Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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This page answers frequently asked questions about Simprove Workity. If your questions were not answered sufficient, please use our contact form, so we can help you.

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Table of Contents [Hide/Show]

General questions
    What is Workity?
    Why should I use Workity?
    Where do I register?
    Why should I upgrade to a Premium membership?
    How do I become a Premium member?
    What is SSL?
    Where is my data hosted? Will they be backuped? Are they safe?
    Is it possible to install Workity on our own server?
    Is there a phone support?
    Is it possible to customize Workity?
    Which languages are supported?
    Are there limitations in connection with supported browers, operating systems and screen resolutions?
    Where is the difference to Outlook and Project?
    Why is it not possible to subscribe RSS feeds?
    Why is it not possible to export appointments using the iCalendar format?
Working with Workity and projects
    How does Simprove define a project?
    What are the major elments of Workity?
    What is a keyword (tag)?
    What is the meaning of the different colored labels of a Workity item?
    When and why do I have to reload my dashboard?
    I’m new with Workity and have been invited to a project. What are the next steps?
    How do I manage ,who can read or modify project related content?
    Who is the project owner?
    How do I rename a project?
    How do I delete a project?
    How can I assign the project ownership to another team member?
    How can I invite a person, which is not yet present on my dashboard, to a project?
    How can I invite persons, which are already present on my dashboard, to a project?
    How can I cancel a project membership?
    How can I cancel the project membership for another team member?
    How can I see, which persons are members of which projects?
    It is possible to manage private to-do-lists?
    Why can I not select any items, if more than one project is selected?
    How can I send an email to a person?
    Can I use different email addresses for different projects?
    Why do I have to select a project if I want to send an email to a person?
    Why changes the action list dynamically?
    Why are sometimes keywords missing, after I reloaded my dashboard?
    Why should I logout when I want to leave Workity?
Working with items (tasks, notes, files)
   How can I create a new task?
    How can I create a new note?
    How can I upload a new file?
    Can I manage different file versions?
    How can I assign persons and keywords to items?
    How can I remove persons and keywords from items?
    How can I assign priorities to tasks?
    How can I manage contact information?
    Why can I not delete items, which are assigned to other persons?
    What is the trashcan rule?
    How can I export content of my projects?
    How can I archive a project?
Search for items (tasks, notes, files)
    What search options are offered by Workity?
    What means the quick search action "What do I have to do today?"
    What means the quick search action "What’s new?"
    How can I find items of specific projects or tagged with specific persons or keywords?
    How do I use the full-text search?
    How do I use the advanced search options?
    Do I have to select projects to search for associated items?
    How can I search for all files, which have been uploaded by a specific person?
    How can I get a calendar view of tasks and appointments?
Personal settings
    What can I change?
    How can I delete my account?

General questions

What is Workity?

Workity is the web-based collaboration solution for personal information management and distributed teams, dealing with multiple projects including all tasks, notes and files.

For further information see the video-tutorial, available at info.workity.com.

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Why should I use Workity?

Workity can be used for professional projects as well as private stuff. It doesn´t matter if you have to deal with long-term IT projects, write scientific papers, organize class reunions, or have to plan a wedding. Workity can be used efficiently for all those and related use cases.

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Where do I register?

The registration form can be found at www.workity.com/register.aspx.

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Why should I upgrade to a Premium membership?

A Premium membership offers:

file upload for sharing (How can I upload a new file?)
sending emails to team members (How can I send an email to a person?)
calendar views (How can I get a calendar view of tasks and appointments?)
secure SSL connectionand (What is SSL?)
ad-free dashboard
guaranteed 24 hour support via email

How do I become a Premium member?

open your personal settings (in the upper-right corner of your dashboard)
select "Premium membership" in the category "Account settings"
click on the PayPal-button, depending on the desired Premium duration (6 or 12 months)

What is SSL?

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a encryption-protocol for secure data transfer via the web which we provide for Premium mebers. For further information see Wikipedia.

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Where is my data hosted? Will they be backuped? Are they safe?

Your data are backuped on a daily basis. Our web-hosting partner is the company 1&1 from Montabaur, Germany. There are regular security checks, done by independent experts.

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Is it possible to install Workity on our own server?

Sorry, no. Our products are only available as hosted solutions, so care about backup, administration, security, updates, and maintenance of the systems.

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Is there a phone support?

Sorry, no. We offer unlimited support via email. Just use the contact form. Every support request will be answered by trained staff.

