Assign tasks with @mentions in Excel

(Originally published on September 22, 2022 by Scott McFadden)

 

Hi, Office Insiders. My name is Scott McFadden and I’m a Product Manager on the Excel team. I’m excited to share that you can now assign tasks with @mentions in worksheets in Excel for Windows and Excel for Mac! Try this feature here.

 

Assign tasks with @mentions in Excel

 

We’ve brought this popular capability (previously only available in Excel for the web) to your Windows and Mac desktops.

 

This feature allows you and your team to conveniently create and assign tasks directly from within your Excel worksheet using @mentions in comments. The people to whom you assign the tasks will receive email notifications, letting them know they need to take action.

 

How it works 

1. Right-click the cell that contains the information you want to comment on and select New Comment. 
2. Write your comment and type @ followed by the name of the team member you want to tag.Type @ to tag someone in your comment
3. Select the Assign to check box to convert your comment into a task.Assign the task to the person you tagged by checking the checkbox
4. Click the green arrow below the comment, or press Ctrl + Enter to post your comment and assign the task.The task has been assigned

 

Scenarios to try 

Reassign a task

1. Type @ followed by the name of the team member you want to reassign the task to in the response field, and then select the Reassign to check box.Reassign a task in the same comment by using an @mention
2. Click the green arrow or press Ctrl + Enter; the person to whom you reassigned the task will be notified via email that they’ve been assigned the task.The task has been resassigned

Resolve a task

• Hover over the circle at the top of the comment and click Resolve thread. 

Reopen a resolved task

• Hover over the cell that contains the comment, and then click Reopen thread. 

 

Requirements  

To see Tasks in Excel, the Excel file must be stored in OneDrive or SharePoint. 

 

Availability  

This feature is available to all users on the web and to Beta Channel users running:

• Windows: Version 2208 (Build 15504.10000) or later
• Mac: Version 16.66 (Build 22090700) or later
• Web: Try this feature here

 

Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.  

 

Feedback  

We want to hear from you! Please go to Help > Feedback in Excel to provide your thoughts about this feature. Add #AssignTasks in your feedback so that we can easily find input about the feature.

 

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