In the ever-changing world of project management, staying ahead of the curve is critical to ensuring smooth workflows and efficient collaboration. We are thrilled to share the most recent Zenkit Suite updates with you today! These updates are meant to improve the way you plan and track your projects, as well as provide a slew of visual updates that will allow teams to achieve unprecedented productivity and success. 

Visible Project View Tabs and Improved Filtering 

The revamped header design, which promises to improve the user experience and streamline project management workflows, is one of the most significant updates in the latest software release. Users can now easily access all available project views with a single click thanks to the new header design. This user-friendly feature enables project managers and team members to quickly shift their focus from one project view to another, allowing them to gain comprehensive insights into their projects with minimal effort.

Additionally, the filter dialog has been significantly improved, now allowing users to save filters for the current view. This feature opens a world of possibilities in terms of customization and adaptability. Project managers can now create multiple views of the same type, each with its own set of filter options. This means that different teams or stakeholders can have tailored views that meet their specific needs and requirements. Whether filtering tasks based on priority, due dates, or assigned team members, the new filter dialog allows for a highly personalized project management experience, optimizing productivity and ensuring that everyone has access to the most relevant project information. 

These enhancements not only provide a more intuitive and user-friendly interface but also enable project managers and teams to have a broader view of their projects while still having the freedom to customize their workspace. The new header design revolutionizes project management by reducing navigation complexity and enabling customized filters, ultimately fostering better collaboration, faster decision-making, and improved overall project performance. 

Improved Calendar View 

The most recent software update also includes an exciting redesign of the calendar feature, providing users with a new and intuitive experience when managing their schedules. The revamped “Week view,” now equipped with an hour grid to simplify event scheduling, is at the forefront of this update. The days of guesswork are over, as users can easily resize and reschedule events by dragging the edges of the events. This simple functionality gives users precise control over their time management, allowing them to make changes to their schedules with a few clicks.

Recognizing the need for greater granularity in organizing workdays, the update also introduces a brand new “day view.” This addition enables users to break down their work week into individual days, providing a focused perspective on daily tasks and commitments. The day view ensures that users can plan and optimize their days with maximum efficiency, whether it’s allocating time for important meetings, blocking off dedicated work periods, or managing personal appointments. 

In addition to functional enhancements, the software update improves the overall design of the Calendar view. The new design emphasizes visual contrast, making it easier to differentiate between different events and schedules. Users can quickly navigate through their calendars, effortlessly absorbing information and making informed decisions about their upcoming engagements, thanks to a clean and modern interface. The visually appealing update improves the overall user experience, making scheduling a visually appealing and efficient process. 

Improved Visuals to Editing Forms 

We’ve also updated Zenforms, our no-code form builder, in response to user feedback. This most recent update introduces a visually enhanced design for the form editor, with the goal of improving the visual interface and providing a more intuitive user experience. With these enhancements, users will be able to distinguish more easily than ever between the various stages of form creation: editing, previewing, and completing. 

The form editor’s new design has been meticulously crafted to streamline the form-building process. The visual interface has been optimized to provide a clear distinction between the editing mode, in which users can easily customize form fields, layouts, and styles, and the preview mode, in which they can see how the form will appear to respondents. Furthermore, the new design includes a distinct “completion” view, which allows users to review and submit completed forms.

One of the most significant advantages of this update is its ability to increase productivity and decrease confusion when working with complex forms. The visually improved interface allows for a smooth transition between the editing, previewing, and completing stages, removing any guesswork and ensuring a more enjoyable form-building experience. Users will be able to more easily visualize the form’s appearance and functionality, allowing them to make precise adjustments and achieve the desired result. 

Whether you’re an experienced form builder or new to the world of no-code development, this update will help you create professional and engaging forms with ease. The form editor’s improved visual interface sets the stage for efficient form creation, allowing you to focus on content and design while minimizing the time and effort required for form development.

Final Thoughts

That brings us to the end of the latest Suite update. We still have some amazing and intuitive features and updates in the works for you, but for the time being, we hope this latest instalment can help improve your workflow! 

The post How Our Most Recent Software Updates Increase Your Productivity appeared first on Zenkit.

Access Control is a revolutionary approach to collaborative work.

For the examples we list below, we will be working with Zenkit Base. However, Access Control is also available in Projects, To Do, and Zenforms. It will also soon be added to Hypernotes. 

What Is Access Control? 

Access Control, as the name suggests, is an intuitive way of controlling third-party access to your workspace, whether this be your Projects, Collections, Forms, or Lists. 

There are many layers to Access Control. However, in essence, the Collection Owner can control what aspects of the Collection other Collection members can both view and interact with. 

How to Set Up Access Control 

Access Control can easily be set up by first clicking on one of the members working in your Collection. The quickest way to do this is to click the “Member Icon” at the top of the screen. This will lead to a drop-down menu showing all the members currently added to your Collection. Otherwise, you can access all members by going to your Collection settings and clicking “Access”. 

Next, click the Collection Member to whom you’d like to apply Access Control. This will then open another menu displaying all the possible roles your team member can play in your Collection.

For those with a paid plan, the Access Control feature can be accessed at the bottom of this menu. 

When setting up Access Control as a Collection Owner, it’s important to remember that the feature will not work for any team member who is assigned to the role of “Collection Member”. The reason for this is that this Collection role can edit Collections freely. As such, this role would supersede the use of Access Control since they can remove their Access Control just as easily as they can apply it to others. 

By assigning your team member as an “Editor”, “Contributor”, “Commenter”, or “Guest”, you will unlock the Access Control functionality at the bottom of the menu. 

Access Control Examples 

There are many uses for Access Control, and we detail some ways in which this new feature works below. 

Show or Hide Fields 

Using the field toggle function, the Collection Owner can easily switch between selecting fields to hide from their team member or to have shown. 

An example of this can be seen below when working with the Table View in Base. 

This is an example view seen by our “Restricted User” before the Collection Owner (called “Main User” in this example) uses Access Control to restrict what they can and can’t see. It is important to note that the Collection Owner will continue to see this view even after restricting a team member’s Collection access. 