For Premium members we guarantee a response within 24 hours.

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Is it possible to customize Workity?

Everybody is using the same version of Workity. Because of the innovative one-page technology no individual or project-specific changes are necessary.

Within your "Personal settings" you can change your avatar picture, full name, and password.

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Which languages are supported?

Workity is available in English and German language. The language selection will be done automatically, based on your preferred browser-language.

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Are there limitations in connection with supported browers, operating systems and screen resolutions?

We try to optimize Workity for all common used browsers, operating systems and screen resolutions.

The following browsers are supported:

Internet Explorer version 7 or higher
Mozilla Firefox version 1.5 or higher (version 2.0 or higher recommended)
Apple Safari version 3.0 or higher
Netscape version 9 or higher
Opera version 9 or higher
Mozilla Camino version 1.5 or higher
Flock version 1.0 or higher
Google Chrome version 1.0 or higher

Where is the difference to Outlook and Project?

Workity does not attempt to copy Outlook, Project, or other well known solutions. In contrast, the platform is a new paradigm in web-based collaboration and supports our method of Social Project Management (SPM).

Workity addresses especially projects, whose members connect and collaborate through the WWW, like startups, freelancers and researchers. For those user groups it would be too complex and expensive to setup, maintain, backup and secure an Exchange or Project server. They just want to focus on their work using a flexible SaaS solution.

Not just in those aspects but also in the functional matter, Workity goes further than existing solutions. Providing an innovative tagging concept, it enables an easy way to manage and retrieve project information. Furthermore, in opposition to Outlook, also tasks can be displayed using the dynamic calendar view.

In the first place, Outlook is an e-mail client. According to our experiences in every day project work, collaboration is mainly based on e-mail communication. Tasks are submitted in an unstructured way and have to be organized locally by each recipient. The same effort takes place for keeping project information up-to-date. This is against our philosophy of Social Project Management supported by Workity.

Using Workity, the amount of emails within our projects could be reduced by 40%. Additionally, the amount of data stored could be reduced by 30%.

Refering to MS Project, we accompany with David Allen from Getting Things Done: "I´ve discovered that the biggest improvement opportunity in planning does not consist of techniques for the highly elaborate and complex kinds of project organization that professional project managers sometimes use (like GANTT charts). [...] For the most part, the applications that are specifically designed for project organizing are way too complex, with too much horsepower to really be functional for 98% of what most people need to manage. They´re appropriate only for the very small percentage of the professional world that actually needs them. [...] When they (project management tools) are used successfully, they´re usually highly customized to fit very specific requirements for the company or the industry."

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Why is it not possible to subscribe RSS feeds?

To ensure a full protection of your project data for unauthorized access, Workity does currently not support RSS feeds.

Basically, RSS feeds are provided for public information, for instance published by weblogs or news services through the World Wide Web. Project data, in form of tasks, notes or files are in general protected information, which can only be accessed and modified by the according project members. At the moment, there is no RSS standard supporting secure transfer of private information. In consequence, your project data could only be accessed using public RSS feed URLs. But this cannot ensure, that your data are kept private, because public RSS feed URLs can easily be used and modified by unauthorized persons or the associated content can be detected by search engines. Although, there are existing approaches to protect RSS feeds, but those solutions do not work in connection with web-based feedreaders (e.g. Google-Reader, NewsGator, etc.).

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Why is it not possible to export appointments using the iCalendar format?

To ensure a full protection of your project data for unauthorized access, Workity does currently not support iCalendar export.

Similar to the problems in connection with RSS feeds (Why is it not possible to subscribe RSS feeds?) calendar information can only be imported by other applications, if those data are provided in iCalendar format by public URLs. But this cannot ensure, that your data are kept private, because public iCal URLs can easily be used and modified by unauthorized persons or the associated content can be detected by search engines.

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Working with Workity and projects

How does Simprove define a project?

In contrast to the classic definition of a project (ISO) we follow the statement of David Allen’s Getting Things Done: "... define a project as any outcome you´re committed to achieving that will take more than one action step to complete."

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What are the major elments of Workity?

projects
persons, related to those projects
important keywords, also known as tags (What is a keyword (tag)?)
project-content in form of tasks, notes and files

Tasks, notes and files can be tagged with persons and keywords. In doing so, personal responsibilities can be assigned and project content can be structured.

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What is a keyword (tag)?

A keyword is a meta-information, assigned to items (tasks, notes, files) in order to structure content and to enable fast information retrieval.

