How to Search and Assign English Tasks in OM

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

• Job Naming in OM

SEARCH METHOD 1: REPORTS VIEW

• How to Set Up and Use the English Report View
• Using Reports to Access Jobs and Assign Tasks
• Using Reports to Access Ce Jobs in View-only mode and Access Asset History

SEARCH METHOD 2: JOBS SEARCH

SEARCH METHOD 3: TASKS SEARCH

• Assigning multiple tasks using Bulk Actions in Tasks View

INTRODUCTION

There are multiple ways to search for English Tasks in OM/Ce6. This article aims to cover some useful methods and helpful tips for this process.

It is highly recommended that before using OM for the first time to search for a Task, editors become familiar with the structure of OM jobs, and the difference between Jobs and Tasks. Further information on these key concepts can be found in the OM Introduction for English Editors LMS Course, and in this article.

The three main methods for searching for Tasks in OM are:

• REPORTS, intuitive and easy-to-consult way to find a job/task/assignment, but due to system setup logic may sometimes not include all available jobs (especially ones published very recently may be missing).
• JOBS, a highly comprehensive view, recommended when seeking to have a broader overview of an entire job and how its tasks fit together. Its effectiveness and user-friendliness are highly dependent on the user customizing the filters and views.
• TASKS, a comprehensive view which will include all tasks currently available in OM. This view will allow for quick assigning of multiple tasks, and an exhaustive list of tasks, but its effectiveness and user-friendliness are highly dependent on the user customizing the filters and views.

Before proceeding to look at each of these in more depth, it is important to be familiar with the naming of jobs in OM.

• Job Naming in OM

The name of a job we are looking for in OM will typically include a configuration (e.g. SDH, FULL, Dialogue List, Spotting Template, etc.) and a further "Job name" element that indicates what type of job it is, plus miscellaneous further elements such as an indication of the version or similar.

The first important thing we need to consider is that due to the relatively new nature of the system, the naming of jobs in OM is in development and currently often variable on a project-by-project basis. This can make the identification of the specific assignment you are seeking more complicated.

Please see below a broad table that, while only indicative, may aid you in identifying the correct job name of your assignment. This is not exhaustive, and it is highly recommended that if you are having difficulty locating the assignment you are seeking, the best course of action is to flag the situation to Coordination or a Lead Editor.

SEARCH METHOD 1: REPORTS VIEW

The Reports View is a platform which ties in to the Operations Manager and allows us to perform a few functions:

• Quickly search for, filter and access jobs within OM.
• Access "view only" versions of the jobs in Ce6, including completed jobs, and export files from the tasks within those jobs.

IMPORTANT: Due to job publishing system setup logic the Reports view may not always include all available jobs (especially ones published very recently may be missing). If the job you are looking for does not appear in the Report view, we recommend either trying one of the two other search methods listed in this article, or reaching out for assistance from Coordination or a Lead Editor.

• How to Set Up and Use the English Report View

To access the English Reports view used in the English Department, first of all click on the arrow to the left of "Operation Manager" in the left-hand navigation panel.

Next, click on "Reports."

In the view that opens, click on the "Select Dashboard" menu in the upper right corner of the page.

This will open a dropdown menu, where we should select "Localization" and then "Ce6 Report [English]".

This Report view is optimized to search for English jobs, as it is already filtered to exclude any jobs for languages other than English, and the search options available (e.g. per Title Name, Job Name, Workflow Status, etc.) are the ones that are typically most useful to help users find an English job.

As an example, if we insert a Title Name (the name or security name of the project we are working on - in our example "Meridian") and a Job Name (see this section for a generic explanation of job names in OM), such as for example "Dialogue List," the Report will display all English Dialogue List jobs in the system for that title. We will then scroll through the "Job Name" column of the report to identify our specific job.

The title name search is exact. You will not find the result if the title is listed as “Beauty, the” and you search for “The Beauty”. However, you can search only for “beauty” and the title will come up.

By scrolling right in the Report, we can also display the "Workflow State" column, which indicates what step the job is currently at in the production workflow, or if it is complete. This is often an additional very helpful piece of information to identify our job and distinguish between currently live jobs and already complete ones.

• Using Reports to Access Jobs and Assign Tasks

Once we have used the English Report to find our job (see above), we can use the Reports view to easily access the job and assign the task we are looking for.

