Open Microsoft Project files with Onplana Schedule

Onplana Schedule is a free desktop app that opens Microsoft Project files without Microsoft Project. Open an .mpp, .mpx, .xer or Project XML file and you get the task grid beside a Gantt chart, with the critical path and each task’s float. Edit the plan in the grid and the chart, save it as Project XML, run a one-click health check, and share a copy with your team. There is no account to create until you publish.

Where to get it

On a Mac, download the app from onplana.com/download or get it from the Mac App Store. On Windows, install the signed download from the same page or get the app from the Microsoft Store. To try the analysis first without installing anything, the same health check runs in your browser: see Read your Schedule Health Check.

Install

1. Open onplana.com/download and follow the link for Onplana Schedule on your platform.

2. On Windows, run the downloaded installer, or install it from the Microsoft Store. Windows may show a SmartScreen notice the first weeks a new signing certificate is in use: the installer is signed by DevSoft Solutions, LLC, and More info, then Run anyway, continues. On a Mac, open the downloaded disk image and drag Onplana Schedule to Applications, or install it from the Mac App Store.

3. Launch it. The Home screen has Open a file and New schedule side by side, then Start from a template and Download the Excel template, your recent files, and, once you sign in, the projects in your Onplana workspace.

Windows needs Windows 10 (version 1809) or later, 64-bit. The Mac build needs macOS 13 or later and runs on Apple silicon and Intel. A Microsoft Store or Mac App Store install updates through its store. The Windows installer and the Mac disk image update from inside the app: check for a new version in Settings and about (see Settings, feedback and shortcuts).

Open a file

Double-click a Project file in Explorer or Finder, drop one on the window, or press Open a file on the Home screen (File > Open… once a schedule is open, or Ctrl+O) and pick it. The app opens these:

Format	What it is	Where it is read
.mpp, .mpt	Microsoft Project plan or template	Converted on Onplana’s servers
.xml	Microsoft Project XML	On your machine. Nothing is uploaded.
.xml	Primavera P6 or GNOME Planner XML export	Converted on Onplana’s servers
.mpx	Microsoft Project exchange	Converted on Onplana’s servers
.xer	Primavera P6 export	Converted on Onplana’s servers
.sdef	SDEF, the US Army Corps of Engineers exchange format	Converted on Onplana’s servers
.pod	ProjectLibre	On your machine when the file is Project XML inside, as most are. Otherwise converted on Onplana’s servers.
.gan, .planner	GanttProject and GNOME Planner	Converted on Onplana’s servers
.xlsx, .csv	A plan in a spreadsheet	Converted on Onplana’s servers

The app looks inside an .xml file first. Microsoft Project XML stays on your machine, and an export from Primavera P6 or Planner is converted like any other format, after the same privacy notice.

Planning in a spreadsheet? On the home screen, choose Download the Excel template and save it. It is the same template the Onplana import wizard offers: one row per task, with the columns Level, WBS, Task Name, Start, Finish, % Complete, Duration, Owner and Notes. Replace the example rows with your own, then open the file from the home screen or drop it on the window. A Level of 1 is a phase, and 2 is a task inside the phase above it. The download needs a connection, and so does opening the filled-in file, because spreadsheets are converted on Onplana’s servers.

Double-click works for .mpp, .mpt, .mpx, .xer, .xml, .pod and .gan. Everything else opens through the Open dialog or a drop, so that every spreadsheet on your computer does not become a Project file.

A ProjectLibre .pod that is Project XML inside is read like any Project XML file, so nothing is uploaded, and saving it writes a Project XML file beside it rather than changing the .pod.

The Open dialog also accepts files from Asta Powerproject (.pp), FastTrack (.fts), Phoenix (.ppx), ConceptDraw PROJECT (.cdpx, .cdpz), Synchro (.sp), TurboProject (.pep), Deltek Open Plan (.bk3), GanttDesigner (.gnt), Project Commander (.pc), Sage 100 Contractor (.schedule_grid) and Microsoft Project’s old database (.mpd). These convert on a best-effort basis: when a file cannot be read, the app says so and nothing is kept.

Open a project from Onplana

Sign in (top right) and the home screen lists the projects in your Onplana workspace that you can see. Select one to open it as a schedule: it is downloaded as Project XML and read on your machine, so you can view it and edit it. Update on the bar (or Ctrl+S) sends your changes back to that project, and File > Save a copy… writes a Project XML file to your computer instead. See Save. File > Open in Onplana opens the same project in your browser, and so does Open in Onplana in the box that confirms an update.

File > Open in Onplana Tasks starts the Onplana Tasks desktop app, at the project you have open when it came from Onplana. The same offer appears after you publish a plan, in the line at the bottom of the window, and in the box that confirms an update. When Onplana Tasks is not installed, it reads Get Onplana Tasks and opens the download page instead. For a plan on your computer it reads Add to Onplana Tasks…; see Add the tasks to Onplana Tasks.

When the workspace has more than a few projects, narrow the list with Find a project and the status filter (each status shows how many projects have it), and sort it by name, most recently updated or most tasks. The app remembers the status and sort you choose.

You can also start from the web app. On a Mac or Windows computer, the Gantt chart in Onplana offers Open in Onplana Schedule, which opens that project in this app (version 0.1.10 or later), after you sign in to the same workspace. See Plan on the Gantt chart.

What leaves your machine

Before it converts a file, checks its health, or publishes it without an account, the app shows this, and it asks each time until you tick Don’t show this again:

A copy of Office Relocation.mpp is uploaded to Onplana’s servers to be converted. The uploaded copy is deleted within 24 hours.

It names the file you opened and why it is being uploaded, so the wording follows the action: a health check and a publish each say so in place of “to be converted”. For a Project XML file, which normally opens without uploading, a second line says this step is the exception.

A Project XML file is parsed on your computer. Nothing about it is sent anywhere until you ask for a health check or publish a copy, and both buttons say they upload before they do. Saving, and the recovery copy the app keeps while you edit, are writes to your own disk.

Turned the notice off and want it back? Open Settings and about and choose Ask again under Privacy.