The Collection Member has decided that this member should not be able to view the “Due Date” and “Attachments” fields. Nor can they make any changes to the Collection such as adding new fields or making any major alterations to the pre-existing table (otherwise, that would defeat the purpose of Access Control!). 

 More Advanced Field Filtering 

There are a lot of ways in which field filters can be used to ensure your team members get the correct view of your work. Obviously, the use of these filters will differ depending on your needs. Nevertheless, there are some simple ways in which you can improve how you use them. 

A great example of this is hiding (or showing) certain labels, rather than just the fields (as illustrated in the example above). Let’s demonstrate how this works with the “Assigned To” field. 

Instead of showing all members in the “Assigned To” field, we’ll alter the filtering so that it will only display the tasks assigned to our “Restricted User”. 

As you can see, the “Restricted User” can only see their assigned tasks. However, they are also able to create new tasks. If they decide to do so, a new task will be created and automatically label them in the “Assigned To” field. 

With this example, it is important to note that should the Collection Owner have made the “Assigned To” field hidden from our “Restricted User”, any new task created by the “Restricted User” will automatically tag their name to the “Assigned To” field that is visible in the Collection Owner’s Table View. 

Here you can see that the “Restricted User” has created two new tasks, but they cannot see the “Assigned To” field.

However, the Collection Owner can see from their Table View who has created these new tasks. 

Password Restriction 

The final aspect of Access Control is its Password Restriction feature. 

Again, as its name suggests, Password Restriction limits access to your Collections with a password. 

The Password Restriction feature can be found by accessing your Collection settings and clicking “Access”. Within this space, you will be given an overview of your workspace visibility, Collection members, and finally the Password Restriction.  

Please note, the Password Restriction feature is only available as part of a paid plan. 

 From here, you will be given the opportunity to create a new password. 

Now, Collection Members will only be able to access your Collection should they have the password. 

Final Thoughts

By combining the use of Access Control and Password Restriction, you are given a greater sense of control over your workspace.  

These features are not only a great way to speed up collaboration, but they can also enhance everyone’s workflow. 

What do you think of our latest features? Have you had the chance to try them out yet? 

Leave your comments below! 

Access Control and Password Restriction are available for Zenkit Base, To Do, Projects, and Zenforms. They will also soon be available in Hypernotes. 

Access Control and Password Restriction are paid plan features available for Plus Plan members and higher. 

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What Is Global File View? 

Global File View (our latest Smart View) is an easy way to see all the files attached to your tasks. The new Smart View is a quick and easy way to get an immediate visual of all the files found across your tasks because they are all in one list that is simple to read. 

In Zenkit Base, the Global File View is an Add-On. While it is automatically activated, you can easily deactivate the Smart View from your profile settings should you choose to. 

How Do I Create a Global File View? 

Creating a Global File View is just as easy as creating other Views across the Suite. 

The Smart View can be accessed in pretty much the same manner across all products in which it’s available.  

Here you can find a precise summary of the steps involved in creating this Global View:  

Base, To Do, and Hypernotes 

1. Open the side panel menu
2. Click “Files” 

 Projects 

1. Open the side panel menu
2. Click “Create Smart View” 
3. Select “Global Files” 
4. Click “Create” 

The Global File View Action Bar 

From this new view, you have a complete overview of all the files attached to your tasks. Within this View, you are then given the option to filter your files to make them more accessible. 

1. The slider next to the filter allows you to quickly change how many files are displayed on your screen. 

2. The default filter is “Upload Date”, but from here you can easily filter for other requirements, such as “Name” and “Size”. 

Once done, you can then decide how these files should be grouped in the “Group By” filter. This can include the “Owner”, the “Workspace”, and more. 

3. The search bar uses keywords for quick access to files. This is a handy feature if you know the name of the file that you are looking for. 

4. For a more advanced filtering option, including which Collections/Projects should and should not be included in your filter, you can click the “…” icon next to the search bar.

Global File View is the latest addition to Zenkit Base, Projects, To Do, and Hypernotes and is available for all plans!

Visit our Knowledge Base for even more information on the Suite’s Global File View. 

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And bzzzt… it’s coming up to 6 years?! What an extraordinary journey it’s been. We’re thrilled by the amount of support and engagement we’ve received so far. We know we are just at the beginning and are just as curious about the future of information technology as before. 

Since the launch of Zenkit Base in October 2016, we have released a variety of other productivity apps fundamental to the development of the Zenkit Suite. With our latest release of Projects, suited for multi-project management, we’re geared up for plenty of enterprise trips to Mars. 

But before embarking on any trips or upgrading products with another toolkit, here are some snippets from the diverse online publications that have featured Zenkit over the years: 

Zenkit Base

“I want to point out what I love most about Zenkit: the fact that you can visualize your tasks in a variety of helpful ways. I love the flexibility that it gives me with respect to how I can view my data. For former Trello fans, I can think of no better alternative.” – The Next Web

“Zenkit isn’t the first project management solution to enter the market, but it could be the most beautifully simple one to date… With Zenkit, you can manage anything you’re working on with unlimited collections… Zenkit also offers real-time collaborative tools, which allow you to keep an eye on a project, regardless of your location.” – App Advice

“Some tools force you to adapt to their features. Zenkit does the opposite. With its highly customizable modules, you get to forge the tools exactly the way you need them to be. So personalize your calendar and inbox to improve performance. Use to-do-lists, kanban boards, and labels to optimize your workflow. Configure activity tracking and notification to keep you primed not only to meet deadlines and budgets but to surpass expectations — even your own.” – Go Skills

“Zenkit… helps users manage tasks, allocate resources, and budget effectively during the project life cycle. The solution facilitates communication and collaboration for team members and improves productivity.” – GetApp Lab

“You can create your own Apps via Collections and visualize data using List, Kanban, Table, Calendar and Mind Map views. Zenkit is fast and easy to use.” – Hackernoon

“A simple yet powerful project management tool” – Webbiquity

“Zenkit is a project management platform where users can choose the way they like to work… Users are able to use the best tool for the task at hand.” – Alternativoj

“This to-do list manager is easy-to-use clutter-free and yet feature-rich. It also includes nice mind-mapping and collaboration features.” – Search Engine Watch

