Open Microsoft Project files with Onplana Schedule

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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.

Install

Open onplana.com/download and follow the link for Onplana Schedule on your platform.
On Windows, install it from the Microsoft Store. On a Mac, open the downloaded disk image and drag Onplana Schedule to Applications.
Launch it. The Home screen offers two things: open a .mpp file, or open a Project XML file.

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. Windows updates come through the Store. On a Mac, 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 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, edit it and save it as a Project XML file. Saving never changes the project in Onplana, and saving asks where to put the file the first time. To put your changes into Onplana, publish the schedule, which creates a new project.

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.

What leaves your machine

Before the first conversion the app shows this sentence, once, with a Don’t show this again box:

Binary .mpp files are converted on Onplana’s servers. The uploaded copy is deleted within 24 hours. Project XML files never leave your machine.

A Project XML file is parsed on your computer. Nothing about it is sent anywhere until you ask for a health check, and that button says it uploads a copy before it does. 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.

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. Outline in the toolbar has Expand all and Collapse all, to 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. The chart on the right draws the bars, the links between tasks and the milestones.

Switch between Gantt, Task sheet and Resource sheet at the left of the row above the chart. 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. Press Add resource (or Insert) for a new row and type its name, 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. Delete resource removes the selected resource and takes it off every task. Overtime rate and cost per use are shown but not edited yet.

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 in the toolbar. 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.

Full screen 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 toolbar and the view bar stay, because they carry the scale, the zoom, Find a task and the filters, and because the button that leaves is then always on screen. Press it again, 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 many working days.

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. 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 the filter shows every task again. The filter works together with a find and Show tasks for.

Export 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.

Export chart 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, a find and Show tasks for 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.

Print (or 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 Export chart 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.

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.

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 toolbar 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. 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 toolbar	Insert task (above the selected row, or at the end at the last row’s level), delete, indent and outdent, undo and redo.
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, 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.

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 the toolbar, 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 tasks (Shift+F2) 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.

Save

Press Ctrl+S (Cmd+S on a Mac) or the Save button. 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.
Save as (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.

The pill in the toolbar reads Unsaved changes while there is something to save, with a Save button beside it, Saved afterwards, and Not saved with the reason on the status line if a write fails (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 the pill reads 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… in the toolbar 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

Press Compare in the toolbar 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 view controls 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 fourth 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. Export 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. A binary version (.mpp, .mpx or .xer) is converted on Onplana’s servers like any other open, 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

Quality on the toolbar 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.

Check the schedule’s health

Press Check health in the toolbar. For a .mpp file the check has already run while the file converted, and the button shows the score.
For a Project XML file the app first asks, because this is the step that uploads a copy. Press Upload and check.
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.
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.
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.

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.

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.

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.

Press Publish to Onplana.
Enter your email if the report has not been unlocked yet for this version of the plan (publishing uses the same step). Press Create a free workspace.
Your browser opens on onplana.com to finish creating the workspace. Your email is the only thing you type.

The account button at the top right of the window shows whether you are signed in. Press Sign in to sign in through your browser; once you are, it shows your email, and its menu names the workspace and has Sign out.

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

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.
Updates. On a Mac, 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. On Windows, the Microsoft Store brings updates.
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.
Privacy. If you ticked Don’t show this again on the upload notice, Ask again turns it back on.
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+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.

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.

Where are my recent files? On the Home screen, and under Recent in the toolbar. 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.

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