LoopGantt imports Microsoft Project XML files directly. Save your plan from Microsoft Project as XML, drop the file into the Import Project dialog, and the outline, durations, milestones, all four dependency types with their lags, and progress come across. The import lists every change it had to make, so nothing is dropped silently.
Step 1 — Save your plan as XML
- Open the project in the Microsoft Project desktop app. From Project Online, open it in the desktop app first.
- Go to File → Save As and pick XML Format (*.xml) as the file type.
- Save the file.
Use XML rather than a CSV or Excel export: only the XML carries the outline, the dependency types and the lags.
Step 2 — Import into LoopGantt
- On your dashboard, click Import.
- Drop the
.xmlfile into the Import Project dialog, or click to browse. - The preview shows Detected: Microsoft Project, the number of tasks and dependencies, the project start date and the first tasks of the plan. Notes below it list anything that was skipped or approximated. You can rename the project here.
- Click Import Project.
What comes across
| Microsoft Project | In LoopGantt |
|---|---|
| Project title and start date | Project name and start date |
| Summary tasks | Phases, with their tasks nested under them as in your outline (up to six levels deep) |
| Durations | Whole working days, at the file's hours per day (8 by default); elapsed durations count 24 hours per day |
| Milestones | Milestones (a task with zero duration is a milestone too) |
| Predecessors | Dependencies of all four types: Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish and Start-to-Finish |
| Lag and lead time | Lag in whole days; a percentage lag is converted with the predecessor's duration |
| % Complete | Progress, and the status: 0% Not started, 1–99% In progress, 100% Completed |
| Notes | Task description |
| Resource assignments | The resource names, added to the task description ("Resources: …") |
| Deadline | The task's deadline marker |
| "Must Start On" and "Start No Earlier Than" constraints | The task's start date |
What is skipped or changed
- Inactive tasks are skipped, as Microsoft Project leaves them out of the schedule.
- Inserted subprojects are skipped. Link the other project in LoopGantt instead.
- The project summary task (task 0) is not imported. LoopGantt computes project totals from the tasks.
- Other constraint types ("As Late As Possible", "Must Finish On", "Start No Later Than", "Finish No Earlier Than", "Finish No Later Than") have no LoopGantt equivalent; the preview names each affected task, because its dates may differ.
- Calendars, costs and resource details are not part of a normal import. Set your work week and holidays in LoopGantt after import, then check your key milestones.
Keep the MS Project extras (Pro and Teams)
When the file holds more than a normal plan (calendars, resources, assignments, baselines, custom fields, or inactive, manually scheduled or constrained tasks), the preview shows an MS Project extras detected panel with a count of each.
On the Pro and Teams plans, tick Enable Advanced PM for this project and keep these. Calendars, resources, assignments, constraints and work are then kept in the project's Advanced PM data, and inactive tasks are imported as inactive instead of skipped. Baselines are kept too, and baseline tracking is turned on; custom field definitions are not kept yet. You can switch the modules off later. Without the option, or on the Free plan, the project imports as a normal plan.