“[Zenkit] provides different tools for different teams to fulfill their overall business needs. Whether it’s project management, CRM, support or any other business solution, Zenkit caters all.” – nTask

“Zenkit – Interview with the developer of a fantastic app.” – App of the Day

“Zenkit is the app which is aimed to make teamwork as feasible as possible for project managers and their teams” – App Pearl / Android Apps for Me

“…all those principles of work make Zenkit great organization and collaboration software, and even people who aren’t friendly with technologies will handle this app.” – Free Apps for Me

Zenkit To Do

“Zenkit To Do is a beautiful and feature-rich simple task management application for individuals, small businesses, and enterprise-class organizations. It enables users to focus on day-to-day tasks based on priority and using smart lists… And because Zenkit To Do is part of the Zenkit family, users can enjoy all of the deeply integrated products from a single data platform. [The Zenkit Suite] is an all-in-one solution for collaboration and project management best known for its flexibility and ability to fit any workflow.” – FOSS Mint

“Zenkit is a Kanban board, a mind map, a to-do list, a spreadsheet, and a calendar. Confused? It’s perhaps better to think of Zenkit as a database of things that you can view and organize in all those ways. That is the flexible power that the service offers… but if you find yourself always switching between one type of to-do list to another, then Zenkit is pretty [much] your only option.” – Slash Gear

Zenchat

“Zenchat aims to simplify chat and task management for remote teams. Zenchat was created to address the problem that most enterprise teams are facing in 2020: remote work is actually really hard to pull off successfully.” – 9TO5MAC

“Zenchat is a chat app mixed with a to-do list app. It basically merges the two into a single idea. Any message can become a task with a due date, reminders, notes, and whatever else you need.” – Android Authority

“Amid the pandemic or any other state of emergency, apps of such nature have become a necessary part of an online office suite. In Zenchat, the users can easily transform any message into a task, and they can assign or edit it within the chat… Zenchat is minimizing the redundancy issues and subsequently enhancing the productivity for collaborative projects.” – Tech Engage

“Forget sticky notes, texting, and in-person requests, time to move on to the next-gen of messaging with Zenchat, Superstar of the day. From direct messages to group conversations, Zenchat is one of the best applications in space that brings team chatting and task management app together.” – Mobile App Daily

“We highly recommend you to try this app out and see how it will improve your business communication.” – AppPearl

“…its built-in chat feature allows focusing on the project only, escaping the mess of switching between messengers and apps during project discussion – and therefore, significantly boost the productivity of the team.” – Android Apps for Me

Zenkit Hypernotes

“Hypernotes addresses [the] need for intuitive knowledge management in distributed teams. Hypernotes achieves this lofty goal (increase “read:write” ratio) with a number of features that have become the gold standard for personal and organizational knowledge management in recent years” – Mac Sources

“Zenkit’s new Hypernotes app is like Notion for businesses.” – Mobile Syrup

“Hypernotes uses a connective model to link your notes into relevant categories so all of your reference materials are available at a glance, as well as the interdependent web between them. It was created for large organizations to do their project management, but that means it’ll work just as well for your individual needs.” – KnowTechie

Zenkit Projects

“Projects provide teams and workplaces with a complete set of features that help manage and save time, meet deadlines, and delegate and track tasks to stay on schedule with projects.” – 9TO5MAC

“Perfect team management and smooth multitasking are almost like superpowers. And a great project management app for iOS, like ZenKit Projects, can help you achieve that.” – igeeksblog

Zenforms

“Zenforms is new and a powerful way to improve your business’s feedback. You can use the Zenforms online form builder with database for personal or professional use.” – mostlyblogging

“While several platforms help create forms, a few offer a rich feature set alongside working with multiple people on a certain project seamlessly. That’s where Zenforms comes in and sweeps you off your feet.” – igeeksblog

“Until now, as with other special tasks, it was mainly necessary to resort to products from US companies that are problematic under data protection law. That will change with Zenforms.” – ebblogs

“The app conforms to GDPR standards and integrates into Zenkit’s existing suite the same way Google Forms integrates into Google Drive.” – Android Authority

Foreign Language Press

“Zenkit ist die perfekte Wahl für Unternehmen, die ein benutzerfreundliches und attraktiv gestaltetes Tool für einfaches Team- und Aufgabenmanagement suchen und nicht an umfassenderen Projektmanagementfunktionen wie Zeiterfassung oder Budgetierung interessiert sind.” – Capterra

“Zenkit’i herhangi bir proje için kullanabilirsiniz! Projenizin mutlaka bir yazılım projesi olması gerekmiyor. En karışık projelerinizde veya en basit projelerinizde dahi Zenkit’i kullanabilirsiniz. Örneğin, bir yemek daveti verecekseniz dahi Zenkit’i kullanabilirsiniz.” – startupnedir

“Au-delà de son positionnement d’alternative à Trello, Zenkit devient une robuste solution de gestion de projets en équipe. Les modèles permettent de démarrer rapidement avec des structures efficaces. Et l’intégration avec Zapier ouvre des horizons énormes vers votre écosystème applicatif.” – Outilsnum

Image from AbsolutVision on Unsplash

The post The Zenkit Suite in the Press appeared first on Zenkit.

We’re thrilled to announce the release of Zenforms, the sixth member of the Zenkit Suite!

Zenforms is a no-code web form application that allows you to connect with those who matter the most to you by creating forms and surveys. It is intended to be adaptable, simple to use, and ideal for collaboration. And, with a wide range of intuitive and creative form-building features, its applications are virtually limitless.

Create standalone forms in one click without the need for your own website. Or, you can use an “iframe” to embed a form on your existing website.

Zenforms allows you to improve your understanding of ongoing projects, gather insightful data for the next product launch, or simply collect valuable feedback from your community!

What’s Wrong with Traditional Web Form Applications?

Traditional form-building tools emphasise the creation and shareability aspects of form-building while putting little emphasis on the collaboration process. While applications like Google Forms allow users to share and access their work with other “collaborators,” the collaboration process is not without constraints.

 As a result, unstructured workflows and poor internal communication with other team members are commonplace. Furthermore, particularly when dealing with large amounts of complex data, the lack of access to an integrated set of analytical tools has a negative impact on team coordination and slows response times to collected results.

