Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Planner is an application developed for effective project management built into Microsoft 365. It provides a hub for teams to plan, create, organize, and assign tasks visually.

Your WCC email account allows you to access Microsoft Planner and integrate with other Microsoft 365 apps such as Teams and Outlook. It allows you to gain greater visibility into project schedules, receive notifications of upcoming deadlines, and collaborate with others.

Open Microsoft Teams. 

On the left-side application list, click on Apps.

Search for the planner in the search bar.

Click on Add from the results page.

Click Add again.

The planner tab will now be displayed on the left side application list.

Setting up Planner for your Team

Plans can be assigned to specific channels and display a tab within the channel

There can be multiple plans assigned to a team/channel

Add a Planner Tab in Teams

Click the + icon in the menu bar

Select Planner

Enter a name for your Planner Tab

If you have existing plans, you can select one of those

(Optional) Select whether the new tab is announced in the channel

Click Save

NOTE: This is only needed to be done once for each plan. Your team owner can add the planner tab

Changing Plan Settings

Change the plan name at the top of the window by editing the existing name

Enable emails to all plan members when tasks are assigned or completed

Edit group privacy options and plan description

Delete this plan to remove the plan from Teams

Click Save before exiting​​

Creating Planner Tasks

1. Open the Planner Tab
2. Click + Add task
3. Enter a Task Name
4. Set a Due Date
5. Assign to a Person

Adding more details to the task

Mark Task Complete – check to mark the task complete
Task Name – Task Name
Add Assignees – Click to add assignees
Assignees – List of assignees
Bucket – Classification bucket
Progress – Mark the tasks progress status
Priority – Note the task’s priority
Start Date – Set the task start date
Due Date – Set the task’s due date
Notes – Add notes to the task
Show on Card – show the notes on the task card
Checklist items – Add checklist items
Attachments – Attach files and documents
Comments – Plan members can add comments here
Task History – history of comments and activities

Add a checklist to the task

Click on add an item
Enter the item’s title
Press enter to move to the next item
Add any additional items
Use the circle before the item to mark it as complete

Add members to your plan

Click Members to add additional members to the plan
Start typing their name or user ID
The list will be populated with the corresponding names

Detailed Task Information

Tasks are displayed in planner as cards

Clicking on the task card opens the details window

Task Options

Clicking on the … next to a task name (highlighted) displays the task options

Label – Assign a label to the task for better organization
Assign – Assign the task to another person (tasks can have multiple assignees)
Copy Task – Copy the task while leaving the original intact
Copy link to task – copies the link to the task to the clipboard. Can be pasted to the feed for quick access
Move task – move the task to a different plan and/or bucket.
Delete – remove the task from the plan

Buckets and Sorting Tasks

Buckets allow you to group and sort tasks into phases, types of work, departments, or whichever titles suites your plan the most.

Create a new bucket by clicking the “Add new bucket” button

Organizing Tasks in Buckets

Tasks can be dragged and dropped into different buckets

Plan Dashboard

Plans can be viewed in several modes:

1. Board
2. Calendar
3. Chart

To learn more about Planner, visit the Microsoft website: Planner help & learning

Need additional information or assistance? Contact the WCC IT Helpdesk