Working with Tasks in Content Station 9

Getting a story published is teamwork and involves many people with different skills: from researchers gathering the initial content, to a journalist doing interviews, a photographer taking photos, a designer laying out the page and the team member who outputs the story to one of the available Publication Channels. To make sure that each person is aware of what needs to be done to get the story published on time, Tasks can be created and assigned to a user or user group.

When the user has got the requested content ready it can be uploaded to the Enterprise system by using the same Task.

This article describes how to work with Tasks in Content Station 9.

Creating a Task

Creating a Task is done from within the Dossier to which the Task is related.

Step 1. Open a Dossier and make sure that 'Dossier Content' is selected in the Info pane so that the content of the Dossier is shown.

Step 2. Do one of the following:

• In the toolbar, click the Create New Task button.

Figure: The Create New Task button (A).

• Choose File > New > Task.

The Create Task dialog box appears.

Step 3. Enter a name for the Task.

How duplicate file names are handled by Enterprise 9

Step 4. (Optional) Choose a Brand and Category.

Step 5. Choose a Status from the Status list.

Step 6. Choose a user or user group from the Route To list to send the Task to.

Step 7. (Optional) Enter a comment in the Comment field.

Step 8. Click OK.

The Task is created and added to the Dossier. It is also added to the Inbox of the user(s) to which the Task has been assigned; all users will also receive an e-mail to inform them that a Task has been routed to them.

Adding files

Once a Task is created, files can be added to it. These can include files that the recipient of the task needs to work on as part of the task (such as images that need to be edited), or files that the recipient has created (such as photos that a photographer has taken).

A distinction is made between adding files that are not added to Enterprise yet and those that already exist within Enterprise.

Adding files that do not yet exist in Enterprise

Step 1. Open the Task to which the files need to be added by double-clicking it.

The Properties dialog box for the Task appears.

Step 2. Use one of the following methods:

• (Content Station AIR only) Drop external file anywhere on the dialog box.

• Click the Upload icon . The Select dialog box appears. Browse to a file on your system and click Open.

Notes: The files all need to be of the same type: all images, all spreadsheets, all ZIP files, and so on. When uploading from Content Station Web, choose a file with a size that is less than 100 MB. The files need to be in a supported file format.

The Upload dialog box appears.

Step 3. Click Upload.

The files are uploaded and automatically added to the Task.

Adding files that already exist in Enterprise

Step 1. In Content Station, locate the files that need to be added to the Task.

Step 2. Drop the files onto the Task.

The files are uploaded and automatically added to the Task.

Adding a new Hyperlink object

You can add a Web site reference to a Task by adding it as a Hyperlink object. Because it exists in the system as an object, it can be routed to users, it can have a Workflow Status assigned, and so on.

Note: If the Hyperlink object already exists in Enterprise you can add it as any other file by dropping it anywhere onto the dialog box.

Step 1. Open the Task to which the Hyperlink needs to be added by double-clicking it.

The Properties dialog box for the Task appears.

Step 2. Click the New Hyperlink icon.

Step 3. The Insert Hyperlink dialog box appears.

Step 4. Enter the URL of the Web site and click OK.

The Upload dialog box appears.

Step 5. (Optional) Change any of the properties of the file.

Step 6. Click Upload.

The Hyperlink object is created and added to the Task.

Step 7. Click OK to close the Task.

Moving files from a Task to the Dossier

For those Tasks where the recipient of the Task uploads new files (such as a photographer adding photos), the files are present in Enterprise but are not yet part of the Dossier.

To move the files from the Task to the Dossier, do the following:

Note: Files are automatically added to the Dossier that the Task is in when the Workflow Status named 'Produce' is assigned to the Task.

Step 1. In the Dossier, select Dossier Content in the Info pane to view the content of the Dossier.

Step 2. Click the expander in front of the Task to view all files that are in the Task.

Figure: When Dossier Content is selected (A), the files that are added to a Task can be viewed by clicking the expander (B).

Step 3. Drag the file outside of the Task but within the Document pane.

Figure: Dragging a file outside of a Task.

The file is moved from the Task to the Dossier.