Once a file has been converted, the app keeps the converted schedule on your computer, for the last 20 files. Opening the same file again, from Recent or anywhere else, uses that copy: nothing is uploaded and the notice does not appear. A changed file, or a new version of the app, converts once more. The kept copies hold the same plan as the files themselves; Clear cached conversions under Privacy in Settings and about removes them.

The menu bar

One bar runs across the top of an open schedule. At its left are the File, Edit, View and Plan menus. The rest of the bar holds what you reach for while reading a plan: the view switch, Find a task, Filter, the timeline scale and zoom, whether there is anything to save, Check health, and Share (Update for a project opened from Onplana).

Menu	What is in it
File	New schedule…, Open…, your last five files under Recent, Save, Save a copy…, Close, Print…, and under Export, Task table as CSV… (which reads Resource usage as CSV… while that view is on) and Chart as PDF or picture…. Then Share with people…, Publish to Onplana…, and Templates… when you are signed in. A project opened from Onplana adds Update, followed by the project’s name, and Open in Onplana. Open in Onplana Tasks (or Get Onplana Tasks, when that app is not installed) is always there, and reads Add to Onplana Tasks… for a plan on your computer when Onplana Tasks is installed.
Edit	Undo, Redo, Insert task, Delete task, Select all tasks, Indent, Outdent, Task details… and Clear the constraint. On the resource sheet, Add resource and Delete resource.
View	On the Gantt, Critical path, Float labels, Baseline, Task path and Hide completed. Then Columns and fields…, Expand all, Collapse all and Full screen.
Plan	Automatic scheduling and Reschedule now, then Move project…, Links between projects…, Subproject… and Manage sprints…, then Compare with another version…, Set baseline… and Clear baseline…, Schedule quality, Schedule risk…, Check health…, Level resources… and Optimize with AI…, plus Baselines in Onplana… when you are signed in and the plan is a project in Onplana.

Move project…, Links between projects…, Subproject…, Manage sprints…, Set baseline… and Clear baseline… make changes only when the app is signed in to an organization on the Pro plan or above, and Schedule risk… runs on Business and above. Each opens on every plan; see Unlock the paid features of Onplana Schedule.

A command with a keyboard shortcut shows it beside its name. Once one menu is open, moving the pointer along the bar opens the others, and so do the left and right arrow keys. On Windows, Alt plus a menu’s first letter opens it (Alt+F, Alt+E, Alt+V, Alt+P), and F10 moves to the bar.

On Windows the window opens 1400 pixels wide, which fits the bar on one row; on a Mac it opens 1200 wide. When the window is too narrow for the bar, the bar wraps onto a second row.

Read the schedule

The grid on the left shows each task’s name, duration, start and finish, with the hierarchy you can fold and unfold. View > Expand all and View > Collapse all open or fold every summary task at once; while a find or a filter is on, every summary task stays open so its matches show, and the two are greyed out until you clear it. The chart on the right draws the bars, the links between tasks and the milestones.

Switch between Gantt, Task sheet, Resource sheet and Resource usage on the bar, just after the menus. The task sheet is the same table without the chart, with every task in it, completed ones included, and you edit it the same way. The resource sheet lists every resource the file names: its type, and where the file carries them a material’s unit, initials, group, max units, the standard and overtime rates, cost per use and an email address; how many tasks it is on; and when the first of those tasks starts and the last one finishes. A rate shows per hour, per day or per minute, the way the file asks for it, in the file’s currency; a weekly, monthly or yearly rate shows per hour. A binary .mpp file shows each resource’s name and email for now. Select a resource’s task count to open the Gantt showing only that resource’s tasks. Saving keeps every one of these values in the file.

The resource sheet is also where you add and change resources. Type a name in the Add a resource row under the table and press Enter; the row stays ready for the next name. Edit > Add resource (or Insert) adds a row too, with its name ready to type. Then set its type, initials, group, max units, standard rate and email the same way you edit the grid. A rate is typed in the unit shown beside it.

To delete a resource, point at its row and select the trash button at the end, or select the row and choose Edit > Delete resource (or press Delete). A resource that is on tasks comes off every one of them, so the app asks first and says how many tasks lose it. Undo brings it back. Overtime rate and cost per use are shown but not edited yet. The Resource usage view, below, shows what each resource’s assignments add up to.

Bars are coloured by float, which is what the file itself records:

Colour	Meaning
Red	On the critical path: no float, a slip moves the finish
Amber	1 to 3 days of float
Blue	4 to 7 days of float
Green	8 days or more

The footer names the finish date and the counts: tasks, milestones, and how many are on the critical path. Switch the timeline between Day, Week and Month on the bar. Beside them, Zoom out narrows every column so a long programme fits on one screen, and Zoom in opens up a busy fortnight; choosing a scale again starts it at its own width.

View > Full screen (F11, or Control+Cmd+F on a Mac) gives the plan the whole display: the title bar and the status line go, and so does whatever your computer draws around the window. The bar stays, with the menus, the scale, the zoom, Find a task and Filter, and it gains an Exit full screen button, so the way out is always on screen. Press it, or Esc, to come back. Esc belongs to whatever is in front of it first, so it closes an open dialog or menu, or cancels the cell you are editing, before it leaves full screen.

Point at a bar to read it: its start, finish and duration, how far along it is, who is on it, and what its float means (“can slip 4 days before the project finish moves”). The card also says in one line why the bar starts where it does: which task drives it, its constraint, that it has started or is manually scheduled, or that the file puts it later than its links need. A task with a constraint lists it under its dates, with its day (Must start on: Oct 3, 2026).

For the whole answer, select a task and open Task details. Why these dates names what sets its start, lists each predecessor with the date it allows (marking the ones that set the start, including links written on a summary task), says which tasks move with it if it slips, and whether it finishes by its deadline. For a summary task it names the subtasks its start and finish come from. It explains the dates you see, so a file saved without rescheduling can show a task starting later or earlier than its links require, and it says by how much: in working days, or in working hours for part of a day.

To see the chain on the chart, tick Task path in the View menu and select a task. Its driving predecessors, the tasks that set its start link by link, are ringed in dark orange and its other predecessors in light orange; the tasks it drives are ringed in dark purple and its other successors in light purple. The key in the footer names the four colours.

