Create task by email with Apollo!

Sometimes you need to create tasks "on the fly", without worrying about logging into Apollo, select the right project, and so on.

So, we added the possibility of adding tasks by email in Apollo. That's right: you can now create tasks by simply writing a new email to the right email address.

You can create both personal tasks, and project tasks. This feature comes with some great hidden pearls; let's have a look.

First of all, see what the email dropbox for this feature is by clicking on My Tasks (for personal tasks) or on Project > Tasks (for projects tasks):

Remember that each user gets as specific dropbox address for creating tasks by email.

So, how do you create tasks by email?

• The task name is the email subject. That's nice and simple!
• If you write @john to the subject or to the first line of the email, you will assign this task to the first "John" found as a user in your workspace. For example, if one of your users is "John Smith", then @john will assign him the new task. If you have John Smith and John Herrald, you will need to specify @johnsmith (for John Smith) or, even shorter, @johns. Please note that "@john" will disappear from the task description.

• If you add [1/1/2012] (with brackets) to the subject or to the first line of the email, you will set a deadline for the task. Note that dates will work according to your locale (so, it will need to be [31/12/2011] or [12/31/2011], depending on the date format of where you live). You can also specify [today], [tomorrow], [this week], [next week], [someday].

• The email contents will be added as a comment to the task. Note that if the first line of the email's body contained @something or a date in brackets, the comment won't include that line.

• Any attachments will be added as attachment to that comment. No gotchas here.

Let's see this feature in practice

Subject: A simple task
Body: [empty]
Result: This will add a task called "A simple task", no deadline, nobody assigned to it

---

Subject: A simple tasks @Johns
Body: [EMPTY]
Result: This will add a task called "A simple task" and set John Smith as the responsible person for it

---

Subject: A simple tasks @Johns [1/1/2012]
Body: [EMPTY]
Result: This will add a task called "A simple task" and set John Smith as the responsible person for it; the task will be due on the 1st of December 2012

---

Subject: A simple tasks @Johns
Body:

[1/1/2012]

Result: This will add a task called "A simple task" and set John Smith as the responsible person for it; the task will be due on the 1st of December 2012. Note that the first line of the email message is the date.

---

Subject: A simple tasks
Body:

@johns [next week]

Result: This will add a task called "A simple task" and set John Smith as the responsible person for it; the task will be due "next week". Note that the first line of the email message contains both the date and the responsible person

---

Subject: A simple tasks
Body:

@johns [1/1/2012]

Result: This will add a task called "A simple task" and set John Smith as the responsible person for it; the task will be due on the 1st of December 2012. Note that the first line of the email message contains both the date and the responsible person

---

Subject: A simple task
Body:

This will be added as a comment

Result: This will add a task called "A simple task", no deadline, nobody assigned to it; the task will have a comment attached to it, which will simply say "This will be added as a comment"

---

Subject: A simple task
Body:

@johns
This will be added as a comment

Result: This will add a task called "A simple task", no deadline, assigned to John Smith; the task will have a comment attached to it, which will simply say "This will be added as a comment". Note that the first line of the email body is not added to the comment, as it included @johns

Conclusion

Creating tasks by e-mail is a tremendous time-saver. We love this feature, and we use it all the time. I am sure you will enjoy it too!