Apply a revised file to your plan

Pro planAnyone signed in to the organization

When someone sends you this week’s version of a schedule, you do not have to throw away the plan you have open. Plan > Apply a revised file… reads the newer file, shows what changed, and applies the changes to your plan as one step you can undo.

Apply the changes

Open your plan and choose Plan > Apply a revised file…, then pick the newer file. If you are already comparing the two, press Apply these changes in the compare bar instead.
The Apply a revised file dialog names the file and says what share of its tasks match your plan by task ID and name.
Check the counts (Added, Removed, Changed) and the list under Changes to apply, which shows each task with This plan beside the revised value.
Press Apply. The status bar reads “Applied” and the file name, with Undo.

The comparison closes, and the plan is unsaved until you save it.

Send it to Onplana

When the plan is linked to a project in Onplana, its link and its history stay as they were. The Update button carries a dot, and pointing at it says the changes from the revised file are ready to send. Choose File > Update in Onplana to send exactly those changes. An Undo past the revision, or an update that lands, takes the dot away.

What is applied

Start and finish dates, durations, percent complete and task names.
Constraints and deadlines.
Links added, removed or given a new lag.
Resource assignments, matched by name.
New tasks, at their place in the revised outline, keeping their task IDs.
Removed tasks, with their links.
On a task that changed, its actual start, actual finish and notes too.

What is left alone

A task that moved in the outline keeps its place here. The dialog says how many.
Summary rows’ own fields, custom field values, baselines, calendars, resource details such as rates and units, and timephased actual work.
Anything the reader did not read from the revised file. A field that is missing there is never cleared here.

If it is refused

The files do not match. Tasks are matched by task ID and name, and at least 80% must match. Below that, the dialog says “Only N% of its tasks share a task ID and name with this plan, so its changes cannot be applied to it.”
A link loop. If the revised file’s links, added to yours, would make tasks wait on each other in a loop, the changes are not applied.
Nothing to apply. The dialog says “Nothing in” the file “changes this plan in a way that can be applied.”

Notes

A Project XML file is read on your computer. A revised .mpp or other binary file is converted on Onplana’s servers first, as Compare converts it, after the same privacy notice. With Keep this plan on this machine on, nothing is uploaded unless you choose Turn off and upload.
To see every change before you apply, use Plan > Compare with another version…. The dialog lists the first changes and says how many more Compare shows.

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