Note: since this post, Asana has actually reinstated the ‘Status Preview’ which can be enabled from the Portfolio’s Customize button. However, the below workaround allows for a scrollable text field to be displayed in the the Portfolio’s list view, instead of the clickable Status Preview field which opens the status update modal.
The recent update to Portfolios is great and I can see where Asana is going with this. But it seems not everyone is loving the change - particularly due to the fact that the status update headings are no longer visible.
But let’s be real; at most, we used to be able to see about 5-8 words, essentially a short line from the status’ heading which was usually truncated, as per the below historical evidence, in the old ‘Status’ column:
However, this was still incredibly useful for reviewing all project statuses at a glance. So if you are looking to get this back, I’d like to share the below simple workaround (until/if Asana provide something better, which you can help by adding your vote here).
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In your portfolio, click on the + icon to add a new column:
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In the ‘Add field’ modal, select a Text field type and call it ‘High-level summary’ or ‘High-level status’ or ‘Short heading’ or whatever makes sense to you. Also, check the first box below to add this text field to your field library so you can quickly re-use it by adding it to all your other portfolios.
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Now you have a text field available to add that status heading you were missing!
Feel free to move this text column anywhere you want within the portfolio’s list view. In the above example, I’ve placed it on the far right so you can have a really wide column and scroll to the right if you want to read more, but it depends on how many other fields you have in your portfolio.
Now, you and the project owners can either fill out your high-level summary text fields directly in the portfolio’s list view so that the next time the owner posts a status update, they should see the new ‘High-level summary’ text field available in the post editor:
If it’s not available, click on the ‘Show or hide fields’ to enable it for all future posts.
And the great thing is that your high level summary will be captured in all past status update posts, so even when it changes, you can overwrite the high-level summary in the Portfolio’s list view, so that you always have the latest one visible, without losing the past ones.
I understand this workaround will essentially make the status update’s actual heading a bit redundant, but you could set an internal convention in place to either leave it as default (Status update - DD Mmm) or ask everyone to copy>paste their heading into the new high-level summary text field.
Bonus tip: if you are all missing the ‘Team’ name and ‘Overdue tasks’ counter which used to appear in the old portfolio layout, simply click on the Customize menu to enable them!
Hope this helps!
See all of my top tips & tricks on my website.