 This means that opportunities are lost, and all that time spent creating forms and surveys led to nothing…

What Makes Zenforms So Much Better?

With Zenforms, your forms and surveys are designed to support both team collaboration and integrated analytical tools. You can now collaborate with your team in real-time, which means that everyone is more coordinated and the risk of miscommunication is greatly reduced. Furthermore, thanks to the integration of the Zenkit Suite, teams can collect valuable information with Zenforms and easily analyse data and create databases with tools from the Suite.

However, there’s so much to Zenforms that it’ll be easier just to list (some) of its most interesting features below:

1. GDPR and Data Privacy-Compliant

Because we’re Zenkit, your privacy is our number one priority.

Zenforms is thus a GDPR and data privacy-compliant application that respects that your data is exactly that. Yours.

The application is hosted on German servers and was developed by a German team in a German location (so you know it’s been built very well).

We’ve also included some critical data security measures to ensure that your data is secure from the very beginning. Zenforms not only encrypts data when your device is in hibernation mode, but it also encrypts all backup data that is exclusively stored on German servers, with all transferred data being TLS encrypted as well.

All data is processed in accordance with the principles outlined in Article 5.1-2.

2. Integration with the Zenkit Suite

Perhaps the best aspect of Zenforms is its integration with the rest of the Zenkit Suite!

So, once you’ve collected your data with Zenforms, you can use To Do to create tasks, Hypernotes to create knowledge bases, Projects to analyse results, Base to structure work, and Zenchat to communicate with your team!

Obviously, the Suite’s tools are completely at your disposal, as are any previously collected (or future added) data.

3. Sub-Forms

Sub-forms are an excellent way to collect a broader and more detailed set of data from more complex scenarios. They function as forms within forms, allowing you to expand on a specific scenario to ask more questions and obtain more reliable data as a result.

In doing so, you can avoid forms becoming too complicated to fill out or worrying about asking the right questions to the right people. Instead, sub-forms were designed to create a natural dialogue with a natural flow of questions and answers, much like a conversation.

4. Duplicate Data Checking

Have you ever started filling out a spreadsheet or compiled a database only to discover a handful of entries that appear to be identical to one another? We’ve done the same. This is why we created the duplicate data-checking function.

 This feature is one of the smallest additions, but it has a significant impact. You can now check for duplicate data entries BEFORE inserting them into your database, saving you a lot of clean-up time later (you’re welcome). You can even specify which data fields should be double-checked.

5. Real-Time Collaboration

Zenforms would not be a Zenkit product unless it was collaborative! Zenforms isn’t designed just for a single person collecting data and gathering feedback (although it is perfectly suited to this!). Instead, it is intended to improve data collection and sharing among team members. From here, each user can intuitively and actively contribute to the creation of a base of information and analytical research that can be shared in real-time by all.

So feel free to invite your co-workers, friends, and colleagues to work on your projects with you.

6. Audio, Video, and Drawing Inputs

You can add audio and video files, as well as drawings and illustrations, just like in other Zenkit products, anywhere: in forms, comments, and tasks. The perfect personal touch for any enthusiastic form builder out there.

This is an excellent method for fleshing out your forms and making the experience of filling them out even more interesting and engaging! Not only will the addition of these file types improve how you communicate with others, but you will also be more likely to receive more reliable and immersive data as a result.

7. Enterprise-Grade Admin and User Management

Zenforms is also enterprise-ready, which means you can assign roles to users to improve the security of your work and the productivity of your team. The application also includes some interesting technical features, such as the use of SAML-based SSO, managing users with provisioning, and monitoring and auditing user activities. Furthermore, you can use a SCIM-Provider, such as MS Azure AD, to keep your users automatically in sync with the rest of your infrastructure.

It would be so easy to rattle on about all of the incredible functions and features that we’ve crammed into this incredible app that it’s probably best to let it speak for itself! Zenforms is available for free and on your mobile device:

Web | iOS | Android

Of course, we also created desktop apps, which are available for download from the Zenforms’ Platform Page.

That’s just about everything that I can squeeze into an article about Zenforms! We’d love to hear your thoughts on the Suite’s newest addition!

We hope you enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed building it. 

Please feel free to share your feedback in the comments below, and don’t forget to show your support on our Product Hunt launch tomorrow!

The post World, Meet Zenforms appeared first on Zenkit.

What defines the ideal project management solution? For us, it’s a place where everyone can come together and focus on the things that really matter. Over the years we’ve created several tools that can take you part way towards this goal, however none so far have solely been focused on project management…

Until now. Zenkit Projects is built to facilitate project management, whether you use classical or Agile methodologies. It’s powerful and flexible enough to enable real progress in your team – no matter how many projects you have, no matter how big your challenges are.

Over the 5 years since we first launched Zenkit, we’ve had a lot of feedback from you about using Zenkit for project management, so we implemented our 5 key learnings: It is super easy-to-use, has a 360-degree dashboard, a global kanban, resource management, and dedicated reporting.

Now onto the good stuff. What exactly does Zenkit Projects have to offer?

Dashboard

One of our most highly requested features over the years has been a project dashboard. Zenkit Projects goes above and beyond, with a dashboard that shows you your tasks, your team’s tasks, and progress across all projects all in one place. Best of all, you can work on any task without even leaving the dashboard! Let’s dig in…

Your Tasks’ Progress

The top of the screen is reserved for tasks assigned to you from across all projects. These rings show the completeness of all your tasks across projects. “My Day” shows everything due today (or overdue!), “My Week” shows all tasks for this week, and “My Tasks” shows all tasks assigned to you, including those without a due date, and those that aren’t due today or this week.

To view the tasks that match any of these, simply click the circle icon to open a filtered Tasks panel on the right-hand side:

Click on a task to open it and view or work on the task details.

All Tasks’ Progress

The next row of circles shows the completeness of all tasks across all projects, whether they’re assigned to you, to someone else, or just not assigned to anyone. They function the same way as your tasks, just click on one to open the filtered task panel to the right and access the tasks.