If the file saved a baseline, tick Baseline in the View menu. Each bar then shows how many days it starts after its baseline start (+2d, or -1d when it starts early), a dashed Baseline finish line marks the end of the latest baseline finish, and pointing at a bar adds its baseline dates and how far it has moved from them. The option is greyed out for a file with no baseline saved. Saving keeps the baseline dates in the file.

Filter narrows the Gantt and the Task sheet. Tick Critical tasks only to keep the tasks on the critical path, whether or not the View menu colours it. When the file assigns people to tasks, pick one under Show tasks for to keep only the tasks they are on. Pick a Phase to keep one summary task and everything under it, or Outline levels to keep only the top levels of the outline. Set Dates to keep the tasks whose dates overlap a window, and leave either date empty to keep that side open. A task that matches keeps the summary tasks above it, the count beside Find a task says how many tasks match, and Clear all, at the bottom of Filter, shows every task again. The filter works together with a find.

File > Task table as CSV… saves the whole task table as a CSV file for Excel or Power BI: row, outline level, name, duration, start, finish, percent complete, predecessors, float, the critical, milestone and summary flags, and who is on each task. It exports the plan as it stands, unsaved edits included, and never changes the file you have open.

File > Chart as PDF or picture… saves the Gantt for printing, a report or a slide. Choose PDF pages for paper: pick the paper size, the orientation and how many pages wide the timeline spreads. The rows run on down as many pages as they need, every page repeats the ID and task name so a page read on its own still says what its bars are, and the first page across also carries duration, start and finish. Choose a timescale (days, weeks or months, or leave it on automatic) and, to print part of the plan, a date range. The first page and the page count show before anything is written. Choose Picture (PNG) for one image of the whole chart instead, and Copy picture to put that image on the clipboard. The export draws the rows the chart shows, so the View menu, Filter and a find all apply. A link whose two ends land on different pages is counted rather than drawn, and a letter outside the Western European alphabets prints as a question mark in the PDF.

File > Print… (Ctrl+P) sends the Gantt or the task table to a printer through your system’s print dialog. It uses the same page setup as PDF pages: paper, orientation, margins, how many pages wide the timeline spreads, the timescale and a date range, and the first page shows before anything prints. Choose Table only to print the task table without the chart: ID, name, duration, start, finish and percent complete, with predecessors and resource names added when the paper is wide enough for them. On the Task sheet, Print starts on Table only. Save as PDF in the same dialog writes those pages to a file instead, and the margins and Table only are in Chart as PDF or picture… too.

To sort the grid, click a column’s name: once for ascending, again for descending, and a third time to go back to the plan’s own order. Tasks sort within their phase, so a subtask always stays under its summary task, and while the grid is sorted rows cannot be dragged to a new place. To filter by a column, point at its header and click the funnel, then type the text a name must contain, a range of days or percent complete, or a range of dates. A matching task keeps its phases on screen, and the count beside Find a task says how many tasks match. Clear filters and Clear sort undo either one. Drag the edge of a column header to resize the column, and use View > Columns and fields to show or hide columns and, with the arrows beside each one, to move a column left or right; the task name always shows, and Show all brings back every column you hid. The Constraint column starts hidden: tick it to see each task’s constraint and its day at a glance. Sorting it lists the tasks by constraint type, in the order Task details lists the types, then by date, with the tasks that have none last. The widths, the hidden columns and the order are remembered for the next file, and Reset column order puts the columns back where they started. To move along the timeline, drag any empty part of the chart.

Resource usage

Resource usage, the fourth view on the bar, lists every resource the file names with its work and its actual work by Month, Week or Day, chosen on the bar in place of the timeline scale, and the assignments behind that work beneath it. Every resource and every assignment takes two lines, Work and then Actual work, so what was planned and what was done never share a cell. A Total column at the right sums each line, and a totals row at the foot sums every resource per period. Tasks the file leaves unassigned are not in the view and never reach a total.

Work the file carries no day-by-day figures for is spread evenly across the assignment’s working days and marked with an asterisk, “Includes flat-estimated work”, so a number that is partly an estimate says so. The view opens on Month, the scale monthly actuals are read at.

Type actual work for a period on an assignment’s Actual work line: the hours replace that period’s actuals and land on the working days the assignment spans inside it. Work itself is edited on the task views, and an edit there rebuilds the usage. File > Export > Resource usage as CSV… saves the view at the scale on screen: a row per line of the view, a column per period and a Total, with the All resources totals last, for Excel or Power BI.

The same view opens read-only in the online MPP viewer on onplana.com, where nothing can be typed; its Edit in Onplana Schedule button leads to the download page.

Edit the schedule

Everything a scheduler changes day to day edits in place, and every change that can move a date reschedules the plan on the spot, through the same engine Onplana runs, with all eight Microsoft Project constraint types honoured. The status line reports what the reschedule found, and undo takes any change back. To place dates yourself without the plan moving around them, turn automatic scheduling off.

Where	What you can do
The grid	Type a name, a duration in days, a start or finish, the predecessors in Project’s own notation (3, 5SS, 7FS+2d), or a percent complete. Enter commits, Escape cancels. To pick a date instead, press the calendar button in a Start or Finish cell (or Alt+Down in it). Clicking into any cell selects its row, which is the row the Edit menu acts on; Ctrl-click and Shift-click select several (see below). In Resource names, start typing and a list of the plan’s resources narrows to the name, or press the arrow button (or Alt+Down) for all of them. Click a resource to put it on the task, click a ticked one to take it off, and when no resource has the name you typed, choose Create to add it. Typing names separated by commas still works; a name the plan does not have yet is added as a resource. Point at a row’s name for three buttons: insert a task below it (on a summary row, first inside it), delete it, and … for Indent, Outdent and Task details, each with its keyboard shortcut, plus Clear the constraint on a task that has one. Deleting a summary task asks first, since its subtasks go with it. The Add a task row under the last task adds one at the end, at the same outline level as the last row; type its name and press Enter. If a filter hides the task you just added, the status line says so.
The chart	Drag a bar to move a task, drag its progress handle, draw a link from one bar to another. A bar dropped on a weekend or holiday moves to the nearest working day in the direction you dragged: back to the Friday, or on to the Monday. A summary bar cannot be dragged; its dates come from its subtasks. Right-click a bar or a row for Task details, Insert task above, Delete task, Indent and Outdent, aimed at that row.
The Edit menu	Undo, Redo, Insert task (above the selected row, or at the end at the last row’s level), Delete task, Select all tasks, Indent, Outdent, Task details… and Clear the constraint, each with its keyboard shortcut, where it has one, printed beside it.
The keyboard	Insert, Delete, Alt+Shift+Right and Alt+Shift+Left to indent and outdent (Ctrl+] and Ctrl+[ too, which are the two keys to the right of P on any keyboard layout; on a Mac, Cmd+] and Cmd+[), Shift+F2 for Task details, F9 to Reschedule now, Ctrl+Z and Ctrl+Y (Cmd on a Mac). Insert, indent, outdent and Shift+F2 work while the caret is in a grid cell. On Windows, Alt+F, Alt+E, Alt+V and Alt+P open the menus, and F10 moves to the menu bar. Settings and about lists every shortcut.

