In the new beta patch. What does that even mean? How do you access this status menu? Inquiring minds want to know. Cause I didnt see anything in the patch notes that I read.

I saw that too, and was hoping some PC user would elaborate upon the subject.

It displays an icon in the settlement building ui when you hover over a settler that displays what they are assigned to. I'll try to find the page where I saw it.

EDIT: Here it is. http://www.idigitaltimes.com/fallout-4-settlement-tips-pc-players-can-finally-track-settler-jobs-sorry-consoles-504362

Hmm, I would have preferred a list of settlers that would pop up when you click on an item allowing you to assign them without having to run around the settlement looking for them. But this is good too.

The Status Icon has been very useful. For one thing, it demonstrates that the oft-stated "unassigned settlers assign themselves to crops" is a complete myth! After the patch, I found three or four "unassigned" settlers in each settlement. When I assigned them to crops, my food output went up by about 30% on average. Those guys and girls really were completely idle...

This is going to come in quite handy, especially when you have massive settlements, but now you won't need to figure out which settlers are slacking off.

Do you have chairs in your settlement?

I find that idle settlers quite often sit down or eat noodles at the restaurant, consequently I only have chairs in one place which can make spotting idle settlers easier during work hours.

Then I wonder why Hancock and Curie tend the crops in my Sanctuary although I never assigned them to do so. Perhaps it just doesn't always happen.

I see, and I do. Thanks!

I think, that companions in settlements use objects and animate, the question is, if they are actually 'doing' something. I do not have beta enabled, btw. But settlers only 'do' something in animation if they are assigned. If unassigned they wander around idly, sit down, drink or eat. So you can sometimes identify them. But to be sure who is already assigned the new icon looks useful.

It is true, that unassigned settlers assign themselves - sometimes. When I freed the castle, there were no settlers, only 2 Minutemen. Then I planted crops, and installed a recruitment beacon. After a short time 2 new settlers arrived. I was building other things at this time, and when I saw the new arrivals, one had himself already assigned to the crops. So this works. I remember the first hours into the game in Sanctuary, where you plant your first crops in a settlement, and even a named NPC (Marcy in this case) assigned herself to crops. But I think it is better no to depend on it. And nobody assigns himself to guard duty, or to a scrap bench. The automatic assignment to crops just ensures, that settlers will have enough food. I also think, that if your settlement has 6 people, and 12 food, settlers will assign themselves to crops only until 6 food are reached.

Also - there seems to be a dialog for new settlers who have just arrived - nice thing actually, where the new settler greets you and asks what he should do. But the NPC does not do this very aggressively, sometimes she walks to and talks, most of the time she just stands looking at you. If you talk to a new settler, the dialog comes up, but if you assign them before that, there is no dialogue. It only seems to be a nice touch, nothing more, since you cannot actually assign them in dialogue. So - in dialogue there seems to be a slight distinction between an unassigned newcomer and an unassigned settler, but in workshop mode there is no distinction.

Sometimes I have the impression, they had at times planned to make the assignment of settlers in dialogue, and you would also be able to ask a settler what his assignment is, but this was then changed to workshop mode, because it is simpler and faster...

Yes, they are doing something, they spend literally all day there and with the new status icons, it does show that they're assigned to crops. Now that I think about it, maybe the two got assigned to the crops exactly when I sent them to Sanctuary and the crops didn't have anyone assigned to them, so the game did that automatically.

Yes, this is an good thing, its hard to see that they are assigned to if not in line of sight and this help, one potion is to use bell / siren and then use the build interface to find them, another option is to assign any unasigned to farming and then assign farmers to other tasks.

An list also require renaming who would be an good idea.

Unassigned npc tend to farm if needed.

That would be great, but until we can rename settlers like we can weapons and armor I don't see the usefulness of a list that would read:

Settler; crops

Settler; crops

Settler; defense

Settler; armor shop

Settler; unassigned

Settler; unassigned

it's a band aid fix , i'm hoping with the next DLC , we will get an UI that shows all settlers, and u can select them from the UI

the big problem is u have corners and if something is around the corner u can't assign it because of line of sight

I'm not sure I understand the problem, because once you click on a settler you can run around as many corners as you want before assigning them to something. The settler doesn't need to be in line of sight of whatever you're assigning them to.

Yeah, this is a step in the right direction. I generally, assign all my settlers to do something, but sometimes there are no jobs to go around because the settlement is rather small like Tenpines Bluff. I basically strip the unemployed settlers to their underwear so that I easily identify them later and assign them to a different settlement later on. Typical animations that I see of unemployed settlers include sitting down, leaning against walls and endlessly wandering about.

As for settlers that have been assigned a task, I have a loose dress code for them. Guards wear combat, metal, or synth armor as well as army / military fatigues or long johns. Farmers wear t-shirts / flannel shirts with jeans, or other "every day" clothing that would allow them to wear leather armor pieces. Scavengers wear cage / spike armor. Provisioners wear helmeted cage armor. Shop keepers are dressed nicely, but that means they cannot wear armor pieces so they have the least protection. I guess I have to eventually do the Railroad quests so I can upgrade clothing with ballistic weave.

It would be nice to rename settlers though.

Farmers are indicated by a "knife-and-fork" icon, which may be confusing since knives and forks are what you find in restaurants, i.e. food & drink stores. They should've used https://www.google.com/search?q=farming+icons&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjew9q07bjKAhWKOz4KHQK9CUYQ_AUIBygB&biw=1322&bih=800&dpr=0.9.

This is a step in the right direction. It's great finally being able to see what my settlers are assigned to. I hate to make yet more complaints about it, but this system seems kind of halfway done to me. I'd like to see some type of differentiation between the symbol for a settler that's assigned to an artillery emplacement and a settler that's assigned to a regular guard post. I haven't yet checked the icons for vendors. I'm assuming that it's one generic icon for all types of vendors though.

It's not really a myth. I think you're just misunderstanding it. They won't be marked as assigned to it, but unassigned settlers will still often tend to crops. A settler isn't marked as assigned until you directly assign them to a task.

Their assigned tasks don't remain highlighted unless they themselves are actually highlighted. Unless the settler happens to be in the field of view of their assigned tasks while they're highlighted, there was really no way of telling what they were assigned to. I think you're misunderstanding the issue here.

they only assign themselves when there's unassigned crop.

one farmer can handle so and so many plants, if any plants remain totally unhandled and an unassigned settler is present, he'll take them over.

they will be, but not always, totally no clue what it depends on, seems to happen more the fewer settlers and more plants though

I agree that the settlers will animate working on a crop, but in the beta, I had to rebuild my entire crop at Sanctuary (exceeded size limit so it erased all crops!!) and I noticed as soon as I planted stuff, all 10 farmers that were previously assigned, jumped on the plants as I planted them, but were still showing unassigned.
I had to manually assign each a set of plants to tend.

fwiw!

OK, I agree that some settlers do auto-assign themselves to crops (particularly in the very early stages of settlement recruitment), but the patch has clearly highlighted that most - in my game - do not.

I've always planted a very large excess of crops in each settlement, on the assurance that new settlers would wander in and auto-assign themselves to crops if they weren't manually assigned to something else. When I found my post-patch "idlers", I didn't have to plant any extra crops for them to tend to.

The evidence that they are not tending crops is that the overall food value for that settlement goes up when you detect them and manually assign them.

I think you're misunderstanding still. As I said, they do not register as being assigned to the crops. This also means that your food rating doesn't go up. But unassigned settlers can often be seen tending crops, and the crops will still grow just like they only would if they're being tended to.