Reorder tags on a task?

I have several groups working on one task. I have subtasks and tags for each group, which works wonderfully. However, it would be great if we could use the calendar more efficiently by being better able to control the tags (so that the “primary” tag color shows on the calendar).

I cannot find any rhyme or reason to the sequence of the tags. Is there any way to assign a “primary” tag, so that it’s highlight color is what shows up on the calendar? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

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Hi Carly! It sounds like custom fields would actually be a good option for you instead of tags. Each custom field appears in the order that it was created - in other words, as they appear in the “manage custom fields list.” Take a look at this detailed Guide article for how tos. Do you think custom fields provide you the solution you need?

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Hi Alexis. Thanks for your note.

I cannot be sure without being able to play with it, but it does not appear like this would solve my issue. What I would like to do is be able to set the hierarchy of tags so that when they are in the calendar view, I can quickly see what is coming up in a more fully comprehensive manner.

For example… There are five tags with different color highlights: ALL(green), A (pink), B (blue), C (orange), and D (purple). I might want ALL have the highest standing, D to have the second highest, and so on for A, B, and C. If I tag a task with ALL, A, B, and C, it would then show up in the calendar view highlighted in green. If I then tag another task with A, B, and D, it would show up in the calendar view highlighted in purple. Does this clarify things?

Is the same true with tags as you mention for custom fields - the hierarchy is creation date? If so, is there any way to change that?

Thanks again.
Carly

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I think I am having the same issue, but with a different application. I also would like to set a hierarchy to make the calendar view more efficient. Right now it’s totally random what color is applied to the task in calendar.

Hi all,

We are using tags for asana to maintain a general project overview. Each project is high level monitored on Quality, Planning and Budget and we created tags for those three items. The tags should be in that fixed order (Q, P & B) but can have different/changing colors per project (red is behind, green on target and orange at risk). In most instances this fixed order (Q, P &B) works fine, but in some instances though, Asana keeps changing/over rulling the order by putting Planning before Quality. Even when I delete all the tags and start tagging ’ clean’ it keeps on overrulling (not doing what I want it to do). Any thoughts or user experience is very welcome! Thank you so much, Carmen

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When the order is being overruled, are there additional tags? Is the task multi-homed to more than one project?

No, there are no additional tags… But the task is multi-homed (e.g. the task is assigned to three different boards). I have tried to change the tags in the right order on the three different boards but Asana keeps on overwriting me.
Thank you!

Hi @carmen - At this time there isn’t any way to customize the order of tags. You can find more discussion about this and suggested alternatives in the following thread:

I’m going to take the liberty of merging these two threads because they’re covering the same topic.

Hi Alexis! I’m the Managing Editor for C2 Montréal and our company started using Asana not long ago. I find this tool amazing, but I also can’t figure out the rhyme or reason to the sequence of the tags… which causes a lot of confusion for the calendar view (an essential overview tool for planning). And no, custom fields doesn’t do it for me. I really need to be able to order the colour tags. Is it something that Asana intend to fix soon?

Hi @jenny - I don’t believe there are plans to reorder the color of tags. Feel free to add your suggestion to the #productfeedback category, though! As for getting a better handle on tags - let’s see what we can do! I suggest that you start by taking a look at this Guide article on tags. From there, you might want to search for conversations about tags in the Community. Let us know if you have follow up questions :slight_smile:

Can you address why the order of the tags changes without any rhyme or reason? On one board it seems like it is just one combination of two tags that even though I enter them #1 and #2, after the task is saved #2 appears before #1. This seems like a bug.

Hi Jody - I’m unable to speak to the specific why from the developer perspective, but I believe it has to do with speed economy (keeping Asana fast) and/or back end complexity (the structure of the code).

@Carly_Marchioni - This is annoying for my firm as well. We moved from Trello to Asana and tags maintained the order entered there. I just put a request in on the product feedback board. Would love for you to add your input there also. Maybe we can get this fixed soon.

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If you want to vote this up it will help: When tags are added to a task, keep the order in which they were added. Sometimes they stay in order and other times they don't

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We use tags and custom fields.
Not sure why no one has explained how tag order works. Can someone at Asana confirm the following?
The tags are ordered by alphabetical order.
Tags are useful for many cases but at the very least the are ordered by alphabetical order; alphabetical order makes tags significantly more useful compared to orderless tags.

Hi All, a possible work-around for ‘Calendar bar or Timeline bar display-colour using Tags in Asana’:

Asana needs to explain this better generally. I agree also that there must be some existing logic coded into the software (?), shame they refuse to put that forward, or understand the questions posed here, properly <<
Work around:

  1. I think a ‘TAG’s’ colour always has priority over a ‘CUSTOM FIELD’s’ colour, for the Calendar and Timeline bars. So, use this to your advantage…
  2. Limit your purpose for using TAGs to: overriding other colours to get the colour in the Calendar or Timeline that you need. For example, if you need all ‘high priority’ tasks to show as one colour on the calendar, no matter what other colours might appear (at random) based on your current Tags and/or Custom Fields, then change your set-up to have only one TAG at a time on any one task, and make that tag the colour and indication (‘High Priority’) that you want to override all other colours. (You can still have and select from multiple TAGs you might use on a task, but only use one TAG at a time, on a task, if you want to choose the colour that will override all others)
  3. However, you will likely still need other fields to group your tasks. Use CUSTOM FIELDS for this. Any number of CUSTOM FIELDS (each with their own colour) can be used. So if you need a range of colours for different groupings use CUSTOM FEILDS for this, not TAGS.
  4. Remember though, if you need to rely on a specific colour to override another main colour appearing on the calendar, use a single TAG (along side any number of CUSTOM FEILDS your using), and that single TAG will appear as the colour in the Calendar and Timeline views. Get it? …So only use ONE TAG at a time, in a task, IF you want to ensure you get the colour you want in Calendar and Timeline views. If you want to use more TAGS/groupings, then instead of using more TAGS use more CUSTOM FEILDS instead (as they basically act the same and you wont override the single colour - in the Calendar or Timeline - that you want).

—Get the above working first. Then the ‘Icing on the cake’…—
5. You can use as many CUSTOM FIELDs as you like. However, the CUSTOM FIELD colour that appears on the Calendar/Timeline is initially set as: the current colour selected in the FIRST CUSTOM FIELD you added to a particular task. So, when you add another CUSTOM FIELD to a task it wont show on the Calendar/Timeline bar (the FIRST CUSTOM FIELD’S colour will show instead).
6. To Change which CUSTOM FIELD’S colour appears, reset all the CUSTOM FIELDs option selection to: ‘-’ (which means no option is selected - and therefore it’s corresponding colour is also not selected / and doesn’t show anywhere). Once you’ve done that, then now select the CUSTOM FIELD whose options you want to display as the primary colour on the Calendar/Timeline views. Once you select it, it will stay the primary colour - until you repeat the ‘RESET’ sequence above.
— play around, it will take a little bit of understanding, but it should work —
…Hope that helps.