A typed start date becomes a start-no-earlier-than constraint and a typed finish a finish-no-earlier-than, the way Microsoft Project does it. A start typed on a day the plan does not work (a Saturday, say) starts the task on the next working day, and a finish typed on one finishes it on the working day before; the status line names the day it lands on. A task keeps its length when its start moves, including a task with no duration of its own, whose length is taken from its dates. A link that would make a loop is refused, and the status line says which task closes it.

Start a new schedule

In version 0.1.33 and later, press New schedule on the Home screen, or choose File > New schedule… (Ctrl+N, or Cmd+N on a Mac). Pick the day the plan starts; it defaults to today, and a Saturday or Sunday start moves to the Monday after. The plan opens empty on the standard working week (Monday to Friday, 8 hours a day), named Untitled schedule. Type the first task in the Add a task row under the chart and press Enter, then the next. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.

A new schedule is not saved until you save it: Save asks where to put the Project XML file, and closing it, or starting another, asks first. If a schedule with unsaved changes is open when you press Ctrl+N, the app asks whether to save it before the new one replaces it.

Start from a template

Start from a template on the Home screen lists ten free plans with phases, tasks and milestones, among them a software product launch, a marketing campaign, event planning, a data migration cutover, quarterly OKR planning, phase-gate product development, and the RIBA and AIA architecture stages. Each shows how many tasks and phases it has and roughly how many weeks it runs. Pick one, choose the day it starts (today by default; a weekend start begins the Monday after), and choose Open followed by its name (Open Event Planning, say). The plan opens on this computer as a new schedule that is not saved yet; save it wherever you like. The templates ship with the app, so this needs no account and no connection, and nothing is uploaded.

These are separate from File > Templates…, which appears when you are signed in and lists your Onplana workspace’s own templates.

Turn automatic scheduling off

In version 0.1.24 and later, Plan > Automatic scheduling switches the reschedule off, like turning off “Calculate project after each edit” in Microsoft Project. While it is off:

• A change moves only the task you made it on. A longer duration moves that task’s finish, a typed start moves its bar, and a new link moves nothing. The tasks after it keep their dates.
• A summary task still spans the tasks inside it, and the critical path is worked out again from the dates as they stand.
• Plan > Reschedule now (F9) moves every task to match its links, as one step undo takes back. It works whether the switch is on or off.
• The status line says automatic scheduling is off, with a Turn on button.

Turning it back on reschedules the whole plan, not just one chain, so a task you dated by hand can move too. Onplana Schedule asks first and lists the tasks that would move, with their current and new start dates. Keep it off changes nothing, and Turn on and reschedule moves them as one step undo takes back, leaving the switch on. If nothing needs to move, it turns on without asking.

The switch is kept for each file, on this computer, and never inside the file. So:

• It does not travel with the file to another computer, or to the Onplana web app, which has its own switch per project.
• A project with automatic scheduling off in the web app, exported and opened here, opens with it on, and the first date, duration or link you change reschedules the plan. Turn it off before you edit if you want the dates kept.
• A file saved under a new name keeps the switch off if it was off.
• A Project XML file’s “new tasks are manually scheduled” setting is not read for this: most files carry it for new tasks while every existing task is automatic, so reading it would open most plans with the switch off.

Task details holds what has no column: the milestone flag, the constraint, the deadline and the task’s notes, plus its resources and a value for each of the plan’s custom fields. Open it from Edit > Task details… (Shift+F2), by double-clicking a bar, from the right-click menu, or from the … button that appears when you point at a row’s name. A note is saved to the task when you leave the field or close the dialog, and undo takes it back like any other change. Each change applies as you make it; Cancel puts back everything you changed since the dialog opened, and Redo brings it back again.

Work on several tasks at once

Ctrl-click a row (Cmd-click on a Mac), in the grid or on its bar, to add it to the selection or take it out, and Shift-click to add every row between the last one you clicked and this one. From the keyboard, Shift+Down and Shift+Up add the task below or above, and pressing back the other way takes rows out again. Edit > Select all tasks (Ctrl+A, or Cmd+A) selects every row the view shows, including the rows of a folded phase. The status line counts the selected tasks, and clicking into a cell goes back to that one row.

With several tasks selected:

• Delete asks once, naming how many tasks go, including the tasks inside a selected summary, and takes them all in one step of undo.
• Indent and Outdent move every selected task together, so two neighbours indented at once both go under the task above the first.
• Edit > Change N tasks… (Shift+F2), where N is how many you selected, sets a field on all of them at once: duration, start, percent complete, milestone, constraint, deadline, resources and custom fields. Each field shows the value the tasks share, or Mixed where they differ, and only a field you change is written. A summary task’s dates and work come from the tasks inside it, so only its deadline, its custom fields and clearing its constraint change. Nothing is written until Apply, and one Undo puts every task back.
• For the constraint, choose whether each task takes its own start (for a start constraint such as Must start on) or its own finish (for a finish constraint), which pins every task where it already sits, or one date for all. A task without that date keeps its constraint as it is, and the dialog says how many before you apply. Pin tasks to their own finish in a change of its own, apart from a new start or duration, so the finish each keeps is the one you see. Clear constraint takes it off every selected task, summary tasks included.