Except for whitespace characters (e.g. spaces, tabs, etc.), any words or other character-strings with a maximum length of 20 characters can be used as keywords.

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What is the meaning of the different colored labels of a Workity item?

The lower line of every item shows the associated project (purple), the assigned persons (blue) and the used keywords (green). Additionally, the name and the time-stamp of the last modification is displayed (grey, italic).

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When and why do I have to reload my dashboard?

Reloading your dashboard updates the lists of your projects, persons and keywords. You are notified to reload your dashboard when:

a project invitation has been accepted
a search requests includes items with unknown keywords or persons
a project membership has been canceled
a project has been deleted

I’m new with Workity and have been invited to a project. What are the next steps?

go to www.workity.com and login using the received login information
select the project you have been invited to (the project name is shown italic) on your personal dashboard
depending, if you want to join the project, choose either the "Accept membership" or "Reject membership" project action

How do I manage ,who can read or modify project related content?

On purpose, Workity has no functionality to define access rules. Within a specific project, all members are able to read and modify all content (tasks, notes, files). According to this, a project should only include information, relevant to all project members. If some persons should not be able to read or modify specific content, then manage those information in a different project.

To manage your private tasks, notes and files, we suggest, that every user should create a project named "Private", without inviting other project members to this project.

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Who is the project owner?

As long as the project ownership has not been assigned to another team member, the person who created a project is the initial owner.

Only the project owner can perform the following actions:

rename project (How do I rename a project?)
delete project (How do I delete a project?)
cancel project membership of another project member (How can I cancel the project membership for another team member?)
assign project ownership to another project member (How can I assign the project ownership to another team member?)

How do I rename a project?

select the project
choose "Rename project" within the "Project actions"
enter the new project name in the dialog

Only the project owner can rename a project (Who is the project owner?).

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How do I delete a project?

select the project
choose "Delete project" within the "Project actions"
enter the project name in the dialog

Only the project owner can delete a project, if there are no more tasks, notes, and files existing (Who is the project owner?).

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How can I assign the project ownership to another team member?

select project
select the person, you want to assign the project ownership to
choose "Assign ownership to selected person" within the "Project actions"

Only the project owner can assign the ownership to another team member (Who is the project owner?).

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How can I invite a person, which is not yet present on my dashboard, to a project?

select project
choose "Invite new menber" within the "Project actions"
within the invitation dialog, enter the valid user-email-address of the new team member and optionally an invitation message

You can also invite a person, which has not yet a Workity account. To do so, enable the check box "Automatically create a new Workity account with the given email address if no such user exists" in the invitation dialog.

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How can I invite persons, which are already present on my dashboard, to a project?

select persons
choose "Invite selected persons to another project" within the "Project actions"
select the project within the invitation dialog and optionally enter an invitation message

How can I cancel a project membership?

select project
choose "Cancel project membership" within the "Project actions"

You can only cancel a project membership, if this project doesn’t contain any files, uploaded by you (How can I search for all files, which have been uploaded by a specific person?).

You can only cancel a project membership, if you are not the owner of this project (Who is the project owner?).

If you are the owner of a project and want to cancel the membership for this project, first assign the ownership to another team member (How can I assign the project ownership to another team member?).

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How can I cancel the project membership for another team member?

select project
select the person for which the project membership should be canceled
choose "Cancel project membership of selected person" within the "Project actions"

Only the project owner can cancel the membership for another team member (Who is the project owner?).

The project membership can only be canceled for a team member, if this project doesn’t contain any files, uploaded by this person (How can I search for all files, which have been uploaded by a specific person?).

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How can I see, which persons are members of which projects?

If you select a specific project, all persons stay enabled, which are members of this project.

In opposition, if you select a specific person, all projects stay enabled, this person is a member of.

If you select a specific project, all keywords, used within this project, stay underlined. In opposition, if you select a specific keyword, all projects, this keyword is used, stay underlined.

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It is possible to manage private to-do-lists?

Of course. Just create a project named "Private" and don’t invite any other persons to this project. In doing so, all items (tasks, notes, files) of this project can only be read and modified by you.

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Why can I not select any items, if more than one project is selected?

If you select a project, all items (tasks, notes, files) which are not related to this project are disabled. Since an item can only be related to one project, all items are disabled, if more than one project is selected. Therefore, an item can only be selected, if no or just the related project is selected.

Simply use the "Reset selection" action to reset your current selection and to enable all items.

