Insert another schedule as a subproject

A programme plan is often several schedules, each kept by its own team. Plan > Subproject… inserts another file into your plan as one summary row, the way Microsoft Project’s Insert Subproject does. The file’s tasks are drawn grey under that row and stay in their own file: when its owner changes it, your plan shows the change the next time it opens.

Pro and above, arriving with Onplana Schedule 0.2

Insert and Unlink unlock when the app is signed in to an organization on the Pro plan or above. An inserted project a file already carries draws on every plan, and the dialog and Read file work on every plan. See Unlock the paid features of Onplana Schedule.

Insert a file

1. Open your plan and select the task the subproject should follow. With no task selected, it goes at the end of the plan.

2. Choose Plan > Subproject…. Under Insert a file, the dialog says where it goes, for example: It goes after “Design approved”, the selected task.

3. Select Choose file… and pick the other schedule.

4. Select Insert. A summary row named after the file appears, with the file’s tasks grey beneath it. Undo takes the insert back.

5. Save. Your plan keeps the row and the file’s path, the way Microsoft Project stores an inserted project, and Project opens the other file itself when it opens yours.

A Project XML file is read straight away. Another format, such as .mpp, is converted first, after the same question the app asks when you open that kind of file. See the privacy question in the main article.

How an inserted project behaves

• Its dates come from its file. The summary row spans the file’s earliest start to its latest finish, and the scheduling engine never recalculates it here. A link into the inserted row moves nothing in it, as in Microsoft Project.
• It is read only here. Editing its dates, duration, progress, constraint or people is refused with the reason, for example: “Phase 2 is an inserted project. Its dates, length, progress and people come from its file. Unlink it to change them here.” Nothing can be added under it.
• It is refreshed on open. Each time the plan opens, the app reads the file again from its saved path, or under the same name beside your plan.
• A link out of one of its tasks to a task in your plan is a link between projects, held from the file’s dates. See Link a task to a task in another project file.

Unlink it

To work on the tasks in your own plan, open Plan > Subproject… and select Unlink on its row. The file’s tasks are copied into your plan, where they can be changed, and the other file is not changed. Unlinking is one step that Undo takes back.

Example

A hospital wing programme keeps Mechanical.xml and Electrical.xml with their contractors. In the master plan, select Structure complete, choose Plan > Subproject…, choose Mechanical.xml and select Insert. A Mechanical summary row appears after Structure complete, spanning 2 March to 19 June, with its 40 tasks grey beneath it. When the contractor sends a revised Mechanical.xml finishing 3 July, you save it over the old copy, reopen the master, and the row now runs to 3 July.

Limits

• Link arrows between tasks inside an inserted project are not drawn.
• If the inserted file cannot be found, the row stays where the plan was saved, and the status bar names the file.
• Unlinking needs the file: if it cannot be read, its tasks cannot be copied in.
• An inserted file that itself has no tasks cannot be inserted.

FAQs

Is the other file changed when I insert or unlink it? No. Inserting reads it, and unlinking copies its tasks into your plan. The file itself is never written.

Will Microsoft Project open my plan with the subproject? Yes. The plan is saved the way Project stores an inserted project, and Project reads the subproject from its path when it opens your file.

Why can I not change a task under the inserted row? It belongs to the other file. Change it there, or unlink the subproject to copy its tasks into your plan.

Can someone without Pro open my plan? Yes. The inserted row and its tasks draw for everyone. Only inserting and unlinking need Pro.