How to Use Microsoft Planner Tutorial
This How to Use Microsoft Planner Tutorial is suitable for users of Planner in Microsoft 365
OBJECTIVE
Track progress on projects and other work using Planner in Microsoft 365.
MICROSOFT PLANNER EXPLAINED
Microsoft Planner is a planning app that offers you a visual way to manage and track progress on projects or other work. Planner is available to anyone with a paid subscription to Microsoft 365, whether that’s a personal plan you’ve paid for yourself or a business/enterprise plan paid for by your company.
Like other Microsoft 365 apps, Planner is available on the web and as a mobile app so you can keep up to date when you’re on the go.
Microsoft Planner has a card interface, much like an application like Trello. It serves as a hub where team members can create business or project plans and organize tasks. In this Microsoft Planner tutorial, we show you how to get set up using Planner and how to make the most of Microsoft Planner.
VIDEO TUTORIAL
STEP 1: DOWNLOADING AND LOGGING INTO PLANNER
Planner can be accessed in a few different ways. Go to the Planner website and login with your Microsoft 365 account credentials.
Alternatively, you can log into your Microsoft 356 portal and access Planner through the app launcher.
Planner is also available on mobile devices for both Android and IOS.
STEP 2: GET FAMILIAR WITH THE PLANNER HUB
The first screen you’ll see is the ‘Planner Hub.’ This shows the plans you’ve created yourself or been added to by other people. If this is the first time you are using Planner, this will be blank.
It’s worth noting that if you are using Planner with a personal Microsoft 365 subscription, you’ll only be able to see plans you’ve created for yourself in the Planner Hub.
CREATE A PLAN
Let’s start by creating a plan.
- In the left-hand menu, click New plan.
- Give your plan a name.
- Choose whether it’s Public (other people in your company can see the plan) or Private.
- Expand Options to add a description.
- Click Create plan.
Planner will create a new plan.
ADD TASKS
Its now time to add tasks to the plan.
- Click Add task.
The new task panel will open. Enter a name for the task, a due date and who it’s assigned to. If you leave a task unassigned, no one has ownership of that task.
- Click Add Task.
Once assigned, the name of the person it’s assigned to will appear underneath.
The Add Task panel will stay open so you can add lots of tasks quickly. To close it, just click away.
The new task will appear in the To do section of the Planner Hub underneath the Plan name.
To add more information to the new task, click it. The task window will open and allow you to complete additional information about the task.
| Add label | Categorize tasks using labels. |
| Assign | Assign the task to someone else. |
| Bucket | Add the task to a bucket. |
| Progress | Set the progress of a task. |
| Priority | Set the task priority. |
| Start date | Set the date the task is to commence. |
| Due date | Set the task due date. |
| Notes | Add additional task notes. |
Tasks can be tagged with a label to categorize them. Labels can be renamed by clicking the pencil icon. You can assign one or more labels to a task.
Choose to show either the task notes or the checklist items on the task card.
There is no save button. Instead, close the window to save your changes and go back to the Planner Hub.
STEP 3: ORGANIZING TASKS AND PEOPLE
By default, all new tasks will be assigned to the To do bucket. Buckets are a way of grouping tasks together and organizing them. You can create your own task buckets in Planner.
- From the Planner Hub, click Add new bucket.
- Type a name for your new bucket.
To move a task to a bucket, click on the task, select a bucket from the drop-down menu, or drag and drop the task to the bucket.
Once you’ve finished, your tasks should look something like this.
Planner has additional buckets that tasks can be grouped into: Assigned to, Progress, Due date, Labels, and Priority.
- Click the drop-down arrow next to Group by Bucket.
- Select a new bucket to group by.
Use the filter to view only tasks that match the selected criteria.
Add members to the plan by typing their name. Members must be within your organization.
STEP 4: COMPLETING TASKS
The status of tasks should be kept up to date so you can track their progress. Once a task has finished, it should be marked as complete.
To see an overview of all tasks organized by progress, click My tasks.
A task can be marked as Complete in two ways.
- Click the circle next to the task name to mark as complete and move it to the Completed bucket.
- Click on the task and change the status to Completed.
Completed tasks get collapsed down to make them less visible when working in your plan.
STEP 5: ORGANIZING PLANS
After you’ve been using Planner for a while, you will probably find you have many plans. Organizing plans and marking the ones you use most often as favorites can be helpful.
- From the Planner Hub, hover your mouse over the plan to be marked as a favorite.
- Click the star icon.
- Alternatively, click the three dots and select Add to favorites.
Plans can also be copied. When you copy a plan, Planner creates a duplicate copy with the same settings, tasks, and members. To get a shareable link to the plan, copy the link instead and paste it into an email or another messaging app.
STEP 6: CHARTS AND SCHEDULE
Click on the Charts tab to see a high-level analysis of all planned activity. See how tasks are broken down by Status, Bucket, Priority, and Member.
Click the Schedule tab to see tasks in calendar view.
STEP 7: CONNECTING TO OTHER APPLICATIONS
To view other options relating to this plan, click the three dots.
When you create a new plan in Planner, an Outlook group will also be created. Use this group directly from Outlook to have conversations, share files and attachments, and connect to apps like Trello and Twitter.
Brainstorm and share ideas with fellow plan members in a OneNote notebook.
Create a SharePoint site with fellow plan members.
As you can see, Microsoft Planner is much more than just a boring task list. Importantly, it’s simple enough to use for most people without a lot of Microsoft Planner training. If you are looking for a dependable planning app that isn’t complicated and you have a Microsoft 365 subscription, Planner is worth checking out.
Take a look at more Microsoft Office tutorials from Simon Sez IT.
Deborah Ashby
Deborah Ashby is a TAP Accredited IT Trainer, specializing in the design, delivery, and facilitation of Microsoft courses both online and in the classroom.She has over 11 years of IT Training Experience and 24 years in the IT Industry. To date, she's trained over 10,000 people in the UK and overseas at companies such as HMRC, the Metropolitan Police, Parliament, SKY, Microsoft, Kew Gardens, Norton Rose Fulbright LLP.She's a qualified MOS Master for 2010, 2013, and 2016 editions of Microsoft Office and is COLF and TAP Accredited and a member of The British Learning Institute.