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How can I send an email to a person?

select project
select persons
choose "Send email to selected persons" within the "Project actions"
enter the email subject and the message in the email dialog

This function is only available for Premium members (How do I become a Premium member?).

Simply use the "Select all persons" action, if you want to send an email to the entire project team.

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Can I use different email addresses for different projects?

Of course. You can define a different contact email address for each of your projects.If you create a new project or accept a project invitation, your user email address is used as the default contact for this project.

With the following steps you can change the contact email address for a specific project:

select project
choose "Change contact email address" in the "Project actions"
enter a new contact email address in the dialog

Why do I have to select a project if I want to send an email to a person?

In Workity, a user can define a different contact email address for each of its projects. (Can I use different email addresses for different projects?) Therefore, it is necessary to select a person and a related project to determine the contact email address, which should be used to send an email to this person.

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Why changes the action list dynamically?

The action list always offers just the actions, which are usable in connection with the current selection of projects, persons, keywords and items (tasks, notes, files). In doing so, error messages in connection with invalid actions can be avoided.

Simply use the "Reset selection" action to reset your current selection of projects, persons, keywords and items with just one click.

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Why are sometimes keywords missing, after I reloaded my dashboard?

To keep your list of keywords short and meaningful, only keywords are shown, which are assigned to at least one task, note or file. If you add a new keyword and don’t use it, this keyword will not be displayed again, after you reloaded your dashboard.

If you want to display certain keywords permanently on your dashboard, independent if those keywords are really assigned to any items, just assign them to a place-holder note of your private project.

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Why should I logout when I want to leave Workity?

While you are working with Workity, your server requests are identified by a so called session ID. This session ID is created after you have successfully logged in. When you logout, this session ID will be deleted. In doing so, no other user of your computer (e.g. in an Internet café) can use your session ID to access your personal data.

For safety of your personal data, you should always click on Logout in the upper right corner of your dashboard when you want to leave Workity.

After 1 hour of idle time your current session ID automatically becomes invalid and you will have to login again.

For further information about session IDs see Wikipedia.

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Working with items (tasks, notes, files)

How can I create a new task?

select project
select persons and keywords the task should be tagged with (optional)
choose "Add new task" in the "Project action"
insert content (title, due date, details)
save the task

If you create a new task without selecting any persons, this task will automatically be assigned to you.

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How can I create a new note?

select project
select persons and keywords the note should be tagged with (optional)
choose "Add new note" in the "Project action"
insert content (title, details)
save the note

If you create a new note without selecting any persons, this note will automatically be tagged with your name.

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How can I upload a new file?

select project
select persons and keywords the file should be tagged with (optional)
choose "Upload new file" in the "Project action"
select the file in the upload dialog

This function is only available for Premium members (How do I become a Premium member?).

The maximum file size is limited to 10 MB.

The upload time-frame is limited to 10 minutes. Afterwards an unfinished upload will be canceled.

Files with identical names within the same project will not be overwritten.

If you upload a new file without selecting any persons, this file will automatically be tagged you’re your name.

After a file has been successfully uploaded, the associated file item is shown on your dashboard an you can enter additional details.

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Can I manage different file versions?

Of course. Just use appropriate keywords (e.g. Version1, Version2, etc.) to manage different file versions. Alternatively, you can enter version information in the details of the file items (e.g. v1.1, v1.2).

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How can I assign persons and keywords to items?

select items (tasks, notes, files)
select persons and keywords
choose the "Assign selected persons and keywords" in the "Item actions"

If you want to use a keyword, which is not yet present on your dashboard, first add this keyword using the "Create new keyword" action.

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How can I remove persons and keywords from items?

select items (tasks, notes, files)
select persons and keywords
choose the "Remove selected persons and keywords" in the "Item actions"

How can I assign priorities to tasks?

Beside the general due date, tasks can be additionally prioritized using appropriate keywords (e.g. high, severe, etc). Using such keywords, you can easily search for all important tasks of all of your projects. According to the given project syntax, you can choose any keywords to define priority levels (e.g. Prio1, Prio2 or low, normal, high).

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How can I manage contact information?

Create a new note item and tag it with “contact”. Of course you can choose any similar keywords to express a contact information (e.g. address, etc). Using such keywords, you can easily search for all contact information of your team members.

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Why can I not delete items, which are assigned to other persons?

This limitation prevents deletion of items (tasks, notes, files) that may be still relevant for other team members. According to this, a specific user can only delete items, which are only tagged with its name or are assigned to no person at all.

