The Activity Section collects all notes, emails, tasks, texts, and reminders associated with a project. Users can log activity and case updates for all project Admins and collaborators to see.
Trending Tags
The Trending Tags bar appears at the top of the Activity feed, below the Write a note box. This bar lists the top ten most commonly used tags in the project. Click a tag to filter the Activity feed by that tag. Click the up arrow to the right of the Trending Tags bar to collapse the bar.
Note: Filtering by multiple tags now returns only Activity items with all filtered tags. For example, if you filter by the tags #clientcall and #medicalrecords, only Activity items that are tagged as both #clientcall and #medicalrecords will be included in the results.
Formerly, filtering by more than one tag returned Activity items that had any of the filtered tags. Filtering by the tags #clientcall and #medicalrecord, for example, would have returned any Activity item tagged as #clientcall, #medicalrecord, or both in the search results.
Activity Items
The Activity feed contains six different types of activity items: notes, emails, faxes, reminders, tasks, and texts. At the top of the activity feed, you will see the “Write a note” textbox. Clicking into the textbox will give you options for creating different types of items and attaching documents.
For a quick refresher on how to create different types of items, view the Activity Feed Cheat Sheet.
Notes
Notes are the most basic activity item and are used to inform other users of project updates. They are usually plain text, but they can also include formatting, photos, and attachments. A note’s creator will receive a notification in their user feed any time the note is updated, even if they are not subscribed to the project. Notes are marked by a sticky note icon.
To make an entry on the Activity Section, enter text in the "Write a note" text box at the top of the Activity Feed and click “Create.” Activity items can be formatted with bold, links, and more.
Emails
Email activity items are similar in function to note activity items, but they are incoming emails to a project. Email activity items are marked with an envelope icon.
Emails appear in the activity feed when an email is sent to a project. Learn more about setting up and using project emails.
Faxes
Similar to email activity items, faxes appear as activity items in fax-enabled projects, or when a fax is moved from a fax-enabled mailroom.
Faxes appear in the activity feed when a fax has been sent to a project or moved to a project from the Org’s mailroom. Learn more about fax.
Reminders
Reminder activity items are created according to reminders schedules for deadlines, Deadline (with reminders) fields, or Deadline Chains.
For subscribed users, reminders appear in the project feed as notifications. If you have already viewed the reminder, or if you are not subscribed, then reminders will not appear unless the feed is filtered for reminders.
Tasks
Note, email, fax, and reminder activity items can be assigned to a team member, making them task activity items. Tasks have a to-do list icon.
Tasks contain editable due dates and can be marked “done.” The creator of a task will receive notifications in their feed any time that task item is updated. Time tracking can also be added to tasks, creating task based billing entries. Any item with time tracking added to it will become a task.
Assignments and due dates can be added or changed in the item menu by selecting “Assign To…” or “Set Date” respectively. The date will automatically set to today, and the assignee will automatically set to you, but either can be edited.
Assignees and due dates can be adjusted by clicking on the “Assigned To” and “Set For” dropdowns in a task or by adding a comment to the task using the assigning formatting below. Task assignments and due dates will adhere to the newest comment.
As a shortcut, you can quickly assign tasks by entering the "@" sign and a username.
Task assignments and due dates can be changed or added using formatting in the text of the item or in the item menu. To assign a task or give a due date quickly in the item itself, use the following formatting:
|
Action |
Code |
Example |
|---|---|---|
|
assign a note or email to a team member |
@ |
@johnsmith |
|
mention a user to push an item to their activity feed even if they are not subscribed |
+@ |
+@johnsmith |
|
add a due date |
* |
*next Thursday, *May 1, ,*11/05/2020, *in X days/weeks/months/years |
To convert an item back to a note, email, fax, or reminder, click “Assigned To” and select the user “Clear Assignee” at the bottom, converting the task back into a note or email.
Tasks can be marked complete or incomplete either in the dropdown menu or by clicking on the checkmark or red “x” to the right of the “Set For” date.
Texts
Texts are special activity items. Comments on texts are actual SMS message threads that are sent to or from a text-enabled project to the client, rather than communication between team members. The creator of a text item will receive notifications in their user feed any time a text response is added to the text item. Text activity items are marked by a chat bubble icon.
Like emails, texts appear in the activity feed when a text is sent to the project or moved into a project from a mailroom. Texts can also be sent from text-enabled projects. The following text message conversation will appear in the text activity item replies, so any comments added to a text activity item are sent as text replies to the number.
Learn more about sending texts to and from a project.
Files
Add Files
Any file can be attached to a note, task, or comment. Additionally, some file types can be sent via text. To attach a file from the project’s Docs Section or from your computer to an Activity Feed Item, click into the “Write a note” text box and select the "upload" icon in the middle.
Two options will appear.
If you’d like to attach a file from the project, click and search in the “Attach a Project Doc” field. To upload a file from your computer, click on the upload icon button. Files can also be attached to Activity Feed items directly from the Docs Section using the “Note This” feature.
Once a file has been attached to the item, it will appear underneath the “Write a note” text box. Multiple files can be attached to one item.