From the task panel on the right, you can also add tasks to any project. Tasks added here will match the filter that was set (e.g. if you’ve clicked “Today” it will add today’s due date to the new task, if you’ve clicked “This week”, it will add a due date at the end of the week).

Project Progress

The rest of the dashboard gives you a really clear overview of the progress of all of your projects. It displays each project as a bar, divided into sections that show how many tasks are in each stage of the project. Click on any of these sections to open the task panel to show tasks related to that section.

For example, in this screenshot, it’s showing all tasks in the “To Do” stage in the project “Product Launch”.

As with each of the previous sections, you can click on any task here to open and work on it or add new tasks to the project.

Global Smart Views

The next major feature is the smart views. For a multi-project solution, global task views are like magic: You don’t need to switch between projects anymore! These are global views that you can use to keep an eye on all tasks from across all projects, and they include:

• Global Kanban board
• Global calendar
• Global task list
• All done tasks
• All assigned tasks
• Today
• Week

It can be overwhelming to see everything all at once, so you can use a range of grouping, sorting, and filter functions to quickly find the information you need. Once you set up the grouping, sorting, and filtering settings, those will stay that way until you change them.

This means that if you close the app, change to a different view, or open a project, you’ll always go back to the settings you had. This also means that you can create multiple of the same type of smart view (e.g. a global task list) to perform different functions, simply by using different group, sort, and filter settings.

For example, a global task list grouped by project, sorted by date, and filtered not to include completed tasks will float the most urgent tasks in each project to the top of each section. Meanwhile, a global task list grouped by assigned to, sorted by workload, and filtered to exclude completed tasks can show a list of everyone’s most time-intensive tasks.

Both of these views serve an important, but still completely different function, which is why you can have as many smart views as you like!

Resource Management

A truly powerful project management app is meaningless without a way to quickly assess how well tasks are distributed amongst your team. That’s why Projects also has integrated resource management, shown under any Gantt chart and available as a global view, too!

With resource management you can easily find the optimal schedule for all team members across all your projects and thus improve the efficiency of your organization. This feature enables you to see at a glance which team members may be overbooked, and who you can transfer tasks in order to alleviate the strain.

Put plainly: The global resource planning view enables you to see the workload of each member, shown as a red or green bar with the number of hours they’re scheduled to work on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis.

The bar is shown as green if the person is scheduled to do 8 or fewer hours of work per day, and will go red when that number is exceeded. This max “load” can be adjusted, depending on your typical schedule, but is set to 8 by default due to the 40h work week that most companies adhere to.

Clicking on someone’s name will open a menu showing all their tasks, grouped by project, and of course, clicking on a task will open it to the right-hand side.

Reports

Another very highly requested feature is reporting. Now, this is of course partially covered by the smart views, however, you can also create 2 specific reports: Bar or Sunburst. These reports visualize the workload of each team member and can be modified to display the information you need.

These two reports, combined with all the different report settings, enable you to create no fewer than 720 custom reports to gain important insights. Risks, opportunities, and challenges can be easily recognized and used to optimize your projects.

Projects

Last but not least, it would be a bit silly to write all this without mentioning the projects themselves! I’ll try to keep it brief.

When you create a project, it’ll automatically create a Kanban board, however, just like in Base, you have the option to choose from multiple views: Kanban, Gantt, List, Calendar, Hierarchy, Table, and Mindmap. The Gantt chart also supports all the important instruments of classical project management: all 4 dependency types, lead & lag, critical paths, resource management, and subtasks.

This means that whether you use Agile, Hyper Agile, Kanban, Waterfall, or whatever other methodology you prefer, you will always have the right tool at hand, and be able to switch between them at any time to get the best of every approach.

Other Updates Throughout the Suite

You may also have noticed some changes to all your other apps…

The biggest change is that there is now a sidebar to the left of your screen, which is where you can access your app and account settings and easily switch between apps. You now access your Zenkit profile and app settings from the same dialogue, too. Navigation within each app is also still accessible from the panel, as it always has been.

The panel means that things like settings, notifications, folders, and activities are kept separate from where you actually work. It’s a cleaner, more structured design that gives you more space for you to be productive without distraction. A nice added bonus is that this new side panel is much faster and more performant than the old one!

Other improvements throughout the Zenkit Suite include:

• The resource planning function we built for Projects has also been added to the Gantt view in Base.
• You can now use filters in Base’s three global views: Calendar, Favorites & Team
• You can also use filters in all lists, including smart lists, in To Do
• You can sort tasks in To Do’s “Week” and “All” smart lists
• You can group tasks in the “All” smart list
• Last but not least, the Markdown rendering library in Hypernotes is now twice as fast!

Change can be hard, I know! It may take a little while to get used to the new layout (I still head to the top right corner to access settings!) but after a couple of days, it’ll feel like it was always that way. I’m particularly a huge fan of the new app switching area, and the combined profile & app settings!

What Does This Mean for Base?

Many of you likely already use Base for all your project management needs, and over the years we’ve received many requests for features and improvements to the app that would push it further in the direction of project management.

In the end, it made a lot more sense to create a specialized app that will be 100% focused on project management, rather than to add all the necessary components to Base. Adding all that extra stuff to Base would simply make it too cluttered, too confusing, and ultimately not as helpful or easy to use as it should be. Projects alone is able to provide nearly every PM feature that’s been requested over the years, packaged in a fun-to-use, clear & simple app.

We’re confident that the new Projects app will meet the needs of the majority of our users, as most of you already use Zenkit for project management. This will leave Base open for a radical evolution into an app-builder with automation, actions & triggers, and a way to manage processes as well as projects.

Want to Transfer from Base to Projects?

If you use Base and want to make the switch over to Projects, all you need to do is connect it with Projects via the Suite. Additionally, if you already have a subscription to Base, we are happy to transfer your subscription to Projects, free of charge! If you’d like us to do this, please get in touch with our team (billing@zenkit.com).

What do you think? We’re so proud of Projects and we’re sure you’re going to love it, too! We’d love to hear your feedback about Projects, the new layout, and the added features in Base and To Do… what’s your favourite feature? Is one of your own requests now fulfilled?

Cheers,
Siobhan and the Zenkit Team

The post World, Meet Zenkit Projects appeared first on Zenkit.