By scrolling right in the Report view, we can find the "Job ID" column, and by clicking on the "Om Job Link" for our job, we can access the Job page.

Once we are in the job page, all we will need to do is identify the the task we are looking for (in our example below, the QC task), expand it by clicking on the arrow on the far left...

...and assign the task by simply selecting the name of the assignee in the "Assignee(s)" field.

• Using Reports to Access Ce Jobs in View-only mode and Access Asset History

The English Report view also allows us to access two very useful further functions, the "Ce Link" and the "Language Asset History Link". These can both be found by scrolling right in the Report results.

Ce Link -> By clicking in this column on the link for the job we are interested in, we can access a "View-only" version of the Composition Editor Job in question. This will display the project in its current status, whatever that may be.

! IMPORTANT ! As this button takes to a "View-only" mode, we should avoid making any edits, as these will not be retained by the job from this view. If you want to work in a job, make sure to enter the job, assign the task to yourself (see the section above) and open the Ce project via the Launch Ce button from within the actual task instead.

The "View-Only" link is particularly useful if we need to quickly check something in the content of a complete job without having to actually re-open it, and is the intended method for investigating the validity of rejections and updates, prior to re-opening any tasks. For more information on the relationship between the Reports view and the Rejections and Updates workflow in OM, please refer to this article.

From within the View-Only job in Ce, we can also download a PXTT by following the instructions below.

• How to Export a PXTT from Ce6 via Reports:

1. Locate the Om job in Reports.
2. Click "Ce Link" under the Ce Link column. 

3. Once the view-only version of the CE has loaded, you should be able to export the file.

   4. Click "Export" > Job information, e.g., "Template Full English (US)" > "PXTT"
   

   5. Choose a location on your workstation and save the file.

This can be very useful if we need to run some external checks on a delivered PXTT file, or if our current live assignment is empty and we need to populate it by importing a source file from an already completed job in OM.

Language Asset History Link ->  By clicking on this link, we will be taken directly to the Asset History of the Job in question. This is very useful if we need to access a particular version of any Asset, or see further information, such as who worked on a specific version and on what date.

For more details on Asset History in OM, please refer to this article.

SEARCH METHOD 2: JOBS SEARCH

It is recommended that, before using this function, editors become familiar with the structure of OM jobs, and the difference between Jobs and Tasks. Further information on these key concepts can be found in the OM Introduction for English Editors LMS Course, and in this article. 

The Jobs search is a highly comprehensive tool that will be able to find all available jobs in OM, display their composition, the workability status of each of the tasks they include, and allow the user to rapidly access tasks for assigning.

The tool is slightly less intuitive to use than the Reports view, but once mastered is a powerful aid and can sometimes find jobs that the Reports view is failing to display due to delays in the system setup logic (especially jobs published very recently may be missing in the Reports view).

To access the Reports view used in the English Department, first of all click on the arrow to the left of "Operations Manager" in the left-hand navigation panel.

Next, click on "Jobs."

When the search tool opens, it will typically be set to "MY JOBS". This means it will only display a list of the Jobs including a task already assigned to the user. This will not help to search for a new Task, so we should click on the dropdown menu and select "ALL" instead.

While we have a large search bar in the page, and this bar will return broad results for a specific search if used, it is NOT recommended that we use this as our method for searching for a specific English task. Instead, it is highly recommended that we use the "Filter" symbols located at the top of each column in the search table.

For example, by clicking on the filter symbol on the "Title" column, we can add the title of the project we want to search for.

Multiple filters can be applied at the same time.

The standard setup only includes a series of preset columns to use as filters, but others can be activated and added to the table by clicking on the "Table Settings" button immediately to the right of the search bar.

! IMPORTANT ! Please note that on standard settings, no Language filter will be applied, and the column will also not be present by default in the table. When searching for an English job, it is highly recommended that we add the Language column and apply an English filter, so that we avoid having to scroll through jobs in other languages than English too.

To do this, click on the "Table Settings" button and click on the Languages tickbox to add the new column to the table.

Next, go to the new Languages column in the table (new columns will typically be displayed on the far right side of the table), click on the filter symbol and then in the text box to add all applicable English filters.

Once we have selected the filters we wish to apply, we can run the search by clicking on the Refresh button near the top of the page.

When we are satisfied with our filters, please note that we can save the combination of filters we have applied, and thus create a new customized filter that will always be available to us in the main drop down menu next to the search bar. Simply click on that menu and select "Save New Filter" to give the new Filter a name and save it.

