pinterest.
  • 03:52 I've done a quick search for white kitchens, and
  • 03:55 I'm going to add that into this particular task.
  • 03:58 Now, all I need to do is copy the URL, Ctrl+C.
  • 04:02 Let's go back to our kitchen renovation project,
  • 04:06 and then I can just do Ctrl+V to paste that URL in.
  • 04:10 And I'm going to label this White Kitchen Ideas, and click on Add.
  • 04:16 Notice that the number in the Quick Look column has increased to two,
  • 04:20 because we have two attachments.
  • 04:22 And now, I basically have a direct link to this particular website.
  • 04:26 So that's how we can add notes and also attachments to any of our tasks.
  • 04:31 Now, what about checklist items?
  • 04:34 Well, let's take task ID number 5 as an example.
  • 04:39 I'm going to click on I to open it up in the Task Details pane, and
  • 04:42 I'm going to scroll down to the Checklist section.
  • 04:45 Now, checklist items are basically mini-tasks within a task.
  • 04:50 So it might be that for this overall task, rough blueprints and sketches,
  • 04:54 there are different steps to that particular task.
  • 04:57 So I can add those in here and then check them off as I go.
  • 05:02 So if we click in Add an item,
  • 05:05 maybe one part of this task is to research architects.
  • 05:10 Hit Enter, I can add another one.
  • 05:13 Make shortlist of architects.
  • 05:15 And then maybe a third checklist item is Book Architect.
  • 05:19 And you can see that each one of these checklist items has a little circle
  • 05:23 next to it.
  • 05:23 So when one of these checklist items is completed,
  • 05:26 I can simply click in the circle.
  • 05:28 Now, before we do that, once again, take a look at the Quick Look column.
  • 05:32 We can see that we now have another indicator,
  • 05:34 which shows me the number of checklist items,
  • 05:37 in this case, 3, and it also shows me how many have been completed.
  • 05:41 So at the moment, that's at 0.
  • 05:43 But if I was to click the circle next to Research Architects, you can see that that
  • 05:48 updates, so I can now see that I have one checklist item out of three completed.
  • 05:52 Now, if I was to select and complete all three of these items,
  • 05:56 notice that it doesn't complete the overall tasks that they belong to.
  • 06:01 So just because these three checklist items are complete,
  • 06:04 it doesn't mean that the overall task is complete.
  • 06:06 If I wanted to complete the task, I'd have to go in and select it individually,
  • 06:11 in order for that to be marked as complete.
  • 06:13 But that is how simple it is to add notes, attachments, and
  • 06:17 checklist items to your tasks in a project plan.

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