💡 How to have a section template

[Bastien_Siebman]

Do you wish there were “section templates” in Asana?

Well, me too, but it isn’t a thing yet. Let’s find a workaround, shall we?

The idea is to use task templates to mimic a section template. Let’s say you wanted to templatize a section with 3 tasks: T1, T2, T3. You then create a task template with 3 subtasks (T1, T2, T3).

Whenever you want to create a new section from a template, go through the following:

• create an empty section
• use the task template to create a task
• open the task, multi-select the subtasks, drag-and-drop them into the section
• delete the original task

This is not that far from a section template is it? What do you think about this workaround?

Version Française

[Mike_Tammaro]

I say it works for now and I will be using that method. Hopefully, we can see some sort of update to sections soon, as they are underutilized in my opinion.

[anon56963123]

Thanks @Bastien_Siebman , any thoughts on if this could work across projects, or just within a single project? I tried:

• Creating a section head >

• Labeling a task template within it >

• Marking it as living in multiple projects

But that didn’t work for creating that same section title in the other projects…but I may be misunderstanding your suggestion, though either way like the idea of section templates!

It seems it could be just like a custom field in a way, except the custom field could be selected for section names. Two for me

[Bastien_Siebman]

I am confused by your wording. When you mention task template you mean a task used as a template which you duplicate, or a real task template?

[anon2530497]

Ugh, I really hope they add the section template feature soon, because the subtasks feature is not ideal for me at all…

[Jade_Melcher]

anyone know if this is a feature request?

[Andrea_Mayer]

Hey @Jade_Melcher, the relevant feedback request thread is here but it seems you already found it.

[DarkoDodig]

@Bastien_Siebman

n the task, multi-select the subtasks, drag-and-drop them into the section

Having Section templates would be a huge improvement in Asana and is a big limitation.
For example when we have monthly deliverables we create a section for each month in Board view (or list view either way works), and then each section would have the deliverables listed as tasks for the month. Now we have to manually create a new section and then manually duplicate all the tasks. Instead of having a Section template that we can duplicate for each new month.

[lpb]

Note: Not a solution but marked as such to elevate a key reply

@DarkoDodig, and all,

Until/if section templates are offered, this newish feature may be the easiest workaround and pretty close to the same thing:

Duplicate sections in your project!

Hi! I’m Christine, Forum Leader, Services Partner, and avid Asana users for 10 years now! I’m excited to be part of this feature announcement! Asana is introducing the capability to duplicate sections in projects! This new feature will allow you to duplicate all tasks within a section of a project and shift due dates automatically, if necessary, saving you a ton of time & work! With this new feature you can expect to be able to decide which task details to include, such as assignees, task des…

So, you could make a “model” Section named “<Month Name>” which contains all the raw, generic tasks you need each month. Keep this section collapsed in your project, perhaps as the last section, and follow the above instructions to instantiate new sections from it each month.

Thanks,

Larry

[Crystal23]

Hello, I have found a better work around for section templates. While you cannot create a section template, you can create a section, then add your task template directly to the new section you created.

1. Create your new section. I was creating a customer onboarding template as we are a contracting agency and I have a lot of new customers that I need to track, but I don’t want these new customers to have an Asana project before we have completed Contracts, Contacts, BAA’s, etc.
2. Make sure the new section you created is at the top of your sections, if you add task templates and already have multiple sections your task template will be auto populated into what ever your top section is.
3. At the top of Asana click the drop down for add new task, select the task template and it will be added to the new section you created.
4. Here is a screen shot showing the added template. You can see under section 2 Projects in the pipeline there is multiple Customer Onboarding tasks, this was because I didn’t realize the template was being added to the top section. Once I created the test section and moved it to the top, I was able to get the task template added to the correct section.

I hope this helps.

[lpb]

Welcome, @Crystal23, and thanks for posting.

In case you weren’t aware, you don’t only have to use the Add new button at the top to create your task from your task template. You can create your task directly in any section like this:

Hope that helps,

Larry

[Crystal23]

Thank you! When I was working on trying to get this task template created today that option was not showing up for me. This is great. I have only been working in Asana for a few months and really focusing on developing it out for our company this last month. I really appreciate this forum as it has been extremely helpful!

[Crystal23]

Larry,

Maybe you can help me with my next question. How do I make a task template public for my agency to use with other projects? I have discovered this one template is marked as private to me and I can not use the template with any other projects, only the project that I initially created the task template for.

Thank you,
Crystal

[lpb]

Good question! See this workaround (click the link in the post to see it):

Make Task templates available to other projects (Task templates library)

@Martin12 and others here, Until there’s a better way, perhaps this workaround will be attractive to some of you: Larry

Also, back in that original thread, click the title to scroll to the top and click Vote to vote for the feature.