When an Activity feed item is created, the attached files will appear underneath the item’s text. Clicking on the caret next to the file’s name will allow you to preview, download, and handle the file as you would in the Docs section.
Menu Actions
Open an activity item by clicking on it. An open activity item will display the item’s comments and additional options. To close the activity item, click on it again.
To move, copy, link, pin, or assign an Activity item, click on the item and then click on the vertical ellipsis to view the dropdown item menu.
The actions in the item menu can also be accessed through the item drawer. The item drawer can be opened or closed by clicking on the ellipsis at the bottom of a selected Activity item.
The item drawer remembers its state and will remain either open or closed for all items until you change the state, allowing for easy access to any item actions.
Share With
If a project has guest users, activity items can be shared with those guests on an item-by-item basis. Hover above the “Share with” option in the menu and you will see a list of the project’s guests. Choose the guest you’d like to share the item with. Once an item has been shared with a guest, that guest will have a checkmark next to their name. To unshare an item with the guest, click on that guest again.
All comments on this activity item will also be accessible to the guest.
Copy Link
The “Copy Link” option will copy a link to your clipboard. Paste that link to share the activity item to anyone who has access to it. Clicking the link will take the viewer to the project’s activity feed, filtered to show only the linked activity item.
Copy To
Note and email activity items can be copied to other projects using the “Copy to” or “Copy to Related Projects” options. “Copy to” will copy to any single chosen project, while “Copy to Related Projects” will copy the note all projects listed as related in your projects “Related” section. (Linked projects are not included.)
Any attached documents will be copied along with the item. The copied document will keep its original upload date, uploader, and revisions. Other information, like share links and tags, will be removed.
Move To
To move an activity item from one project to another, Project Admins can select “Move to” from the item’s menu. In the “Move To” modal, search for and select the desired project, and hit “Move.”
The attached document will be moved along with the item. If the document has been attached elsewhere in the project, a copy of the document will move along with the activity item. Any documents attached in comments on the activity item will also be moved.
The moved document will keep its original upload date, uploader, and revisions. Other information, like share links and tags, will be removed.
Print any activity item using the “Print” option. You can also save an activity item as a .pdf document by opening the print modal and selecting “Save as PDF” from the dropdown.
Printing an activity item will not print any attached documents. Attachments are able to be printed on their own.
Pin
Pinning an item can help make often-referenced information easily accessible. Activity items can be pinned by a Project Admin to either a user’s feed or a project’s activity feed, using the respective options. A pinned item will appear at the top of the feed unless it is filtered out. Pinned items are useful for warnings, instructions, or reminders that all of the project’s team members should see.
When an item has been pinned to either the user feed or the project feed, it will have a tag in the top right corner indicating its pinned state.
To unpin the item, select the “Un-pin from My Feed” or “Un-pin from Project” options.
Item Actions
Comment
Comments can be added to any activity item by opening an activity item and typing in the “Add to the conversation” textbox below it. They can provide additional information about the item, and allow team members to communicate back and forth. Comments on text items are a little different, since any task item comments will be sent as text replies to that number.
Comments can also be used to assign a note or email activity item to a team member, turning it into a task, by using the task formatting in the comment. Team members can even assign a task back and forth between them by adding multiple assigning comments.
Flags and Seen
New activity items, or items with new comments, will have a box icon in the top right corner to indicate that you have not seen them. To mark the item as “seen” or “acknowledged,” click this box icon.
An activity item’s comments will appear beneath an opened activity item. The number of comments on an activity item will appear next to the item’s icon. The number will either be red to indicate that comments are unread or gray to indicate that all comments have been read.
Edit
A note, task, or comment can be edited by its author. To edit an item or comment, click on the pencil icon under the item’s text. Edit the item or comment, and click the checkmark to the right of the textbox to save your edits.
The tags of a note, task, or comment can be edited by any user, as long as the tag wasn’t added in the text of the item. To edit the tags, open the item and click Edit Tags. Remove and add tags as needed, and click the checkmark to the right of the tags box to save your edits.
React
Users can provide “reactions” to activity items and their comments. To react to an item comment, click to open the relevant item, and then click on the smiley icon underneath the text of the item or comment. Users can keep track of item reactions by running a List of Notes report.
Clicking on the smiley will give you a short list of available reactions.
Click on a reaction to add it to the item or comment. Users can add any many reactions as they like. Once a reaction has been added, click on the reaction where it appears in the item or comment to remove your reaction.
Filters
As a project’s Activity feed grows, use filters to find the item you need. Open the filter menu by clicking on the “Filter” dropdown in the top right corner of the Activity feed, under the “Write a note” textbox.
Filter by:
- type of activity item
- pinned or unpinned items
- creator
- create date
- tags
Task items can additionally be filtered by:
- incomplete or complete
- assignee
- assigner
- task-completer
- due date
Filters can be stacked. Filtering by multiple tags returns items with all the filtered tags, rather than items with any of the filtered tags.
To remove a single filter, click on the “x” in that filter tag. To remove all filters, click the “x” to the right of the filter dropdown. Filters will be removed when you refresh or navigate away from the activity feed.
Tips and Tricks
Watch below to hear some of our Filevine experts give their tips for best practices for using the Activity feed.
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