Most teams lose a surprising amount of time just hunting for information. The doc is in Google Drive, the decision is buried in Slack, the file is somewhere in SharePoint, and you end up clicking between four tools to get one piece of work done.
Asana Pages is the answer to that. It lets you write and store documents directly inside Asana, next to the work they relate to, so you do more in one place and jump out to other tools far less often. You can even collaborate on a page in real time, the same way you would in a Google Doc.
In this walkthrough I'll show you where to find pages, how to create them and attach them across your account, the formatting and sharing options, and the collaboration features that make pages a viable stand-in for Google Docs on your lighter documents.
Where to find pages, and where your old notes went
You'll find pages in the knowledge tab of your navigation. Click into it and you'll see any pages that already exist in your account. If you ever used the old notes feature, where you could attach a note to a project, those notes have been migrated across and now live here as pages.
Creating a standalone page
The simplest way in is the Create Page button, which gives you a standalone page. Think of it like a Word document or a Google Doc. Give it a title, write whatever content you want, and it lives on its own in the pages section of your account.
Standalone pages are useful, but pages get more powerful once you attach them to the work they belong to. That's where most of the value is, and it's how we use them day to day.
Adding pages to teams, projects and portfolios
A page doesn't have to sit on its own. You can create one inside a team, a project or a portfolio using the plus button in each, so the information lives right where the relevant work is happening rather than in a separate document somewhere else.
We treat Asana as our virtual office, so our company core values now live on a page in our MinorCo team, moved across from a Google Doc. The team already goes there to see members, contact details, and everything we're working on, so having quick access to information like this fits naturally alongside it.
You can also create a page inside a project. Our content project has a paid promotions page, originally an old note that migrated across, where we planned the paid promotions running on our YouTube channel. We even linked the specific tasks we were working on, so the plan and the work sit together.
And you can create a page in a portfolio. At the top of one of ours sits an automation SOP covering how we manage those engagements, the best practices, and the processes to follow. It's the reference the team reaches for when they pick up that kind of work.
We've linked the Asana members involved on that page, so you can quickly find who's assigned to tasks, and we've linked other pages like our core values. That gives the team a fast way to reference everything they need right here in Asana, without switching to a separate tool or document service.
Formatting: templates, outline and markdown
When you create a page inside a project, Asana suggests a few starting points: meeting notes, a project background summary, key resources, weekly planning, or a blank page. Pick one and it pre-populates the page with suggested headings and formatting, and you can rename the page at the top at any time.
From there you build it out. Click the outline button on the left and each of your headings becomes a table of contents you can navigate through. Pages are built on markdown, so you can add headings from the plus menu or type the pound signs directly, two for a heading two and three for a heading three.
You get all the formatting you'd expect: text, numbered lists, quotes, code blocks, and tables, plus embedded images and links. It's enough to build a genuinely detailed page, with its own table of contents, without ever leaving the editor.
Linking to people, tasks and projects
The real advantage of writing inside Asana is that you can link to anything in it. Type the @ symbol and you can drop in a person, task, project, portfolio, goal, or another page. On our promotions page we've linked straight to the actual tasks and videos each section relates to.
Attaching one page to multiple places
Open the more menu in the top right and you can attach a page to more than one place. Our promotions page was created in the content project, but it can also be linked to another project like operations, either added as a tab on that project or simply shared with its members.
You can attach the same page to portfolios, like our retainer clients, or to a team like MinorCo. One page can live in several areas of Asana at once, and when you update it, the change is reflected everywhere it's attached. There's only ever one version to keep current.
Sharing, permissions and version history
The same menu has duplicate and share options. By default the page is shared with the members of whatever you've linked it to. You can give people shared access to edit it, or limit them to viewing so they can't change the content, and you can share with individual users as an admin, commenter, or viewer.
There are also width options if you want to change how wide the page sits on screen. And you can open version history, either from the menu or by clicking the date, to see how the content has changed over time and go back to an earlier version if you need to.
Adding pages to project templates
One quick tip worth knowing. You can add a page to a project template. If you want a standard outline for capturing project information or logging key resources, build the pages into your templates. They'll be ready to go every time you use that template to create a live project.
Real-time collaboration and comments
The thing that's impressed me most about pages is the collaboration. Multiple people can type on the same page at once, and you can see each person working in real time. That's what makes pages a viable replacement, not for everything, but for a lot of the everyday documents you'd otherwise open Google Docs for.
I've got a page I share with John on my team for the guidelines we follow when recording and editing our YouTube videos. Without touching my keyboard I can watch him fill it in live, highlight a section, and add a comment asking a question. He gets notified in his Asana inbox, replies, and I resolve the comment once I'm happy with it.
That's the point: you collaborate natively in Asana without switching to Google Docs. Just make sure you and your team check the Asana inbox regularly, because that's where these comment notifications land. If your inbox has become a mess, we've published a separate video on taming it.
Where pages fits alongside Google Docs and Word
Pages isn't a full replacement for Google Docs or Microsoft Word. You'll still want those for longer form documents like contracts, where you need the more powerful word processing features. Pages is at its best as a light alternative, for capturing information inside a project so you switch tools less often.
If you do live in Google Docs like we do, there's a new embed option that bridges the two. You can embed a Google Doc, or link YouTube videos and other resources from the tools you already use, straight into a page.
So you might add a content SOP page, drop in the link to the Google Doc, and then read and edit that entire doc inside your Asana project without leaving. You keep Google Docs for the heavier writing and use native pages for the lighter use cases.
The payoff
That's Asana Pages. One more way to do more of your work in one place, with less clicking between separate tools. Asana also has a tables feature coming in the next month or two, letting you build spreadsheets natively, so it's worth keeping an eye out for that one too.
Watch the full video if you'd like to see each step on screen. And if your team needs help getting Asana set up and used properly, our customised training and consulting covers exactly this kind of thing.
FAQ
What is Asana Pages? Asana Pages lets you create and store documents, notes and SOPs directly inside Asana, next to the work they relate to. It's designed to reduce the time you spend jumping between separate tools like Google Drive, SharePoint and Slack to find information.
Where do I find pages in Asana? Pages live in the knowledge tab of your navigation. Any pages already in your account appear there, and if you used the old notes feature to attach notes to projects, those notes have been migrated across and now show up as pages.
Can I attach an Asana page to more than one project? Yes. From the more menu you can attach a single page to multiple projects, portfolios and teams, either as a tab or shared with members. When you update the page, the change is reflected everywhere it's attached.
Is Asana Pages a replacement for Google Docs? Not fully. It's a light alternative for capturing information inside a project, and for longer documents like contracts you'll still want Google Docs or Microsoft Word. You can also embed a Google Doc inside a page to work on it without leaving Asana.
Can multiple people edit an Asana page at once? Yes. Several people can type on the same page in real time, and you can comment back and forth. Comment notifications land in the Asana inbox, so it's worth checking your inbox regularly when collaborating.
Can I add a page to an Asana project template? Yes. Build pages into a project template and they'll be ready to go each time you create a new project from that template, which is useful for a standard project outline or a key resources list.