The task grid
Enter and edit work items the way you would in a spreadsheet: one row per item, the last row always blank and ready for the next one. Every other screen — the list, the editor, the board — keeps working exactly as before; the grid is just another way in.
Choosing where to add
The grid opens from the work items list: the grid button beside the title switches to it, and the list button there switches back — same items, another view. It opens on your active project. Add under picks the level the sheet shows and adds to: the project itself or one of its phases. The sheet lists that level's direct items only — a task inside a phase appears when the phase is chosen, not at the project level. Changing the project here does not change your active project. In Basic mode there is nothing to choose: the sheet is your task list.
Adding items
Type a summary in the last row and press Enter. The item is created at once and the cursor stays in that row, ready for the next one. Fill the row's other cells first (assignee, task type, dates, estimate) and they are saved with the item. Under a project, the small type picker at the start of the row chooses between a phase and a task; under a phase only tasks can be added.
Paste several lines into the summary of the last row to create one item per line — the first column of each line becomes the summary. The grid asks before creating them. Lines the server refuses (blank, too long, not allowed here) are reported; the rest are created.
A new item inherits the container's access restriction, exactly as the editor would apply it, and a task takes the project's customer defaults (see Who can see and edit a work item).
Editing in place
Change a cell and move on: it saves when it loses focus (or on Enter / Tab). Status and priority are the same chips as the list — click to pick. Picking a task type that has a default priority changes the row's priority in the same save and a notice says so; in the last row it sets the priority the new item will be created with. A save that fails puts the cell back and shows a red marker at the end of the row; hover it for the reason. Status changes follow the same rules as everywhere else: archiving confirms, closing an item with open sub-items takes them along, a locked status stays locked (see Statuses and the status workflow).
Only items you can edit are editable, and only with the edit work items permission. Adding needs the create work items permission and a container you can edit. The estimated-hours column shows only with the estimate permission.
When the level you are looking at is restricted to someone else — a team you are not in, or another person as its owner — and its access for others is Other users can view, the whole sheet is read-only: every cell is plain text, the last row is gone, and a notice at the top says which restriction is doing it. With Other users have no access you do not see those items at all, here or anywhere else.
Keys
- Enter — saves the cell and moves to the same column one row down; in the last row it creates the item.
- Tab / Shift+Tab — next / previous cell.
- ↑ / ↓ — previous / next row, in text and number cells.
- Ctrl+V in the last row, with several lines — one item per line. Pasting into any other row is an ordinary paste into that cell.
- Esc — leaves the sheet. While you are in it, Tab keeps you inside: it moves from cell to cell and never out to the rest of the page. Press Esc to step out, and click or tab into any cell to go back to filling it in.
What the sheet does not show
Description, links, dependencies, tags, attachments and time spent stay in the editor: the open icon at the end of a row takes you there. When someone else changes the project while you work, a notice offers Refresh — the sheet never reloads under your hands. A level shows up to 1,000 items; choose a phase to narrow it.