I just added custom fields to our projects, but they’re hidden/collapsed by default when viewed within subtasks.
How can we set these custom fields to always display so that our users don’t need to click “Show more fields” every time?
The main task doesn’t hide/collapse these custom fields by default… which is exactly what we want in subtasks so our users don’t need to do this extra click.
Also, if we could collapse/hide these custom fields in the top level task that would be great (like how they’re collapsed in the subtasks)!
Hi @Paul_Curtin, welcome to the Asana community forum! It’s currently not possible to display all custom fields in subtasks by default. I’ve gone ahead and moved your thread to the #productfeedback category to allow other users to vote for this request as well!
The pickle here is that half of of the community wants it to be closed by default we had the debate somewhere else and I am not sure Asana will introduce some global settings to choose…
Yeah, if we could just have the option in account settings somewhere to expand/collapse this custom area it would be perfect!
In our case we’re now displaying custom dropdowns for users who don’t need it in top level tasks, and then hiding dropdowns from users who need to use them nonstop in subtasks… which is keeping us from using it at all right now.
This would be a huge help to have the option to expand them by default. We use custom fields heavily along with having subtasks on milestones to track the individual work items. It’s a pain to have to click expand for every single subtask.
It’s also annoying to have to expand them for tasks in the redesign of the my tasks view that brought it up to the same spreadsheet view. When users are assigned a task or subtask, they’re not necessarily caring what type of task it is–they just need to see it in their my tasks list and see the custom fields they need to work with.
Agree with the OP here. We built an API App connection from our website that generates a Task as the main order info and each product as a Subtask, so if the customer orders 10 products that generates a LOT of clicking for our employees to open each product (subtask) and view the details. Would be super cool to set a default to keep these open.
My organization also heavily uses custom fields, so having a global account setting and a per user override setting would be extremely helpful to ensure the custom fields are being used, reviewed, and updated. Please build this, thank you!
Welcome to the Asana Community Forum, @Project_Manager2! As it stands, it’s currently not possible to expand all fields in a subtask by default. We already have a thread on this topic so I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with Expand "Show inherited fields" Custom Field Option by Default in Subtasks to consolidate feedback. We will post an update if we have plans to implement this option in the future!
Same @Adrian_Macartney - can’t believe this is still an issue 2 years later!
My organization also heavily uses custom fields, so having a global account setting and a per user override setting would be extremely helpful to ensure the custom fields are being used, reviewed, and updated. Please build this, thank you!
This is an interesting trick, but it doesn’t solve the original problem for two reasons
The person who has the task assigned to them (who will be the primary person viewing the task) still sees all fields expanded by default – which adds unwanted clutter and bumps other more important fields/info down until they manually hide this custom section each time they view the task
In order to have the subtask custom field area expanded by default, it must be assigned to an individual person – which means that if you don’t already assign individual subtasks (which we don’t) then this adds an extra step to each subtask and even more steps for everyone involved
Crazy that 2 years later and we still can’t set which fields display on Tasks and which display only on Subtasks in Asana.
I’ve started to use Asana for managing a small team. Since I want to reduce the number of main tasks, I add the related tasks as subtasks. Mostly, I prefer to use the list view for checking tasks. It gives me a very clean view of my tasks and subtasks. Also, I can see my custom fields in the list view and update their status from there; however, if I want to make some changes to subtasks from the subtasks detail panel, custom fields aren’t visible. Asana always collapses custom fields, and I need to click the “Show Inherited fields” link.
There is no setting to change this to “Always visible.” Can you add an option “Show custom fields as always visible on subtasks” under the display tab on the settings panel?
As you can imagine, the Product team is well aware of the possibility to add a setting, but I believe (this is my personal opinion) they purposefully almost never add settings. They probably want to keep the tool easy to use, and don’t turn into an SAP with tons of settings.
Thanks for your reply, Bastien. I think the same way as you, but there is prioritization in UX. If you’re losing functionality, you need to stop minimalism there. Otherwise, it could collapse all sub-items (assignee, due date, etc.) and expand them all with a button to keep them more minimal. Probably, they didn’t see custom items as crucial at first, but they are. Not mostly, but as you can see, some people need it. They may not need to change the default view but must put a setting to adjust it.
we had the debate somewhere else and I am not sure Asana will introduce some global settings to choose…
