Allow users to edit fields in templates provided by Asana

I recently used one of the templates to create a project for my team 1:1 meetings. The template is great, but uses the words ā€˜Managerā€™ and ā€˜Reportā€™ where we would use ā€˜Team leaderā€™ and ā€˜Team memberā€™. I contacted support to see if I could edit these, but found that I couldnā€™t because it was an Asana-created template. I got round it by creating new fields and deleting the Asana-created ones, but I think it should be possible to edit the original ones. Surely a template is just that - a starting point that can be customised to suit?

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Hi @ria.blagburn and thanks for taking the time to share your feedback with us!

Youā€™re 100% right, as it stands, there is no easy way to edit these templates. However, I would recommend saving this ā€œmodified template projectā€ as a brand new template, so if you need this template in the future, you wonā€™t need to modify it again, you will be able to use your own version of the template.

Hope this helps! :slight_smile:

@Marie This does serve as a workaround, however I made the mistake of ā€œtryingā€ several Asana templates and although I deleted the template project, the custom fields linger and because they cannot be edited, they also cannot be deleted. Now I am plagued by them in my custom fields suggestions. Help!

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Hi @Russel_Fogg and thanks for reaching out! Have you tried removing these fields from your project following these steps: How to Create and Use Custom Fields in Asana | Product Guide ā€¢ Asana Product Guide?

@Marie Yes, Iā€™ve removed them from the project, but I canā€™t seem to delete them from the team or organization.

Hi @Russel_Fogg,

The option to delete the custom field is in the ā€œeditā€ feature, so you can refer to the screenshot below and this article: How to Create and Use Custom Fields in Asana | Product Guide ā€¢ Asana Product Guide

@Marie Indeed. However Asana-created fields are not able to be edited, therefore I canā€™t delete them like my own custom fields (see below). Is there another way to delete these fields from the organization?

07%20PM

Got you @Russel_Fogg,

Unfortunately these canā€™t be deleted, but Iā€™ve made note of your feedback and will definitely keep you posted as soon as I have some update on this topic!

@Marie, Thank you!

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Iā€™m a new Asana user, checking out the app, and immediately ran into this issue when trying to create my first real project from a template. Any update on this?

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Ditto, same issue, such a poor user experience

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Same - our team is new to Asana Premium, and when we try to use templates created by Asana, the fields are uneditableā€¦ we would really like to be able to edit the fields so we can customize the template for our needs!

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I echo everyoneā€™s frustrations here. This is beyond stupid that a template that I bring into my account for Asana has these ā€œcopyrightā€ conditions on it. Any template shared by Asana to be integrated into an Asana account should have full permissions to edit and remove as needed.

Itā€™s now four years later and this has yet to be addressed or resolved. This is unconscionable.

This is especially egregious because the templates as so easy to import and try out. As I am hearing from others, by trying out all these Asana-based templates it then creates all sorts of fields in your account that you cannot remove. And if some of those fields use super generic naming conventions, it then locks that as a field. Later, if you want to try making your own template with fields, it blocks you.

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December 0f 2022 and still no progress, this is is enough for me to seek another application.

Kaya Marie,
Can you please provide some additional steps on how you save as a modified template project? Your link does not seem to offer any advice.
Thanks

Dee

Because multiple people in our organization are importing templates and trying them out - we also have multiple Asana template fields with the EXACT same name and value options. These cannot be deleted. @Marie - can you please help me find a solution to the four Priority fields and five Status fields in our instance? Asana Support was not able to help.

Thanks
Nicole

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Yeah, to echo people hereā€¦ you canā€™t be serious with this.

This is an app designed to save people time, and this ā€œfeatureā€ of it means that anyone trying to use Asana in a productive, templated way, has to be sentenced to massive amounts of pointless maintenance and data entry.

I donā€™t know that Iā€™d call this a deal-breaker for me, personally, but itā€™s an absurd look and you really ought to fix this (and I mean ā€œfixā€ in earnest, since I consider this a bug)

I find this bizarre that you simply canā€™t edit a template, and itā€™s locked down. Why would someone think this would a good feature? I downloaded a template and even I copied a new project from that template I still couldnā€™t edit the template, so I have to create a new one based on thatā€¦

Hi everyone!

Iā€™m happy to announce, we just launched an update that allows you to edit custom fields added to projects via Asana-created templates :tada:

Going forward, all new custom fields will be added only to the project instead of the Organizationā€™s library, and you will be able to edit all custom fields in your new projects to your specific preferences.

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback!

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