2021 has been a productive year so far. Not only did our team release our new app, Hypernotes, but improvements and additional features have been added across all of our products. We published them with little fanfare, and barely a mention, but that’s not to say that they’re not worthy of celebration!

Here’s a short list of our favourite little updates over the past few months:

Undo/Redo

Since January this year, it’s possible to undo or redo certain activities in all Zenkit products using the Cmd/Ctrl+Z and Cmd/Ctrl+Y shortcuts on your keyboard! This includes reverting information added to fields in Base and To Do, like labels, dates, members, etc, or changing the text in chats, comments, or description fields. You can undo as many times as you like, and if you’ve already closed an item, the undo function will still work and even re-open the item for editing! You can also undo larger actions the creation or archiving of an item in Base. You cannot undo the deletion of an item, as this is a permanent change (which is also why you’re asked to confirm deletion!)

Printing Single Items and Tasks

Whether you’re working on a complex item in Base, or viewing simple tasks in Zenchat or Hypernotes, you can now print an individual item or task. To do so, simply open it, click the … button, and choose “Print” from the drop-down menu.

You’ll then generate a PDF, which shows all the fields available on the task, including all labels in their assigned colours, info about attachments, and comments (if you’ve chosen to include them). You can print or save the PDF to your device by clicking “Print” and then choosing a printer or the save to PDF option in the print settings.

Drawings

Okay, yes, we did write a whole article introducing the new drawing tool, but it’s worth mentioning again just for the sheer fun of it!

Logout on All Devices

The logout on all devices feature was introduced in version 4.5.2 to add an additional layer of security, just in case you’d forgotten to log out of a shared device or a device was stolen. The remote log-out function, when used, will log you out of all Zenkit products on all other devices and browsers except the one you’re currently using.

To use it, open your Zenkit profile, then open the “Authentication” section. Click on “Log out on all other devices”. That’s it! No need to confirm or do anything else.

Improved Recurring Items and Reminders

It’s not quite as flashy as some of the other updates, but we made huge improvements to the way reminders act with recurring items. It used to be that you’d need to set a reminder on each of the recurrent items, however now if a reminder already exists on the last item in the series, then it will be added to all future recurrences of that item.

New Knowledge Bases

With the progression from a single “does-everything” product to multiple products, we needed a way to consolidate and better manage our knowledge bases, which were previously all hosted in separate published Zenkit collections. We moved on to publishing using the same platform as our support helpdesk so that we could quickly and easily include links to relevant articles when responding to requests. It also enabled us to publish the knowledge bases in other languages, too!  German! The knowledge bases are due for a design update this year, so they’ll fit seamlessly into the Zenkit universe.

And…

• We’ve added archive access in Hypernotes
• Made it easier to find files shared in chats in Zenchat
• Added JSON export for collections, lists, and notebooks
• Added syntax highlighting for code blocks in Hypernotes
• Kept up all 8 translations of all four of our apps (with a new language coming soon)
• And much, much more!

If you want to keep up with all these updates as soon as they’re live, please feel free to take a look at our public changelog. Our dev team add details about what features were added, and which bugs were fixed in each app or the Zenkit platform as a whole.

Are you making use of these new features? We’d love to know! Leave a comment below, or get in touch with our team. As always, we’d love to hear your feedback.

Cheers,

Siobhan and the Zenkit team

The post What’s New in Zenkit? appeared first on Zenkit.

The latest feature to grace the Zenkit suite isn’t a new productivity tool or a fascinating new way to connect everything together. In fact, some may even find it frivolous or worse, an anti-productivity tool!

But we think that drawing at work is an excellent use of time…

Introducing the Drawing Tool

Whether you’re creating a task in To Do, whipping up a new note in Hypernotes, or having a watercooler chat in Zenchat, there’s always room to draw. Drawings can help illustrate a point, send some cheer, or act as a basic diagram of something you’re planning to build. Whatever the reason may be, we think that this feature can offer an important visual aid that has thus far been missing in the productivity universe.

You can add a drawing anywhere in Zenkit that you would usually upload a file or image: In Hypernotes, use the quick command “/draw”. In Zenchat, click or tap the + button and choose “Drawing”, in To Do and Base, instead of uploading a file or linking to one in the cloud, simply click “Drawing” instead!

Drawing in Zenkit

Once you’ve opened the drawing window, you’ll be presented with a blank page and an array of basic tools, like a colour picker, some different brush options, undo/redo, and the option to add text or images to the canvas.

The first thing you can (or really, should) do is select the size of your canvas. You can do this by clicking the “Size” button in the top left corner. Choose either a custom size, or pick a predetermined portrait, landscape, or square image.

Once you’ve created your canvas, pick a colour in the top right, and start drawing!

The colour picker currently offers the same colour options as the label colour picker, however, this may change in future updates. To change the size of your brush, use the toggle to the left of the coloured circle. In the same corner, you can also pick a different brush, which will allow you to use different textures to create more layered and varied work.

You can click “Select” in the centre of the top panel to select different elements of your drawing and move them around, rotate, or resize them. To go back to drawing mode, click “Drawing”.

To undo or redo an action, use the undo/redo buttons or the Ctrl/Cmd+Z and Y shortcuts. To erase the entire drawing, click on the “Clear” button.

Once you’re happy with your drawing, click “Save” in the top right corner to save it as a file attached to your item, an image inline in your note, or send it as a message in chat.

Annotation

The drawing tool is not limited to only creating new images. It can also be used to annotate or extend existing ones, too! Any image file uploaded to any Zenkit product can be annotated using this tool. Simply open the image, then click “Annotate” in the top left corner.

The annotation will allow you to draw and select anything you added to the image, as described above, however it will not let you select or remove elements that existed in the original image.

What do you think? Are you going to start adding some drawings to your work?

Cheers,

Siobhan and the Zenkit Team

The post Draw Anything in Zenkit appeared first on Zenkit.

We’re so excited to announce the release of the fourth member of the Zenkit family: Hypernotes!