Once our results are in the table, we can scroll through them to identify the job we are looking for. We can then click on the little "+" ("Expand") symbol to the left of the result we are interested in to open a view of all the tasks composing that job.

In the list of tasks that will open up, we can click on the task number to open that specific task.

From inside the task, we can assign the task by simply selecting the name of the assignee in the "Assignee(s)" field.

SEARCH METHOD 3: TASKS SEARCH

It is recommended that, before using this function, editors become familiar with the structure of OM jobs, and the difference between Jobs and Tasks. Further information on these key concepts can be found in the OM Introduction for English Editors LMS Course, and in this article. 

The Tasks search is a highly comprehensive tool that will be able to find all available Tasks in OM, display their workability status and also allow for quick assigning.

The tool is slightly less intuitive to use than the Reports view, but once mastered is a powerful aid and can sometimes find Tasks that the Reports view is failing to display due to system setup logic (especially jobs published very recently may be missing in the Reports view).

To access the Tasks view, click on "Tasks" in the Operations Manager menu in the left-side panel.

When the search tool opens, it will typically be set to "MY TASKS". This means it will only display a list of the tasks already assigned to the user. This will not help to search for a new Task, so we should click on the dropdown menu and select "ALL" instead.

While we have a large search bar in the page, and this bar will return broad results for a specific search if used, it is NOT recommended that we use this as our method for searching for a Task. Instead, it is highly recommended that we use the "Filters" menu located on the right hand side of the list.

By clicking on the Filters button, a dropdown menu will pop out, allowing for the user to filter the search results with a large selection of options. This allows for extremely detailed searches with multiple combinations of elements (for example, we could choose to filter by Title, Line of Business (Subtitling/Scripting), Job Name, Job Languages and obtain a good basic filter for identifying an English Task).

When searching for an English assignment, it is highly recommended to filter out any languages other than English, by selecting "Job Languages".

This will open a list of all available languages, and we can select the main English options to ensure our filter covers all English jobs.

Once we have selected the filters we wish to apply, we can run the search by clicking on the Refresh button near the top of the page.

Note that we can customize which columns are displayed by clicking on the "Columns" button on the right hand side of the list and simply selecting and deselecting the columns as per our needs.

Also note that (unlike the Jobs Search, where the column positions are locked) we can customize the order in which the columns appear in the list by simply clicking on the header of the column in question and dragging it leftwards or rightwards, according to where we want it to appear in the list. This can help us display columns we deem more important closer to the side which is immediately visible when opening the page.

When we are satsified with our filters and columns, please note that we can save the combination of filters and columns we have applied, and thus create a new customized filter that will always be available to us in the main drop down menu next to the search bar. Simply click on that menu and select "Save New Filter" to give the Filter a name and save it.

In the displayed results, we can enter any task or job by simply clicking on the Job ID or Task ID number. We can assign the task after accessing it, by selecting a user in the "Assignee(s)" box, or we can choose to use an extra function available through the Task search table: here we have the possibility to quickly assign a task directly from the list, by double clicking within the name field corresponding to our task in the "Assignees" column, and simply selecting the name of the intended assignee from the list (or typing into the box that will appear).

• Assigning multiple tasks using Bulk Actions in Tasks View

Once you have your filtered list of Tasks, you have the option to bulk assign the tasks. Tasks are by default assigned to Pixelogic as the Partner/Vendor but we have the option to assign these to freelancers, vendors, or to client. For this demo we will be assigning the tasks to a freelancer.

If you have the option to double click into the Assignee tab and type a name, then the task is still assigned to Pixelogic as the vendor. You can copy/paste assignees with your keyboard shortcuts by dragging to select all the Assignee cells you want to assign to one person.

However, if you are unable to click into the assignee cell, then that means you need to select a vendor first. You can either reassign these internally, or you can assign these to a 3rd party. Start by selecting the tasks you want to assign in bulk and click on the blue Bulk Actions button on the top right of the screen.

There are many options for actions that can be implemented at this time. They are greyed out by default, but become workable by clicking on the white check-box. 

Scroll down to the Partner/Office tab and click the checkbox to make it editable. Select Freelancer. This will load the usual Freelancer assignment view and allow you to assign the selected tasks to that editor. All tasks selected will be assigned at the same rate.