Private and Hidden Tasks/Sections in Public Projects

English Forum Product Feedback
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1

It would be nice if, when adding a task that’s already in a project to another project, you had the option to hide the details and title if one of the projects is private.

The task’s title and details would be visible to people who are also in the private project, but remain hidden to those who only have access to the public project. Custom fields in the public project, as well as due date and assignee would be visible to everyone.

Background:

We use a public project to manage and prioritize tasks for a shared resource. Whenever a task from a private project is assigned to a member of the shared resource, we add it to the public project, so that everyone can see what tasks are being worked on, and in what priority (a field unique to the public project).

It would be very nice if the private tasks remained private, but still showed up in the public project, along with the custom fields for the public project. Due date and assignee would also be visible. The task’s title and details would remain hidden, however, except to those users that were also members of the private project the task is a part of.

Currently the only way to maintain the permissions we want but also give everyone visibility on the workload of the shared resource is to create duplicate tasks for each task assigned to the shared resource. The duplicate tasks are added to the public project, and the details are empty except for a link to the associated task in the private project.

When a member of the shared resource finishes a task, they need to remember to mark the linked task as complete as well. Also, whenever a task’s due date or assignee changes, it needs to be changed in the public task as well (meaning I need to link the public task in the description of the private task as well).

This process is very tedious and also prone to errors. If someone forgets to follow this process, it can lead to sensitive or confidential information getting leaked to those not approved to see it.

This has also been annoying when a task contains both non-confidential and confidential subtasks.

This is something that my organization would absolutely upgrade for.

4 Likes
2

Hi @Carlton_Lindsay and thank you so much for taking the time to share your feedback with us and for detailing why this is a pain point for you and your team! While I can’t promise when or if this will be addressed, your feedback is extremely valuable and will definitely be considered by our Team for future updates!

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We’ve been using Asana for over five years now. During this time, we realized that it would be great to have the option to create private tasks within public projects so that those tasks are seen only by their followers.

Right now we have to remove tasks from their projects if we want to make them private, which leads to some tasks getting lost. Besides, we have to create private projects for certain tasks, which can get pretty tedious. Therefore, we would really appreciate it if you could add an option to create private sections in public projects.

25 Likes
4

I voted on this.

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5

However there is already a thread Private task in public project
@moderator should we merge them?

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6

Hi @Muraveva_Yuliya, thanks for taking the time to share this feedback with us!

I’ve gone ahead and sent this request to our team in charge of the Voice of the Customer Program so it can be considered in future updates. As @Bastien_Siebman mentioned, we also have an existing thread about this topic, I’ve gone ahead and merged your feedback with the main thread to centralize feedback.

Thanks again for sharing this and let me know if you have any questions!

7

Can you create a private task within a public project?

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8

It’s not possible to create a private task within a public project, because everyone that has access to the project has access to all tasks within the project. You can, of course, always create private tasks within your My Tasks list. Read more about project permissions here.

9

This would be very helpful in large projects, will creating permissions in a public project a feature in the future?

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10

This would be a very helpful feature! We have various big projects, which need to be public to our team, but some tasks should be followed by certain team members only.

2 Likes
11

I concur. Our company has adopted broadly and includes many power users. The desire for transparency and ability to create clarity firmwide such as through sharing of goals (including at the senior level) is very desirable but it can be tedious to have to separate the small handful of tasks/items that may be a little sensitive or confidential and park them somewhere else.

1 Like
12

This would be very helpful for my organization.

We use a public project to manage and prioritize tasks for a shared resource. Whenever a task from a private project is assigned to a member of the shared resource, we add it to the public project, so that everyone can see what tasks are being worked on, and in what priority (a field unique to the public project).

It would be very nice if the private tasks remained private, but still showed up in the public project, along with the custom fields for the public project. Due date and assignee would also be visible. The task’s title and details would remain hidden, however, except to those users that were also members of the private project the task is a part of.

Currently the only way to maintain the permissions we want but also give everyone visibility on the workload of the shared resource is to create duplicate tasks for each task assigned to the shared resource. The duplicate tasks are added to the public project, and the details are empty except for a link to the associated task in the private project.

When a member of the shared resource finishes a task, they need to remember to mark the linked task as complete as well. Also, whenever a task’s due date or assignee changes, it needs to be changed in the public task as well (meaning I need to link the public task in the description of the private task as well).

This process is very tedious and also prone to errors. If someone forgets to follow this process, it can lead to sensitive or confidential information getting leaked to those not approved to see it.

This has also been annoying when a task contains both non-confidential and confidential subtasks.

It would be nice if, when adding a task that’s already in a project to another project, you had the option to hide the details and title if one of the projects is private.

6 Likes
13

Just in case it might help those who were not aware, in a (semi) public task, you can @reference (in the task’s Description) another task that’s housed in a private project. That link will appear as Private Link to those without access to the task/private project. This can provide a solution to some use cases without duplicating any information (other than the @reference itself).

Larry

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14

Great workaround! Thanks, that was what I need it

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15

Still waiting for a solution to this. Seems easy to me and this workaround doesn’t work for everyone.

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16

More and more often we share our projectboards with our clients for the duration of the project (mostly webdevelopment). Currently we use two projects for this; an internal board to store all important information (passwords etc) for that project and an external board so a client can track progress and provide feedback. It would be great if those boards could be merged, but the sections for internal use could be private. Or am I missing something and is there a better way to accomplish this?

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Hi @Levi_NL, thanks for sharing your feedback with us! As it stands, it’s currently not possible to create private sections or tasks in a project where more members have access. We already have a thread on this topic so I’ve gone ahead and merged your post with the main thread to centralize feedback. You can also have a look at the workaround shared in this comment!

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18

This would be really handy to help manage meeting agendas. I’d love to combine 1:1 agendas under a singular board, along with our team meeting agenda, with the ability to make sections private.

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19

We’d also be very keen to have this! The work around suggested below just won’t work for us.

20

I have a content calendar board that 50 people have access to but they only need to see 1 section. They collaborate with me in that section so I leave that section at the top for them, but I’d like to be able to move that section to be in the correct place in the list (for my organization). There should be a way to hide the rest of the sections from those users and only be visible to me.

1 Like