Learning a new software is always a challenge. It's like starting a new habit or a new workout routine (so they say). You have to learn the lay of the land — what to click on to get what you want — and you have to figure out the most efficient way to get the new tool to accomplish your old routines. Part of that learning process involves asking the right questions.
Here at Wrike, our customer success and implementation teams field questions about our project management software and help customers find the solutions. We asked our teams what the top seven frequently asked questions were in their training sessions and during onsite client calls, because we figured it might make a useful blog post for all of you newcomers to Wrike. Here they are:
1. Does Wrike have Gantt charts?
Yes, Wrike has Gantt charts. Once you've created a couple of tasks and given them due dates, then your Gantt chart automatically appears when you switch to the Timeline view of your folder or project! From there, you can drag connectors between tasks to establish dependencies on tasks. You can even move tasks on the timeline via drag and drop in case due dates change. Now isn't that a cool way to visualize your project schedule?
- The Gantt chart is revealed in Timeline view [1]
- Completed tasks are green [2]
- Overdue tasks are red [3]
- Active tasks are blue [4]
- Deferred tasks are purple
- Cancelled tasks are grey
For more info on using the Gantt chart/Timeline, the help center has a lot more guidance.
2. What does sharing in Wrike mean?
Sharing in Wrike is the same as giving others access to your task. However, just because they have access to the tasks doesn't mean they know it exists. If you want them to know about it, @mention them in the comment field so they get a notification in their Wrike inbox.
Here's a good way to think about it: the only reason to keep a task private is when it's a personal reminder or a to-do list for your eyes only. In that case, keep it in your personal folder. But *all* other tasks should be filed in the proper company or departmental folder so your colleagues can find it by searching if need be.
Not sure what personal vs. company folders are? This is a best practice suggested during your team's initial Wrike setup: that your entire organization should have a public folder system organized by department or customer and all work should be filed away in the proper folders. But each Wrike user should also have a private folder for organizing his or her own private reminders, tasks, notes, and stuff. In short: every task has a home.
Need more guidance? Read the Help Center article on sharing tasks.
3. When do you use Folders vs. Projects?
Tasks are the basic building block in Wrike. And you can place tasks in either folders or projects. Which leads to the question: "Do I use folders or projects?" Here's our advice:
If you want to store tasks that are basically reference materials or ongoing efforts with no end date (e.g. marketing ops best practices, blog posts, or customer case studies), then use a Folder.
If you want to store tasks that are part of a finite effort that has a clear start and end date (e.g. "Dreamforce 2020 campaign," or "New user email - Q2 - 2017"), then use a Project.
Use folders when you:
- Have tasks with no end date
- Need to file reference materials or random tasks
- Need to store tasks that you look at regularly because they involve operational work
Use projects when you:
- Have tasks with a clear end date
- Have tasks that you won't need beyond a specific event
- Need to produce reports on tasks
Questions? The Help Center has it all: When to Use: Tasks, Subtasks, Folders, and Projects
4. How do you invite coworkers into Wrike?
So, you've got the hang of Wrike and now want others in your team to experience the bliss of organizing work properly? Well, you can easily invite them into Wrike by following the steps below:
- Click “Add Users” [1] (located at the bottom of the Workspace).
- In the dialogue box, enter the email address [2] of your coworker and specify what type of license they should have. [3]
- Click the blue “Enter email” [4] option on the dialog box to add more.
- Click the “Send invitations” button. [5]
Easy enough, right? And just in case you wanted to know, there are a couple other ways to add users to your Wrike account.
5. How do I use the Wrike Dashboard like a Kanban board?
In case you came into Wrike after using other online work tools that use the same terms (but in different ways), let's define some terms.
In Wrike, we have Dashboards (and you can have more than one). Dashboards are blank until you fill them with Widgets. Of course you can build your own widgets from scratch and this will give you the ability to drag-and-drop tasks between your statuses. But you could also try some of the pre-built Widgets that are already available. It's as easy as selecting a few and adding them to a new Dashboard.
To build a Kanban board, you will need a Dashboard and some custom Widgets that match your different project statuses (e.g. backlog, in progress, in review, done). There's a blog post that explains how to do it. Or simply watch the video below.
6. How and where will I be notified when updates are made to tasks?
Most new users in Wrike are quite concerned about how they are going to be notified when they use Wrike collaboratively. Will I or my coworkers get a ton of notifications? Will we have to enable notifications or do they come automatically? Will I get notified in email, in Wrike, or both? Does that mean everyone in the company can see what I'm doing? What about mobile, will I get notified there as well?
Here's how notifications work:
- When you follow a task, you can see updates to the task in your Stream view.
- You or your teammates will get notifications in your Wrike inbox only when you are @mentioned.
- If you have Wrike on your mobile device, then yes, you will receive the same Wrike inbox notifications on your device. You can change these alert settings on your mobile.
7. Did I just delete all my tasks?
If you've ever returned to a folder you know is full of your tasks, but then see nothing in there, don't panic! By default, Wrike displays tasks that are “All active” and assigned to anyone ("TO: All"). You'll see these filters under your folder title.
You may have recently done a search for tasks that are under another status (e.g. "Completed" or "Canceled") and left that filter on. This is why you don't see your active tasks. In order to return to the original view, you must clear the previous filter (e.g. "Completed" or "Canceled") by clicking the "X" next to the filter. This brings you back to the default view. Voila!
In the off chance that you actually did delete your tasks (it happens to the best of us), you can easily restore them from the Recycle Bin. No worries!
For more on the List view, sorting, and filtering of tasks, watch this video:
There you have it. The top seven FAQs that Wrike newcomers ask. If you still feel you need more guidance in learning the ins and outs of Wrike, then we invite you to attend one of our regular training sessions for newcomers. Wrike on!
