Adding a task template to a new project

Hello, I feel very stupid but, I created a bunch of tasks and turned them into templates. I go to customize → task templates → edit and then attempt to add it to a new project.

However, it is not showing up in the new project. Is that not how you add it? Am I doing it wrong? On their docs it just says that from edit you CAN add it to another project, but doesn’t show how.

This is the page I’m looking at: How to use task templates in Asana. • Asana Product Guide

The task templates are not showing up on any projects, nor will the projects I thought I had added it to display the templates in the “add task” dropdown. What am I doing wrong?

Ok so this is part two of my question. I can open the task and add it to a new project from there, but then when I convert the template into a task, it edits the original task template, too? How is this supposed to work?

Welcome, @anon95662457,

I’ll try to explain briefly how it works, but it might clear up confusion if you describe what your ultimate goal is for the these task templates.

A task template will live in a single project where you create it. There are two ways to create it:

  1. From the Customize menu, or
  2. By one time converting an existing task to a task template which you can then edit with Customize (the old task itself is marked closed and you should no longer use it)

With a task template, you can create new tasks based on it from the Add task button menu. You can edit the template from the Customize menu.

If in the task template, you specify the task to be added to another project, then it will appear in both the current project and another.

Once a task is created from a task template, it no longer has any association to the task template.

Although unintuitive, sometimes people think they need a task template but can use a rule instead (which is available to Business and Enterprise plans).

Hope that helps,

Larry

Hello Larry, thank you for answering. I believe we have Biz/Ent plan, at least we have a paid plan for sure.

Here is my very simple goal! I run all our events. We have to use Asana. I have created several different task templates for events. Some will need all the templates, some small events will only need 1 or 2 of the templates.

Each time I add a new event to a project, I want to be able to see the full menu of templates on that project so I can add different task templates to each section.

Currently this seems impossible. When I try to add a task template to a new project, it does NOT show up in the “customize” menu. That is the main issue I am confused about. How do I get a task template to show up in the customize menu ON A NEW PROJECT without changing the original?

If I cannot do this, this is a completely useless feature if it can only live in ONE project and any edits on other projects change the original template??? I don’t get it.

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By the way I would like to add, when you say “If in the task template, you specify the task to be added to another project, then it will appear in both the current project and another.”

This is the behavior I am NOT SEEING. I go to customize → edit → and add the task template to another project.

Am I supposed to SEE the same task template in the NEW project? And then be able to add it and edit it? Because I am NOT seeing this behavior on both desktop app and mobile.

@anon95662457,

It’s hard to explain here async and without screen share how the feature works, and how other Asana features like multi-homing would help you, and ensure task templates are the right way to go for your needs (as opposed to project templates). I’m available inexpensively for a one-hour JumpStart:

if that’s of interest. Otherwise there are great Asana docs and perhaps others may weigh in here.

Thanks,

Larry

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