Forum Discussion
jparker70211
Dec 18, 2024Brass Contributor
Where is Planner Hub, Calendar View, Connect to Outlook
What am I missing here? It seems that Planner no longer has a way to view multiple plans and tasks in a calendar. Previously you were able to plan days and the week by seeing multiple projects at one time.
It also appears that there is no way to connect Planner to Outlook any more. What??? Seriously??
What is Microsoft thinking here? Just when things were literally starting to actually work together they roll back integration.
Dear Microsoft:
Integration is key for your ecosystem. I need to be able to use Planner to Plan. I need plans to show up in Todo and I need plans to show up in Outlook. I need them to look similar and have cross functionality. I need Teams to be integrated with all the other apps as well. MS Loop is promising but the lack of integration is astonishing. I can't even get it to show up in Teams. Great that I can add Planner to MS Loop but I can't add Loop to Teams (???). What about Onenote being able to add to Loop. I take hand written notes in Onenote. I can easily add my Onenote Notebook to Teams but I can't add to MS Loop???? Adding MS Loop to Onenote, I guess has some value - maybe, but the value is to be able to see my notebook INSIDE Loop without having to open up OneNote.
Each app you created works and has specific functions but the integration needs to allow for seamless workflow instead of jumping around all over the place. I want to sit in planner to plan. But if I am in MS Loop and I am making notes from a meeting I want to be able to just access Planner within MS Loop (which I can and is great). But what if I have an email from a client that has a task within. Sure I can add it to ToDo..but you know what, now I have to do multiple steps to get into Plannner.
Integration, integration, integration. Your ecosystem needs to work with high level cross functionality. And stop taking features away that are highly useable and improves workflow. Now I can't share Plans to my outlook???? seriously???? C'mon. This is why people leave your ecosystem. I have read in the forums that people are leaving to go Clickup because they focus on workflow. Personally, I think MS365 has promise and would prefer to stay here but you gotta listen to your customers on how they work and allow for workflows to happen and to customize to people's needs. But we can't work successfully if your products don't really talk to each other well. Your sole mission needs to be unrelentingly to help your customers work effeciently. If you can make me successful I will stay. It is the main reason people go to your competitors. Anything that can make work easier, more efficient, and allows us, YOUR customers, to be more successful will give your customers to stay in your ecosystem.
- Christoph HaugBrass Contributor
I'm just as baffled by this as you are. I adjusted the dates for some tasks in planner assuming that those dates would be reflected in the corresponding calendar in Outlook (which I linked earlier this year when the feature was still available). Later on, I realized that none of the adjustments synched to outlook. It's totally insane how Microsoft fails to reliably integrate even its own products.
- PlannerGirl1116Copper Contributor
Agreed - this is NONSENSE. I created half of my tasks in Planner by "sending" the email to my selected plan. Now I have to do everything by hand, save the PDF of the email and attach for reference which slows down the application. Make it make sense, Microsoft! You don't even have an add-in for Planner on Outlook!? They could at least allow me to send the email to MYSELF in Teams so that I could create a task in Planner.
I don't want to do that either, though - I want the SINGLE ACTION to create the task in Planner directly from Outlook.
"To Do" is trash; nowhere near as useful as Planner. Who wants to flag or classify the email, THEN reassign it to a plan bucket? And then I have to copy all of the details into the task myself?! NO - the old way sent the whole body of the email into the task so that you didn't have to do it manually, which is BASICALLY the point.
- BrianSmithPhotosBrass Contributor
One available integration you might benefit from is the integration of the Message Center to Planner. :) MC887371 announced what was happening to the features you mention, as noted in the other thread. For reference:
How this will affect your organization:
The following features will not be available at launch but will be available by early 2025:
- Open plans associated with a Loop task list
- Board view in the Assigned to me view
- Add Assigned to me tasks or a plan to an external calendar with an iCalendar link. NOTE: Existing iCalendar links will continue to work. New iCalendar link creation is not supported, and existing iCalendar links cannot be disabled while this feature is not available.
- Undoing the deletion of a task
As part of our efforts to simplify Planner, these existing features are not available in the new Planner due to low usage:
- Charts for pinned plans in Planner Hub
- While you were away notifications
- Activity log of a task’s creation, assignments, and completion date in the task comments.
- Links to group members, Microsoft Outlook conversations, and Microsoft OneNote notebook (you can still access these links in Outlook)
- Menu option to Leave plan
- Suggested attachments
- Charts view and Schedule view on the Assigned to me page
- Customized backgrounds for plans
The good news is that customized backgrounds should be coming back as there was a lot of feedback.
- MReedCopper Contributor
Thanks for the update. From what i am seeing, even with an upgraded Planner 1 license there is no ability to "open in outlook" from Planner?
will that option be returned?
- BrianSmithPhotosBrass Contributor
Hi MReed , the iCal capabilities are coming back early this year, as I mentioned above, but I wouldn't describe that as "open in Outlook" exactly. Is it the iCal behavior you are looking for again?