Create tasks, events and reminders

The five kinds of item and the sheet that creates and edits them.

In short

Planner has five kinds of item: Task, Event, Reminder, Focus block and Milestone. Create any of them from the title row; one sheet creates and edits them all.

Before you start

Who: your own items need no role. An event can have up to 50 people from your workspace. A shared calendar's items need Edit on that calendar.
Plan: Planner is part of every plan, Free included. Your plan caps the open items, calendars and cycles a workspace holds (Plan & usage shows them).
First: nothing. An item goes into My calendar unless you pick another calendar.

Create an item

Press "New task" in the title row, or its caret for "New event", New reminder, New focus block or "New milestone". Shift+C opens the full sheet.
Type the title and pick the kind from the tabs.
Set when: Due for a task, Remind me at for a reminder, Date for a milestone, Starts and Ends for an event or focus block.
Optionally set the priority (Low, Medium, High or Urgent), people, notes, and under "More options" the estimate, location, calendar, time zone, repeat and reminders.
Press "Add to Planner". The item appears in the lanes or on the hours. An item that exists saves itself as you change it.

Good to know

Clicking empty time on the hours opens a small event form.
A focus block is for you alone; an event can have up to 50 people from your workspace.
Repeats: daily, weekly on chosen days or monthly, ending never, on a date or after N times. A repeating item needs a date to repeat from.
"Mark done" or "Reopen" is in the sheet's footer; Delete is in its menu, and the message offers Undo. Ticking one day of a repeating item done completes that day only.
Sub-tasks appear once the item exists, one level deep.
An item goes into My calendar unless you pick another calendar. Your plan caps the open items, calendars and cycles a workspace holds.

Reminders New events and reminders get your default reminder - 30 minutes before unless you changed it in Planner settings. For a reminder that should ping at its own time, choose At the time.

If something goes wrong

"An event needs a start and an end." / "A milestone needs a date." / "A reminder needs a time."
"A recurring item needs a date to repeat from."
"An item can have at most 50 participants."
"Sub-tasks go one level deep."