Right-click one of the selected rows and the menu acts on all of them; right-click any other row and it acts on that row alone.

Custom fields

A custom field is a column of your own, such as a workstream, a cost code or a sign-off. Open View > Columns and fields and choose Fields, or Add, rename or remove fields in Task details.

• Add a field takes a name and a type: text, number, date, yes or no, or a choice list (one choice per line). The new field shows as a column, and a task’s value can be typed in the grid or in Task details. A number field takes digits only, with a decimal point or comma (1,5); a number it cannot read is refused and the cell goes back to its value. A date is picked from the calendar button in the cell (or Alt+Down), or typed, and emptying it clears the field. A choice list opens in the cell.
• Rename changes the name everywhere the field shows.
• Remove takes the field and its value on every task, after saying how many tasks hold one. Undo brings both back.

In a Project XML file, a field is saved in one of Microsoft Project’s own custom field slots (Text1 to Text30, Number1 to Number20, Date1 to Date10, Flag1 to Flag20), so Microsoft Project shows it when it opens the file. A choice list keeps its choices.

In a project opened from Onplana, field changes go to Onplana with Update, like every other change, and become fields of that project. Onplana checks that you may manage the project’s fields: a project owner or manager can change the project’s own fields, and a field shared by every project needs someone who manages the workspace’s fields (by default an owner, admin or portfolio manager). A shared field that other projects still use cannot be removed from here. Custom fields need a plan that includes them. What your role or plan does not allow is turned off in the list, with the reason, so Update is never held back by a field change you could not make.

A project opened from Onplana comes with its fields and the values in them, and a choice list with its choices. A change to one of those fields, or to a value in it, changes that same field in Onplana when you update. A multi-select field does not come down, because a Project file cannot hold one, and nor does a field past the last of Microsoft Project’s slots for its type; the list names any it left out, and you see them in the web app.

The calendar, and what an edit moved

The app schedules on the file’s own calendar: its working week, the working hours of each day, and its holidays and other one-off exceptions. Like Microsoft Project, it schedules to the minute: a four-hour task that starts at 08:00 finishes at 12:00, and the task linked after it starts at 13:00, after the lunch break. So a plan Project scheduled opens with nothing to move, and an edit moves only what that edit changes. An exception that repeats (every year, say) and alternate work weeks are not applied yet; the status bar lists them as notes, and a save keeps the repeating exceptions in the file. A file with no calendar schedules on Project’s Standard day, Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 12:00 and 13:00 to 17:00, and a save writes that calendar into it. A task that has started keeps the finish the file recorded, and a manually scheduled task stays where the file put it.

After an edit, the status bar says how many other tasks it moved. Point at it to see each one with its old and new dates.

Save

Press Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac), choose File > Save, or press the Save button that shows on the bar while there is something to save. The app writes Project XML, which Microsoft Project opens through File > Open and which Onplana imports.

• A Project XML file saves in place.
• A file opened in any other format saves beside the original as Project XML under the same name, through the save dialog. The original is never overwritten, because the app writes only Project XML. A Primavera P6 or Planner .xml export is offered a name of its own, <name> (Microsoft Project).xml, so the dialog never suggests replacing it.
• A Primavera P6 file does not save back as P6. An edited .xer or P6 XML export saves as Project XML. Primavera P6 Professional can import that file through File > Import > Microsoft Project, but only for an admin superuser, and custom fields have to be mapped to P6 user-defined fields during the import. The P6 file you opened is never changed.
• File > Save a copy… (Ctrl+Shift+S) writes a copy wherever you choose.
• A project opened from Onplana saves by Update. Ctrl+S there opens Update, which sends your changes back to the project. Save a copy writes Project XML to your computer, and the plan stays the Onplana project: still unsent, with its recovery copy kept, until you update it.

While there is something to save, the bar reads Unsaved changes, with a Save button beside it (Update, for a project opened from Onplana). Once the plan is saved it shows only a dot; point at it to see when you saved. If a write fails it reads Not saved, with the reason on the status line, and the Save button stays, to try again. Undo keeps working after a save; undoing past it makes the plan unsaved again.

Save automatically

Automatic saving is off until you turn it on. Open Settings and about and tick Save Project XML files automatically under Saving. A Project XML file then saves itself where it is a few seconds after each change, and pointing at the dot on the bar says when it last saved. Undo still works, and the plan you undo to is saved a few seconds later.

It never opens a save dialog by itself. A file opened in another format, and a project opened from Onplana, stay unsaved until you save or update them, and keep their recovery copy meanwhile. It also waits while the app is asking whether to save your changes, so Don’t save still means it. If a save fails, the app tries again after your next change.

Recover unsaved changes

While a schedule has unsaved changes the app keeps a recovery copy, rewritten a moment after each change and removed when you save. For a file, the copy sits beside it, named after it with .onplana-recovery.xml on the end. For a project opened from Onplana, the copy is kept in the app’s own data, one for each person, and only the person who made it, signed in to the same workspace, is offered it. If a session ends before you save (a crash, a power cut, a forced shutdown), the next time you open that file or project the app offers the copy back:

• Recover changes carries on where you left off. The plan is unsaved until you save it, even with automatic saving on.
• Discard the copy removes the copy and opens the file as it is on disk, or the project as it is in Onplana.
• Closing the question (Escape or the close button) decides nothing: the copy stays, untouched, and Recover changes… on the bar asks again.

A recovered project remembers the version your changes were made to, so updating the project afterwards sends only your changes, and anything a colleague changed in Onplana in the meantime is still caught before it is overwritten.

Opening another file, closing the schedule or closing the window while changes are unsaved asks the same question: Save, Don’t save or Keep editing. For a project opened from Onplana it asks whether to send your changes: Review and update…, Don’t send or Keep editing.

Compare two versions

Choose Plan > Compare with another version… and pick another version of the same schedule: an earlier save, last month’s update, or a copy someone sent you. The schedule you have open stays the one you edit. The other version is only read, never changed, and it does not join your recent files.