If you want to delete an item, which is still tagged with other persons, then we suggest to use the so called "trashcan rule" (What is the trashcan rule?).

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What is the trashcan rule?

The trashcan rule is a recommended approach to delete items, which are tagged with more than one person and ensures, that all persons, who are related to a specific item, are notified about the intention to delete this item. Therefore, this rule should be followed to avoid deletion of tasks, notes or files, whose content may be still relevant for other team members.

If you want to delete an item (task, note, file), which is also tagged with other persons, you should simply tag this item with a keyword like "trashcan" and remove yourself from the list of assigned persons. In doing so, all other involved persons recognize your intention to delete this item and if they agree with you, they can also remove themselves from the list of assigned persons. In the end, when a "trashcan" item is only tagged with one person, this person can finally delete the item.

Example: Lenny and Carl created a guest list for their collective birthday party. This note item is tagged with "Lenny" and "Carl" as well as the keyword "guests". The guest list includes the names and email addresses of all persons, Lenny and Carl want to invite for the party. After the birthday party, Carl wants to delete the guest list item. But since the guest list has also been created by Lenny, Carl just removes himself from the item and additionally he tags this note with the keyword "trashcan". Now Lenny is notified about Carl's intention to delete the guest list. But Lenny still needs some information from this item, because he wants to send an email with the party pictures to the guests, who really showed up at the party. Therefore, Lenny deletes the guest list not till he also doesn't needs the information any longer.

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How can I export content of my projects?

select tasks, notes or files you want to export
choose "Export selected items as HTML file" in the "Item actions"

The HTML export of file items doesn't include the actual file content. Files can only be saved locally by downloading each file one by one.

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How can I archive a project?

To archive a project, all content can be saved locally by performing the following steps:

select project
choose the quick search action "Show items"
choose "Select all items" in the "Selection actions"
export the selected items as a single HTML file (How can I export content of my projects?)
download all files

Search for items (tasks, notes, files)

What search options are offered by Workity?

There 3 major search options available to find specific project content:

Full-text search: always available at the top of your dashboard
Quick search actions: provide frequently used search actions
Advanced search: provides additional search options

What means the quick search action "What do I have to do today?"

This search option shows all unfinished tasks from all your projects, which are either due today or overdue and are tagged with your person.

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What means the quick search action "What’s new?"

This search option shows all items (tasks, notes, files) from all your projects , which have been modified by another person since the last call of this action and which are tagged with your person.

Using this search action, you can get a fast overview, what has changed in your projects.

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How can I find items of specific projects or tagged with specific persons or keywords?

Simply select on your dashboard what you are looking for (projects, persons, keywords) and choose the "Show items" search action.

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How do I use the full-text search?

You can enter search strings like in your favorite internet search engine (e.g. Google).

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How do I use the advanced search options?

Simply select on your dashboard what you are looking for (projects, persons, keywords) and extend your search query using the filter options given by the advanced search form. For instance, you can differ between finished and unfinished tasks or select a specific due date.

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Do I have to select projects to search for associated items?

No. It is also possible to simply select persons and/or keywords to search for assigned items.

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How can I search for all files, which have been uploaded by a specific person?

select project
select person
choose the "Show files uploaded by the selected person" quick search action

You can also search for files of multiple projects, which have been uploaded by a specific person. In doing so, first select the person and afterwards select the projects related to this person.

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How can I get a calendar view of tasks and appointments?

Depending on their due date, unfinished tasks can be shown in a calendar view.

Like using the quick search actions for items, all common filter options in connection with projects, persons and keywords are also supported by the calendar view.

For instance, If you want to show all tasks of the current month in a calendar view, you just have to select your name and choose the "Show tasks in calendar" action.

If you want to show all unfinished tasks of a specific project, which are due in December and tagged with "appointment", follow these steps:

select project
select keyword "appointment"
select "December" in the "Task calendar" category
choose the "Show tasks in calendar" action

This function is only available for Premium members (How do I become a Premium member?).

You can show multiple calendar views on your dashboard.

If you click on a specific calendar entry, the complete task item will be shown.

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Personal settings

What can I change?

Full name
Avatar picture
Password

How can I delete my account?

go to your personal settings (upper right corner of your dashboard)
choose "Delete account" in the "Account settings" category

You can only delete your account, if you are not an active member of any project. According to this, you have to cancel all your project memberships first (How can I cancel a project membership?).

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