Planner roundup: upload files in Teams, a reason to celebrate, and a quick look at Fluid

Skip the workaround and upload files directly in Teams

If you use Planner in Teams, you’ve likely run into issues uploading files to your tasks. Previously, Teams didn’t support direct file uploads; instead, you needed to upload your content through the Planner web experience to then access it in Teams. You told us about this troublesome workaround on UserVoice and we’ve since fixed the problem. Planner in Teams now supports direct file uploads, eliminating the need to switch apps.

Uploading a file in Teams is the same as uploading a file in the Planner web experience: in your task card, select Add attachment > File to attach just about any file type from your local machine.

We monitor the UserVoice site constantly, so please continue to submit your ideas for changes and new features.

Celebrate completed tasks with confetti

Nothing says “celebration” like confetti—and completing a task in Planner is definitely worth celebrating. To add some pizzazz to your Planner tasks, we’ve added confetti animation that’s triggered whenever you check the “Completed” circle in a task. The animation is a stylistic update only; confetti animation doesn’t affect the way you manage your Planner plans in any way. Plus, the confetti is digital, so it doesn’t leave a mess like the real thing.

Confetti animation, which works in both the Planner web experience and Planner in Teams, has begun rolling out and will be available to all users in June.

Bonus coverage: Planner and the Microsoft Fluid Framework

We’re always thinking about work at Microsoft: how we work as individuals; how we work as a team; and, how we can work across apps in a more collaborative way. That’s why we’re creating the Fluid Framework. First announced at Ignite and demonstrated last week at BUILD, the Fluid Framework is being built around dynamic components of tables, charts, and task lists.

Planner is the underlying technology that fuels task lists, or Action Items, which looks like a table and includes columns for task title, assignee, and due date. Fluid Components can be added to a Fluid workspace through Office.com or embedded in Outlook for the web emails. They are both lightweight and dynamic so that changes occur instantaneously and are up to date across apps. This makes the Action Items component perfect for, say, emailing next steps after a status call. Team members who receive your email can update the Action Items table directly in the email they receive—and you’ll see their updates in real time on your end. You can even paste the component into Microsoft Teams and any changes made there will replicate instantly in your email thread. With Fluid Components, your team has a single source of truth across apps.

The Fluid Framework is still its early stages—there’s no timeframe for release—but you can see why we’re so excited about it. We encourage you to try these Fluid Components for yourself at fluid.microsoft.com.

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As always, we hope you’ll continue to visit the Planner Tech Community for the latest product announcements. And if you have any suggestions for improving the Planner experience, drop us a line on UserVoice.