• The strip under the bar says how the finish moved, in working days on your plan’s calendar, and how many tasks changed, were added or were removed. Point at the counts to see the breakdown: dates, durations, links, constraints and deadlines, resources, float, the critical path, and progress, which is counted apart from the plan.
• The chart draws the other version’s dates as each bar’s baseline: a chip with how many working days the bar starts later or earlier, counted the same way as the strip and Changes, the other version’s dates on the hover card, and a line at its finish. View turns it off and on, under the name Compare: <file name>.
• Changes, a fifth entry in Views while a comparison is open, lists every task that changed, was added or was removed, grouped by which. A changed field shows the other version’s value and then yours, a moved date carries its working days (+2d), and a task on the path to the finish says so. The counts along the top filter the list. File > Task table as CSV… saves every change whatever the filter shows, with the other version’s value beside yours in each column, ready for Excel.
• Health scores side by side. When your schedule has a health check of the plan as it is now and the other version is a binary file, the strip also shows both scores, for example Health 68, 7 points higher than v1 (61). A higher score is a healthier schedule. The other version’s score comes from the conversion it already had, so nothing more is uploaded. A Project XML version has no score, and an edit since your last check hides the scores until you check health again.
• Tasks are matched by task ID, which Microsoft Project keeps for a task’s life. Two Primavera P6 versions are matched by activity ID instead: P6 gives activities new internal IDs when a project is copied or imported into another database, and the activity ID is the one it keeps. When fewer than half of the tasks share an ID (a plan rebuilt in a new file, say), the strip says the counts are not reliable and offers Match by outline and name instead. Two tasks with the same name under the same summary, or two activities with the same activity ID, are left unmatched rather than guessed.
• Dates are compared as each file saved them. The strip names the changed tasks on the path to the finish. It does not say how much of the delay each one caused, which is a forensic analysis with its own rules.

A Project XML version is read on your machine. Any other version is converted on Onplana’s servers as an open would be, after the same privacy notice, and the uploaded copy is deleted within 24 hours. Close the comparison with the close button at the end of the strip; opening another file closes it too. If Changes was on screen, the Gantt comes back.

Check schedule quality

Plan > Schedule quality runs the DCMA 14-point assessment on the plan in front of you: logic, leads, lags, relationship types, hard constraints, high float, negative float, high duration, invalid dates, resources, missed tasks, the critical path test, the Critical Path Length Index (CPLI) and the Baseline Execution Index (BEI). It runs on your computer, on the plan as it stands, edits included. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.

Each check says whether it passed, what it found against the DCMA threshold, and the first tasks it flagged. Show N tasks closes the drawer and narrows the chart to those tasks; Show all tasks above the chart brings the rest back.

• The status date is the one saved in the file. When the file sets none, today is used, and the drawer says so.
• The baseline is the one each task carries. Missed tasks and BEI read it, and CPLI measures against the latest baseline finish, so a file with no baseline shows those three as not assessed.
• Summary tasks are left out, and a task counts as open until it is 100% complete.
• Dependencies count as the file stores them, so a link on a summary task does not give the tasks inside it a predecessor.

The assessment is written for critical-path schedules, where tasks carry durations and dependencies. A plain task list fails most checks, and that is an accurate result rather than a broken one.

The full assessment needs the plan’s constraints, deadlines and baselines. A Project XML file opened from your computer carries them, and so does a file converted on Onplana’s servers, such as a binary .mpp. Three kinds of plan arrive without some of them, and on those the checks that need what is missing show as not assessed, with the reason. The other checks run as usual.

• A Primavera P6 file (.xer or P6 XML) arrives without a baseline. P6 keeps a baseline as a separate project, and the dates that come in its place are P6’s planned dates, which are not a baseline, so missed tasks and BEI are not assessed.
• A project opened from Onplana arrives without constraints, deadlines or baselines, so hard constraints, high and negative float, the critical path test, CPLI, missed tasks and BEI are not assessed.
• A plan in a spreadsheet has no columns for constraints or baselines, and is assessed the same way.

Schedule quality is separate from the health check below, which runs Onplana’s analyzers on a copy of the file on our servers and emails the full report.

Estimate the chance of your finish date

Coming with the next release, with a Business workspace

Schedule risk arrives in the release after version 0.1.48. Running it needs you signed in to an Onplana workspace on the Business, Enterprise or Enterprise+ plan. Without one, everything below stays visible and you can enter estimates and risks, but Run is locked and says why.

Plan > Schedule risk… runs the plan many times, each time with every open task taking a different length between its best and worst case, and counts how often the plan finishes by each date. It runs on your computer and writes nothing to the file.

• Give tasks a range. Show the optional Optimistic and Pessimistic columns in the grid and type each task’s best and worst case in work days. They are saved in the file as the custom fields Duration1 and Duration3, named “Optimistic Duration” and “Pessimistic Duration”, so Microsoft Project keeps them. Tasks without a range use the default range in the dialog.
• Add risks in the dialog: a chance, an impact in work days and the tasks it would delay. Risks are kept for the open plan only, not saved in the file.
• Read the results: the P50, P80 and P90 finish, the chance of the plan’s own date and of a target date you set, the finish curve, your milestones, the tasks most often critical, and what moves the finish most.

The same analysis on a project in Onplana is described in Estimate how likely your finish date is.

Check the schedule’s health

1. Press Check health on the bar, or choose Plan > Check health…. For a .mpp file the check has already run while the file converted, and the button shows the score.

2. For a Project XML file the app first asks, because this step uploads a copy. Press Upload and check.

3. The pill shows the score and the number of findings. Open it for the drawer: the score, what it means, and the findings that matter most.

4. A finding that names tasks offers Show N tasks. It closes the drawer and narrows the chart to those tasks, with their summary tasks for context. Show all tasks above the chart brings the whole plan back.

5. Enter your email and press Send report for the full report: resource loading, date anomalies and a fix-first list, as a PDF you can forward. When you are signed in, the field starts with your account’s email, and you can change it before you send.

It is the same Schedule Health Check that runs on onplana.com, so the score means the same thing in both places. A check is of the plan as it was when it ran: after you edit, the pill reads Check health again and names the earlier score, and a new check uploads the plan as it is now.

