A task is a “How do I?” page: one thing a member of staff wants to do, such as book a meeting room or claim expenses. Tasks are the main content type on a Govintra intranet. They live under Tasks in the admin menu, and the Tasks and guides module must be on under Options, Modules. This page goes through the task edit screen from top to bottom. To build a multi-page guide from tasks, see Add or edit a guide.
Go to Tasks, then Add task. Contributors can write and save drafts, authors can publish their own tasks, and editors and administrators can publish and edit any task. See Roles and capabilities.
Title and permalink
Write the title as the answer to “How do I?”, without the question and without “-ing”: “Book a meeting room”, not “How to book a meeting room” or “Booking a meeting room”. Keep it short; it is what people scan in listings and search results.
The permalink under the title is made from the title when you first save. Check it reads well, such as /task/book-a-meeting-room/. It also sets the order: category pages list tasks alphabetically by permalink, not by title, so you can put a number at the front of the permalink to fix the order. See Change the order that tasks appear in the category page listing.
Content
Write the task in the main editor. Use headings for the steps and bullet points for lists. Keep the first sentence plain, because listings show the start of the content when there is no excerpt.
The Format box on the right is normally Standard. Choose Link only when the task should send people straight to another website or system. See Automatically redirect to an external URL.
Document attachments
Attach files for people to download. Select Add document for each file, choose or upload it from the media library, and give it a Display title if the file name is not clear. Leave the title blank to show the file’s own title. The files appear under the task content with a Documents heading, an icon for the file type, and the type and size, such as “PDF, 240 KB”. Drag rows to reorder them.
Related content
Pick pages, tasks, news stories, blog posts, events, projects, vacancies or training courses to list in the right-hand sidebar under a Related heading. Type to search, select to add, and drag to reorder. Related links work both ways: if task A lists task B, task B also shows task A, unless an administrator has turned on Hide reciprocal related links under Options, General. If you pick nothing, no related list is shown.
Sidebar content
Optional free-format content for the top of the right-hand sidebar, above the related list and any widgets: a contact box, a warning, an image. Use it sparingly; most tasks need nothing here.
Associated teams
Appears when the Teams module is on. Choose the team or teams this task belongs to. It is used by the aggregator page template to list a team’s content, and by team pages. It does not change how the task itself is displayed.
Keywords
Other words people might search for: synonyms, acronyms, old names. There is no need to repeat words already in the title or content, and it is fine to leave the box empty. Separate words with spaces; commas are turned into spaces when you save. Words in square brackets are not searched but become extra entries in the A to Z. See Find out the difference between tags and keywords and Add an item to the A to Z index.
Excerpt, author and discussion
These standard WordPress boxes are hidden until you tick them under Screen Options at the top right of the edit screen.
- Excerpt: a one or two sentence summary used in listings. Write one when the content starts with a heading or a list, which reads badly when trimmed.
- Author: the person shown as responsible for the page by the About this page widget, with a link to their profile. Change it when the writer is not the owner.
- Discussion: untick Allow comments to remove the comment form from the task page. Whether new tasks allow comments comes from Settings, Discussion.
Categories
Tick one or more categories. Categories are the sections of the How do I? page, and each category has its own listing page. A task in a child category also appears on the parent category page. Guide chapters are not listed on category pages, only top-level tasks, so put the category on the guide, not on each chapter.
Tags
Tags group content from across the intranet, so think in themes rather than synonyms: “meetings” might cover booking a room, ordering catering and collecting visitors. Tags appear as pills in the task sidebar and, when Allow category filter by tag is on under Options, Modules, Tasks, as filters on category pages. See Learn how tags work.
A to Z letters
When the A to Z module is on, tick the letters the task should be listed under. See Add an item to the A to Z index.
Page attributes
Parent and Order turn tasks into guides: choose a parent task to make this task a chapter of it, and use Order to sequence the chapters. Leave both alone for a standalone task. See Add or edit a guide.
Featured image
Optional. It is not shown on the task page itself. It appears in listings that show images, such as the card listing on category pages when Card listing is on under Options, Modules, Tasks.
Manual chapters
When Manuals is on under Options, Modules, Tasks, a Manual box appears. Switch on Treat as a manual and add chapters, each with a title and its own content. They are shown after the main content as expandable sections on the one page, which suits a long policy or handbook that does not need a page per chapter.
What staff see on a task page
A task page shows less than a news story: no featured image, date, author or row of related cards. From the top down:
- The breadcrumb trail: Home, the How do I? page, the task’s first category and that category’s parents, then the parent guide if the task is a chapter, then the title.
- On a chapter of a guide, the guide’s title in small text above the heading, and a Contents list of every published part with the current one shown as plain text. A standalone task has neither.
- The content, followed by the manual chapters as expandable sections when Treat as a manual is on. Every section starts closed.
- The Documents list, the like button if likes are switched on for tasks, then Previous and Next links to the neighbouring parts of a guide.
- The sidebar: Sidebar content, the Related list, widgets from the Task Sidebar area, then pills for the task’s categories and tags. A category pill opens that category’s listing page; a tag pill opens the tag’s archive limited to tasks and guides.
- Comments, which are closed on a new task unless you tick Allow comments.
Two templates under Page attributes change this layout. Full-width page drops the sidebar, comments and manual chapters, but keeps the breadcrumb, guide navigation, documents and like button. Long page also drops the sidebar and comments. Instead it builds a Contents list from the H2 and H3 headings in the content, which stays in view as the reader scrolls. It prints the manual chapters whether or not Treat as a manual is on, with the first one open. If the content has no H2 or H3 headings, the Long page falls back to the full-width layout and the chapters are not shown.
Publishing and search
Select Preview to see a draft with a “Draft preview” badge, then Publish. Published tasks are searchable straight away. To keep a task out of search results, use the Relevanssi box on the edit screen: see Stop something appearing in search results.