A couple of weeks ago, we announced, the new Zoho Projects 5 with Five Fabulous Features. By now you know we wouldn’t have stopped with just that. Allow us to present the Ten Terrific Tweaks of Zoho Projects 5!
1. All In One Search
You can now search users, projects and their contents in one place. The results come neatly organized in separate sections.
2. Arrows showing Planned vs Logged Hours
In the tasks view, we’ve added a column that just shows an arrow next to each task. A green arrow pointing downwards here indicates that the logged work hours so far, is less than the planned work hours. However, a red up arrow indicates that the logged hours have overshot the planned hours. Scanning through this column gives you a quick overview of how well your team is able to stick to plan.
3. Project Budget
Thanks to the tightened integration with the Zoho finance apps, you can now set budgets for your projects based on invoiced amount or billable hours. Any time during the course of a project, you can view a report that shows you how much of the budget is used up and what is remaining.
4. Percentage and Priority Kanban
These two views are created by adding an interesting twist to the regular Kanban; the columns are created based on percentage completed (ie one each for 10%, 20% and so on) in the Percentage Kanban, and priority in the Priority Kanban.
5. Capture and Annotate Screenshots
We’ve made it much easier for reporters to speak a thousand words to bug-fixers. A screen-grabber lets you take quick snapshots of issues as you see them on screen. An inbuilt draw tool lets you highlight what is important and blackout what you don’t want to send. Log bugs with this clear picture and watch them get eliminated quickly and painlessly. You can add such annotated screen grabs for other posts in your feed, such as statuses and tasks also.
6. Remote Bug Fixing
Powered by Zoho Assist, remote assist allows the Assignee of an issue, from his machine, to view and operate the desktop of the Reporter. This results in quicker closure by helping the asignee view the issues first hand.
7. User Pick List
You can add additional data while logging bugs by creating custom fields. These can be of four types; Single Line, Multi-Line, Pick List and the new User Pick List. The User Pick List is a custom field that can be filled in by picking one person from a drop down list of all the users in the project. One of its uses is to specify additional roles like mentor and reviewer.
8. Custom Landing Page
Well begun is half done. Select a module, out of Tasks, Calendars, Timesheets, Bugs and so forth, to first greet you when you login to Zoho Projects.
9. Export History
Zoho Projects allows you to export your ‘Tasks and Milestones’ and ‘Timesheets’ as csv or xls files. Once the export is successfully completed, we send you an email notifying the same. The new export history section shows you a list of your last five exports, without having to go to your inbox. You can also download the csv or xls export files from here.
10. Google Hangouts for Projects
If you are a Google Apps user, your team can get the benefits of Google hangouts. You can hold meetings, share screen and chat from wherever you are. We are working on extending Google Hangout access to all users.
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How many of these Terrific Tweaks did you already know about? How many have you used and which are your favorites? What’s more, do you have your own Terrific Tweak to suggest? Let us know, we are all ears!
Hi there - is it possible when setting tasks in Zoho projects to have the tick box for adding to the Google calendar 'un-ticked' as the default?
Hi Carly, we can make it such that if you un-tick once, it remembers it for the remaining tasks. We will add this tweak soon, thanks.
In Projects app when I schedule a meeting or an event the notification in the app does not display the meeting date or time, only when I scheduled it.
Hi Jarvis, This is a good suggestion, we will work on this.
Nice .. liked the calendar thing most..
Thanks Saurin, good to know you liked it.
Good features...I am really waiting like many others to have the possibility of custom fields in Zoho projects like we have in bug tracker. Any Idea when would that be coming?
Thanks Mahesh, yes, we want to do this, we'll let you know when it is out.
Very nice! Suggestions to make it even better: 1. Modify home link go to landing page, it's nice that it does that after login but I want to be able to go there afterwards with one click. 2. Lading page should also affect inner modules, e.g. clicking on a project should go to the same landing page I set in the settings, e.g. tasks. 3. There should be more breadcrumbs as 3 is too little and there is plenty of room to add more which will ease navigating between recently viewed projects. Thanks in advance, Roee
Thanks for the suggestions Roee, we will look into these!
Nice job, guys!
Hi Sara, Great to know you liked it, thanks!
The screen grabber feature is very nice. When will be available for all places where a file can be added versus only from the Quick Add screen?
Hi Calvin, Good suggestion, thanks! We sill take this up and let you know when it is out.