Hypernotes is a note-taking app designed to enhance your knowledge management, and help you create, share, and understand knowledge in a totally new way. It’s designed to be used for any writing task; wikis, Intranets, documentation, book outlines, research, diaries, first principles, a personal Zettelkasten, etc. This means that it can also be used by just about anyone, and the range of plans makes it accessible to anyone from students, NGOs, and freelancers, all the way up to SMBs and large enterprises.

All that said, it’s not just any old note-taking or team knowledge app…

What’s the problem with traditional knowledge management?

1. They’re great for taking notes, but not so good at helping you access them.

The tools traditionally used to capture and share knowledge are linear and hierarchical by nature. Most popular knowledge bases and note apps are very limited by their pre-defined hierarchies and folders. Anything you write has to fit into a certain category, or get slotted into a folder or notebook with other notes of a similar theme. 

This inevitably leads to hundreds, if not thousands of notes containing valuable knowledge that end up gathering dust because it’s simply too difficult to find them, which also means writing is duplicated, sometimes multiple times!

Who hasn’t started taking notes, writing down ideas, or collecting useful quotes and articles, only to forget what it was called, where it should be stored, or even what category it belongs in? Sometimes something you write defies being categorized; it could be in multiple existing categories, or needs a new category entirely.

Search goes some way to solve this, but it doesn’t always find everything you need, especially if you’re not using the “right” search terms! This means that knowledge is lost and forgotten, and all that note-taking leads to nothing… what’s the point of documenting something if nobody reads it?

2. Knowledge is lost when people aren’t around to point you in the right direction.

Companies aren’t just faceless productivity machines. Their competitive advantage lies primarily in people: how employees apply their knowledge, experience, and skills in their work.

When someone is away or leaves the company, their unique knowledge goes with them. Arnold Kransdorff, a knowledge management researcher and author, puts the impact of this bluntly: If this knowledge walks out without being documented, the organization will be “plagued with an inability to learn from past experience, which leads to reinvented wheels, unlearned lessons, a pattern of repeated mistakes, productivity shortfalls, and a lack of continuous performance improvement.” Ouch.

Just think how much time, money, and effort could be saved if companies were able to continually and effectively capture each employee’s unique knowledge over the entire duration of their employment.

What makes Hypernotes so much better?

Hypernotes creates a living knowledge base. It’s structured kind of like your brain is. With Hypernotes, notes organically link to one another, so finding relevant knowledge is much easier, even if a note was written years ago! The more you write, the greater your knowledge becomes and the more links are created between things you didn’t even consider to be related.

With Hypernotes, your “read/write” ratio is therefore increased: Because notes organically link to one another, finding relevant knowledge is much easier, even if someone is accessing them for the first time. Readers simply have to click through to find relevant articles that always link back to where they started, and new knowledge is automatically connected to old with suggested links.

And because we’re Zenkit, Hypernotes of course has extremely effective task management built right into it, and you can connect your writing with any other app in the suite. Here’s how…

Bi-Directional Links

Whenever you’re writing in any note, you can use shortcuts to link your text to other relevant notes, kind of like hyperlinks online. You can do this by inserting the title of a note you’ve already written, inserting an entire block of text, or by using a tagging system.

The magic though, is that these links go both ways. Once you link from note A to note B, then a mention will be added to note B that links right back to note A!

Hypernotes also automatically scans your writing to look for words or phrases that match other notes you’ve written before. It then suggests that you connect them with a mention at the bottom of each related note:

If you choose to connect these two suggestions in the example above, whenever you look at the notes “Zettelkasten Method”, “Zettel Unique Identifier”, or “Structure Notes”, there will be a link on Niklas’ name leading you right back to this page where everything you’ve ever written about him is collected! (This is also how Hypernotes works as an excellent CRM, as you can track and make notes on all your interactions with people you’re in touch with).

Outlining

Notes are not written in plain prose, but use an outline of bullet points for each new line. The reason for this is that each separate bullet point, or “block” as they’re called, can be indented, creating a hierarchical outline of the information you’re writing down. Each individual block can also directly be referenced in any other note, so instead of copying & pasting things multiple times, you write it down once and it’s available to use anywhere else in your notebook!

In this example, the blocks are indented to three levels, and there are several references shown (there’s good old Mr. Luhmann!). Clicking on any of the bullet points opens the block up to behave like a totally new note:

Knowledge Graph

Yeah, notes and pages are cool and all, but just wait until you see the graph! The knowledge graph is a visual representation of all of your knowledge and all the connections within it.

The graph shows by way of color-coding which notes have tasks attached, which have comments, notifications, which are favorites, and more. You can focus in on notes to see only the things most relevant to it (and you can change the levels of focus as you wish with a simple slider):

And you can also “collapse” the connections to see how one note is connected to other, more distant notes & ideas:

This all is fun to play with, but in the end it provides an invaluable resource that makes finding connections between ideas an intuitive, visual experience. Using a tool like this can help you to make connections between ideas that you never thought could be related, sparking yet more ideas, better writing, and a better-informed worldview.

Task Management

It wouldn’t be a Zenkit product without a nod to collaboration! Hypernotes isn’t designed just for a single person building their knowledge (although it is perfectly suited to this!). It’s designed to facilitate better knowledge collection and sharing among team members, where each user is able to intuitively and actively contribute to building a base of information to be shared by all.

You can add members to notebooks, and create and assign tasks on the notebook and note level:

There is a general task area for each notebook. This is found on the left hand panel and you can add tasks here at the top of the page, and also view all tasks, even those that are assigned to a specific note.

Within an individual note, you can add and view tasks in two ways:

Each note has a “Tasks” button in the top right hand corner that will show all tasks related to that note. You can add tasks from there, mark them done, and open them to assign people & due dates, attach files, and more.

You can also add tasks in-line, directly in your text:

The task will appear right in the middle of your text and you can continue writing as if it’s just part of the sentence

Of course, each task can be opened, members assigned, due dates, reminders & repeaters added, files and more info attached, etc.

You can also connect Hypernotes with all other Zenkit products, which means you can view and work with these same tasks in Base & To Do, and chat about them in Zenchat!

Shortcuts

All this sounds a bit complicated, but there are plenty of shortcuts (and a handy list explaining them all) that make using Hypernotes super simple.

