Bring in a schedule from MS Project, P6 or Excel

By the end of this workflow a schedule you built somewhere else is a Ganttry project, with its tasks, links and dates, ready to edit.

Who does this#

Project managers and schedulers: an Editor or an Admin in the company or group the project will live in. See Who can see and do what.

Before you start#

Get the file into a form Ganttry reads:

To update a project you already imported, open that project in the editor first.

Steps#

Bring in a new project#

1. 1
   Open the import. Choose File ▾ → Import file… in the editor, or press Import… on Home, and pick your file. Ganttry looks at what is inside the file, not at its name, so a file with the wrong ending still opens.
2. 2
   Check a Microsoft Project or P6 file. The import dialog lists the format, the project's name, how many tasks it has, when it starts and its calendar, followed by every warning — anything Ganttry had to change or leave out — under a count such as This file has 14 warnings. Read them, then press Import as a new project.
3. 3
   Or map a spreadsheet. A CSV or Excel file opens the column-mapping wizard. Ganttry matches the headers it recognises, such as Name, Duration, Predecessors and % complete. Check each match, and untick First row is column headers if your file has none. The preview underneath shows the first rows as they will land.

4. 4
   Keep extra columns. Columns Ganttry doesn't recognise are listed under the mapping. Tick the ones you want and they arrive as your own text columns, under the title you give them.
5. 5
   Save the mapping for next time. Press Save… beside Preset and name it, for example after the estimating program the file came from. Next time, pick the preset. Ganttry already knows the exports of P6 activity spreadsheets and Microsoft Project tables, and picks them for you.
6. 6
   Choose where the tasks go. Pick Import as a new project, or add the rows to the end of the project you have open. The wizard's last button says which it will do.
7. 7
   Read the warnings. Press the last button. If the rows raise any warnings, nothing is imported yet: the wizard lists every one above its buttons, under This file has 15 warnings. Nothing is imported yet., and the button becomes Import anyway. Fix a column choice and press again, or press Import anyway to bring the rows in as they are. A file with no warnings imports at once.
8. 8
   Pick the company or group. If you belong to more than one, Ganttry asks where the new project lives.

The new project opens in the editor. If you started on Home, Home closes to show it.

Update a project from a newer file#

When the owner sends a newer Microsoft Project or P6 export of a project you already imported, update it instead of importing a second copy.

1. 1
   Open the project in the editor, then choose File ▾ → Import file… and pick the newer file.
2. 2
   Beside Import as a new project the dialog offers a button that names your open project: Update "your project"…. Read the file's warnings in this window, then press it.
3. 3
   A review lists what the file adds, removes and changes, in sections. Its only warnings come from matching the file to your project, such as a source ID the file repeats. The changes table shows the first 200 changed fields; Show all 230 changes (with your file's count) shows the rest. Untick any section you don't want, then apply. The whole update is one step you can undo with Ctrl+Z.

Good to know#

• What an update leaves alone. Ganttry matches tasks by the identity the file gave them, not by name. Tasks you added in Ganttry, and the notes, colors, crew, equipment, assignments, quantities, costs and your own columns on every task, are never touched. Links you drew in Ganttry between Ganttry tasks stay too. Task order and outline follow the new file.
• Spreadsheets can't update in place. A spreadsheet row has no lasting identity, so a CSV or Excel file always becomes a new project or adds rows to the end of one.
• Microsoft Project calendars. Task calendars that at least one task uses come across as named calendars with their working weekdays and their holidays (non-working exception days). Extra working days, and anything a calendar inherits from a base calendar, are not imported. Every calendar uses the file's hours per day. At most 20 task calendars import; tasks on the others use the project calendar, with a warning.
• P6 calendars. The project's base calendar comes across with its workweek, exception days and hours per day, and each calendar a task uses arrives as a named calendar.
• Start dates become pins. A start date in a spreadsheet, or a Start-No-Earlier-Than in a Microsoft Project or P6 file, holds the task to that date or later, even when a predecessor finishes sooner.
• Going back the other way. Ganttry writes Microsoft Project XML but not P6 XER. Print and export lists what each export carries.