Level resources and optimize the plan

The drawer shows two more of Onplana’s free tools under Improve the plan, and the Plan menu lists them as Level resources… and Optimize with AI…. They run once the report is sent. Before that, the drawer shows them switched off with the step still to take, and the menu entries open the drawer. Both run on the copy uploaded for the check, so nothing is uploaded again, and both have the same daily limits as on onplana.com (signed in, Optimize with AI has none; see below).

• Level resources runs the Resource Leveler. It lists who is booked past capacity and the moves that would fix it, each with a box, and every move it can apply starts ticked. Apply moves the start of each task you kept, as a start-no-earlier-than date, and one Undo takes them all back: the status line says how many moves were applied, with an Undo beside it, and the Edit menu has it too. A move on a task that has already started, or is scheduled by hand, is listed but not applied, because that task’s start is fixed.

• Optimize with AI runs the AI plan optimizer, the same one as the AI Gantt Optimizer on onplana.com. Choose what to optimize for: level resources, compress the timeline or reduce risk. The report’s main findings go with the plan. The answer says what changed, and Open the optimized plan opens the rewrite as a new unsaved schedule, named after your plan and the focus. Your file is not changed; save the rewrite to keep it. Your plan is kept as you left it, unsaved changes and Undo included, and Back to your plan, in the bar above the chart, returns to it. It asks first only if you changed the rewrite.

  When you are signed in to Onplana, Optimize with AI uses your workspace’s AI tokens instead of the daily limit: the monthly allowance on a paid plan (or the one-time bonus on Free), and any AI credit your workspace bought. When they are used up, the dialog says so, and Buy AI credit opens Billing in Onplana, where a workspace owner or admin can buy more. Level resources is not an AI call and keeps its daily limit.

Both work on the plan that was checked. After any change to the plan, applied moves included, check health again before using them again; a new check asks for your email again. Closing either dialog loses nothing: a rewrite that is still running keeps going, and its answer is there when you open Optimize with AI again.

Share a copy

Share, at the right end of the bar, is how a plan reaches other people. There are three ways:

• Invite people into an Onplana workspace, where they open the plan in a browser and, depending on what you let them do, change it or comment on it.
• Copy a read-only link that anyone can open, with no Onplana account.
• Publish a copy as a new project in Onplana. This one works without an account: it creates a free workspace when you have none.

The first two need you to be signed in; a free account is enough. For a project opened from Onplana the button on the bar is Update instead, and File > Share with people… opens the same dialog.

Invite people

1. Press Share. If you are not signed in, choose Create a free account or sign in first.

2. Type the email addresses, one per line or separated by commas, and choose what they can do: Can edit, Can comment or Can view.

3. Press Share, or Send invitation for a plan that is already in Onplana. With several addresses, the button says how many people.

A plan that is not in Onplana yet is uploaded first, as a new project in your workspace. The dialog says so before anything goes, and the file on your computer is not changed. Each person gets an email with a link, and anyone without an Onplana account can create a free one when they accept. The dialog then says what happened to each address: sent, added straight away for someone who already has an account, or waiting for an Owner or Admin to approve when inviting them would add a paid seat. When the workspace has no seats left, it offers a button to add seats.

Copy a read-only link

A read-only link shows the plan to someone outside your workspace, such as a client, a subcontractor or a manager. They need no Onplana account and nothing to install. They see the Gantt chart and the dates in a browser, and cannot change anything.

1. Sign in, press Share, and choose Or copy a read-only link.

2. Leave Show the schedule quality checks unticked unless you want them seen. It is off by default: sharing the Gantt shows your plan, while the 14-point assessment is a critique of it, and whoever holds the link would see that too.

3. Press Create a link, then Copy link. Open it yourself shows the page they will see.

• The link is the whole credential. Anyone who has it can open the plan, so send it only to the people it is for.
• It is a frozen copy. Creating the link uploads a copy of the plan in front of you, unsaved edits included, to your Onplana workspace. The file on your computer is not changed, and editing afterwards does not change what they see. To show a newer version, create a new link.
• It works for 30 days. The dialog says when it stops working. There is no screen for turning off a link made in this app sooner, so it runs its 30 days. (The Share dialog on the Gantt in the Onplana web app turns off only the links made from a project there.) Anyone who opens a link after it has expired, or after it was turned off, sees This link has expired or This link has been turned off instead of the plan.
• You need an account, they do not. A link is a page Onplana hosts, so it belongs to an account. The people you send it to need nothing at all.
• A plan over 5 MB cannot be shared as a link. The size is the plan as Project XML, and the app names the limit when it refuses. A plan with no tasks has nothing to show, so Create a link stays greyed out.

If sharing is refused

Inviting people and creating a link both check two things, and the app says which one stopped you and what to do:

• A verified email. Until the email address on your account is verified, you cannot invite people or create a link. The app says so and offers Open Onplana to verify your email, which opens the web app, where you can send the verification email again.
• An hourly limit. You can create only so many links, and send only so many invitations, in an hour. The limit on links is lower unless your workspace is on a paid plan, and on such a workspace it is lower again in your account’s first day. The app says you have reached the limit for this hour and when to try again. After a refused invitation the addresses stay in the box, so you can send them again later.

Publish a copy to Onplana

Publish to Onplana imports a copy of the schedule into a new project in a free Onplana workspace, with its tasks, links and milestones intact. Your team opens it in a browser, with the Gantt, comments and assignments. The copy is the plan as it is now, your edits included. Nothing changes in your file; the original stays where it is.

1. Choose File > Publish to Onplana…. When you are not signed in, Share offers the same step as Or publish a copy without an account.

2. Press Create a free workspace. You create your Onplana account in a sign-in window: on a Mac, macOS first asks whether Onplana Schedule may use onplana.com to sign in; on Windows, your browser opens.

3. Back in the app, you are signed in to the new workspace. Press Publish to and the workspace’s name. The new project opens in your browser.

The account button at the top right of the window shows whether you are signed in. Press Sign in to sign in on onplana.com: on a Mac, macOS asks whether Onplana Schedule may use onplana.com to sign in and opens a sign-in window when you choose Continue; on Windows, your browser opens. Once you are signed in, the button shows your email, and its menu names the workspace and has Sign out and Delete account.