From anywhere in your text, use the “/” key to open the quick command menu:

Quick commands help you add references to other pages or blocks, add images through links or uploads, create tasks, add items from other Zenkit products inline, and even use special text formatting like code and LaTex!

There’s also an info menu shown on each page which lists helpful shortcuts for adding references, using the graph, formatting text, and much more.

I could go on, and on, and on, and on about all the features and functions we’ve built into this incredible app, but I think I’ll let it speak for itself. You can use Hypernotes totally for free online, and on your mobile devices:

Web | iOS | Android

Of course we also created desktop apps, which you can download from the Hypernotes platforms page.

That’s all folks! We’d love to hear what you think about the newest member of the Zenkit family! We hope you all enjoy using it as much as we enjoyed building it. Please feel free to share your feedback in the comments below, and don’t forget to share your support on our Product Hunt launch tomorrow!

Cheers,

Siobhan and the Zenkit Team

The post World, Meet Hypernotes appeared first on Zenkit.

We’re so excited to reveal the reason we’ve been so quiet these last few weeks: World, meet Zenchat!

Zenchat is a chat app. But it’s not just any old chat app. Zenchat’s built-in task management functions enable holistic collaboration in teams like never before.

Meet Zenchat

Zenchat is just like the chat apps you know and love, with a little Zenkit magic thrown in:

Chat 1:1, in a group, about a project (from Base or To Do!), or even about a single topic or task.
Quickly turn any message into a task & assign or edit within your chat. Never switch apps for routine task management again!
Get in the habit of directly chatting about tasks so valuable information stays where it belongs. See that chat in the comments of any task or item, in any Zenkit product.
Connect Zenchat to the Zenkit Universe to see your tasks in advanced views like Kanban, Gantt, to do lists, and vice versa.
Like all Zenkit products, Zenchat is enterprise-ready: SSO, SCIM provisioning, admin tools, identity management & more.

So now you know the basics, let’s get back to the beginning. Why exactly did we make a chat app?

The Story Behind Zenchat

When we first started building Zenkit we thought that communication tools (like team chat) and tools to add structure to work (like Kanban boards, to do lists etc) had an equal impact on productivity and collaboration. We thought it was 50–50.

But if you watch the people around you, it’s more like 90–10, or even 99–1! Humans are naturally inclined to chat. It’s a habit that sticks with us not only in our private lives, but at work too. That said, without that 1% of structure, there’s no sustainable productivity. Information just gets lost in chat threads.

So we have a problem: People don’t want to leave their chat, but they have to in order to track their work. But when you use an external app to manage tasks, you lose all the valuable commentary and feedback related to that task because—let’s face it—you’d always rather have a quick chat about something than use the comment function in a task app.

But what about integrations? Well… we don’t think integrations quite cut it either. Commands are not handy for regular users (e.g. commands to add a task, or commands to show tasks). And like normal messages, the integrated task elements also get lost in chat threads and messages.

On top of that, there’s ambivalence about where to add task relevant information. Do you chat about it in your team or with your manager? Or do you add it as a comment on a task? The likelihood of someone adding the relevant info to a task after chatting about it is about as high as people using the comment feature in a task to discuss it. (So… pretty unlikely)

So we decided to make something that could do both. Something that would seamlessly combine collaboration and task management into one app.

That was the genesis of Zenchat.

We wanted to combine chat and tasks perfectly so that you’ll never have a jarring context switch that brings you out of your flow, you can keep task-related discussion connected to the task itself, and your conversations gain more direction and relevance.

How to Use Zenchat

Simply go to chat.https://zenkit.com and log in with your Zenkit account (if you’re not logged in already)!

1:1 Chats

Zenchat will already have all of the people you already collaborate with in other Zenkit products available to chat with. Simply search for their name and get chatting!

If you’re not yet connected, invite them to join Zenkit by clicking the + icon, then “Invite new user by email”.

Group Chats

From that same + menu you can create new group chats with members you’re connected with. Give the group a name, add as many members as you like, and get chatting!

Project Chats

This is where it gets interesting! Using the Zenkit Universe, you can connect any collection from Base, or any list from To Do, to a chat. Once connected, you have a group chat directly connected to your project and anyone who’s a member of the collection or list will also be a member of the chat. Tasks created in this chat will become tasks in the To Do list, or items in the Base collection.

Whenever anyone chats about or comments on tasks or items, a short summary of that will be added to the project chat so that you have a bird’s-eye view over what’s going on in your projects.

Topic Chats

Chat about any task or item. In any chat, click to open any task and start commenting on it. “Star” a task to make it appear as a separate chat in the panel to the left.

If you’re commenting on a task or item in another Zenkit product, you can choose to chat about it instead! To do so, open the item, click the … icon in the top right hand corner and choose “Open in Zenchat” (this only works if you already connected the chat to the collection or list).

Creating and viewing tasks

In all chats, any message can be turned into a task! Click the … icon on any message and choose “Convert to task”. To view the task details, simply click on the task to open it. You can even begin chatting about it from there, or click to expand and add even more detail!

A list of all tasks can be viewed from the task panel in the chat – simply click “Tasks” in the top right corner of the chat to view them. This panel can be opened as a small drop down menu or pinned as a panel to the right of your screen.

Chats are connected to To Do by default, but you can also connect them to Base. Once connected, you’ll see the option to “Open in To Do” and “Open in Base”.

What does this mean for other Zenkit products?

The great news is that with every new Zenkit product, all other products are improved. To release Zenchat, we made big improvements to the database and naturally several big changes to the comments! You’ll now see the chat in the comments section of tasks and items, and in these chat comments you can now send voice messages, attach pictures, preview links, and more!

Alongside the release of Zenchat, we’ve also updated our website to showcase the Zenkit suite and make plenty of space for all the new products coming soon!

Get started with Zenchat

You can use Zenchat on any device or platform you choose. Download the version you need here: iOS, Android, Windows, MacOS and Linux: .AppImage, .tar.gz, .deb, .rpm. Find the full list of download options here.

We hope you love using Zenchat as much as we do! Please let us know what you think in the comments below, and if you’ve given it a try we’d love to hear about your experiences!

Cheers,

Siobhan and the Zenkit Team

The post World, Meet Zenchat appeared first on Zenkit.