Action Panels

A checklist of assigned actions, left out on the canvas where the room can read it.

An action panel is a card on the canvas that carries a list of assigned actions: what needs doing, who each one is for, and whether it is done. It is the natural home for the follow-ups a meeting agrees on. You read it where it sits, without opening anything.

Adding one

Add one from the palette's Record category, one of the six Collaborate categories. A fresh panel has no actions yet: it reads No Actions Yet and invites you to give someone a clear next step, with an Add Action button.

Press it and the usual Assign an Action dialog opens: pick who it is for, give it a name and an optional description, and choose whether to email them. Confirm, and the action appears on the card. Add as many as you need (up to 50) from the dashed Add Action bar at the bottom of the card.

A panel can be about an element: drop one beside it and join the two with an ordinary arrow, the same way a comment panel is attached.

Working with it

Each action is a row: a round check, its name, and who it is for. The header counts how many are still open ("2 open"), and shows All Done once every one is ticked. If you give the panel a label it becomes the card's title; otherwise the title reads Actions.

Actions2 OPENConfirm the retry budgetSSam✓Write the runbookPPriyaLoad test the queueYYou+ Add Action
An action panel: one row per action, each with a check to finish it, and a bar to add another.
  • Tick the check to mark an action done. It fills green, the name is struck through, and the row stays on the card as a record of what was agreed. Tick it again to reopen it. Finishing the last open action throws a small burst of confetti.
  • Click the rest of the row to open the dialog with everything filled in, so you can rename the action, change the description or hand it to someone else.
  • To remove one action, open it and use Delete Action at the bottom of the dialog (you confirm it with a second click). Deleting the card removes all of its actions.

Ticking and reopening are not undoable: Ctrl+Z never unassigns or reopens somebody else's work. The list scrolls once it outgrows the card, and resizing the card makes room for more rows rather than bigger text.

Each one is the same kind of action as any other: it appears in the Collaborate panel and on your Inbox, and anyone who can view the document can read it, while only editors can change it. On a view-only link, in an embed or while presenting, the card shows its actions with no buttons.

Panel or action badge

You can already put an action on any element with Assign Action in its menu. That shows as a small badge that opens a popover for one reader at a time, and an element holds only one. A panel holds the same kind of action, as many as you like, left out on the canvas, so they are in the export and in everyone else's view.

Was this article helpful?