The free plan holds 2 projects and 5 members. Upgrade only if you outgrow it. If you already have an Onplana account, press I already have an Onplana account to sign in and import the file there instead, with the same fidelity the Microsoft Project import gives.

Add the tasks to Onplana Tasks

File > Add to Onplana Tasks… copies the plan’s tasks into the list the Onplana Tasks desktop app keeps on your computer, so you can tick them off from the tray or the menu bar. Neither app needs an account for this, and nothing is uploaded: the plan goes from one app to the other on your computer. The item appears when Onplana Tasks is installed; a plan that came from an Onplana project offers Open in Onplana Tasks instead.

1. Save the plan to a file. For a plan you have not saved yet, such as a new schedule or one started from a template, the item is greyed out until you do, because the file is what lets a second send update the same tasks.

2. Choose File > Add to Onplana Tasks…. Onplana Tasks opens.

3. Onplana Tasks asks before adding anything, for example Add 42 tasks from Website relaunch?, and says how many are new and how many it already has. Press Add, or Not now to add nothing.

• Every task goes, summary rows do not. Each task is due on the day it finishes. A task that is done arrives done, and the rest keep their progress. They all go into the one inbox, since the list kept on your computer has no projects. The copy is the plan in front of you, unsaved edits included.
• Sending it again updates the copies. Send the same saved file again after changing the plan, and Onplana Tasks updates the name, due date and progress of the tasks it already has and adds the new ones. Tasks you have since removed from the plan stay in Onplana Tasks; delete them there if you no longer want them. A moved or renamed file counts as a new plan.
• It is a copy, not a link. Ticking a task off in Onplana Tasks does not change the plan.
• Up to 2,000 tasks at a time. A larger plan is refused, and the app says so.
• If Onplana Tasks is signed in, it says that nothing was added: plans go to the list it keeps on your computer, which is the one it shows when you are not signed in. If it has not been set up yet, it says a plan is waiting and that Use without an account adds it.

Settings, feedback and shortcuts

The gear at the top right, beside the account button, opens Settings and about.

• About shows the version you are running.
• Language. The app opens in your computer’s language when Onplana Schedule has it: English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese or Arabic, and English otherwise. Language changes it: Match the system, English, Español, Français, Português (Brasil), Deutsch, Italiano, 日本語, 简体中文 or العربية. The change applies at once, with no restart, and the app keeps your choice the next time it opens. It changes the words on screen and how dates and numbers are written; the files you save are the same in every language. Each language names the menus its own way, and Alt plus the first letter of a menu’s name opens it (in French, Alt+E opens Édition). In Japanese, Chinese and Arabic the name carries its letter in brackets, as in ファイル(F), and Alt plus that letter opens it. In Arabic the menus and dialogs read right to left and the chart reads left to right, as time runs in Microsoft Project. A lag can be typed in the language’s own units or in English ones.
• Updates. Press Check for updates. When a newer version is ready, Install and restart downloads it and restarts the app. Save your changes first: the button waits until the schedule has none, because the restart does not stop to ask, and the dialog stays open until the app restarts. The row appears on a Mac install from the disk image and on a Windows install from the downloaded installer; a Mac App Store or Microsoft Store install is updated by its store and shows no row. On those downloaded installs the app also checks by itself when it starts and once a day, and when a newer version is ready a bar under the title bar says so. Restart to update opens this row and installs; Not now hides the bar until the next version. The bar waits while the schedule has unsaved changes or a dialog is open.
• Feedback goes to the Onplana team, not to your workspace. Signed in, press Send feedback, choose what kind it is, and write a title and the details. Not signed in, press Sign in to send it from here, or Email us to write to support@onplana.com with the app’s version already in the message.
• Saving. Save Project XML files automatically saves a Project XML file a few seconds after each change. It is off until you turn it on. See Save automatically.
• Account. Delete account opens your account settings on app.onplana.com (signing you in first if needed), where Delete my account is at the bottom of the Profile tab. Delete your account explains what is erased and when.
• Privacy. If you ticked Don’t show this again on the upload notice, Ask again turns it back on. Clear cached conversions removes the converted schedules the app keeps on your computer (see What leaves your machine).
• Keyboard shortcuts lists every key the editor answers to, spelled the way your computer writes it (Ctrl+Shift+S on Windows, ⇧⌘S on a Mac). Besides saving, undo, find and print, that includes Ctrl+N for a new schedule, Ctrl+O to open a file, Ctrl+W to close the schedule, Shift+F2 for Task details and F11 for full screen (Control+Cmd+F on a Mac).

If the app hits an error

Instead of a blank window, the app shows what went wrong. Press Reload to start the screen again; opening your file afterwards offers any recovery copy saved while you worked (see Recover unsaved changes). Copy details puts the version, your platform and the error on the clipboard, to paste into feedback or an email to support.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Microsoft Project installed? No. The app reads and writes the files itself.

Can I edit the schedule? Yes: names, durations, dates, predecessors and percent complete in the grid; bars and links in the chart; insert, delete, indent, outdent, undo and redo. See Edit the schedule.

Can I see each resource’s work by month? Yes. The Resource usage view lists every resource’s work and actual work by month, week or day, with the assignments beneath it and totals for each line and each period, and exports as CSV. See Resource usage.

What does it save? Project XML. A file opened as .mpp saves as XML beside it; the .mpp itself is never changed. See Save.

Can I send an edited .xer back to Primavera P6? Not as an .xer: the app saves Project XML. P6 Professional imports that file through File > Import > Microsoft Project, for an admin superuser, with custom fields mapped to P6 user-defined fields. See Save.

Is it free? Yes, the app, editing, saving and the health check are free. Publishing creates a free workspace.

Which languages is it in? English, Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Italian, Japanese, Simplified Chinese and Arabic. It opens in your computer’s language when it is one of those, and you can change it in Settings at any time.

Where are my recent files? On the Home screen, and under Recent in the File menu, which lists the last five. The list is stored on your computer, not on Onplana.

How do I send feedback or update the app? From Settings and about, the gear at the top right. See Settings, feedback and shortcuts.