How to Import Microsoft Project Files Without Losing Your Dependencies
A walkthrough of importing .xml (MSPDI) files from Microsoft Project into GanttPM, and what actually carries over: tasks, WBS hierarchy, dependencies, resources, and assignments.
If your team has years of project history sitting in .mpp files, switching tools usually means one of two bad options: re-enter everything by hand, or live with an import that flattens your task hierarchy and drops half your dependencies.
GanttPM imports Microsoft Project’s .xml format (MSPDI, Microsoft Project Data Interchange) directly, and it’s built to bring the whole structure across, not just a list of task names.
What comes across
- Tasks and their WBS hierarchy: parent/child structure is preserved, not flattened into one list.
- Dependencies: Finish-to-Start, Start-to-Start, Finish-to-Finish, and Start-to-Finish links, including lag, all map to GanttPM’s own dependency types.
- Resources and assignments: who’s assigned to what, and at what allocation, comes in with the tasks rather than needing to be rebuilt.
Once it’s in, it’s a normal GanttPM project: the same critical path engine runs over the imported schedule immediately, so you’ll see slack and the critical path highlighted on data you didn’t have to re-type.
Exporting from Microsoft Project
In Microsoft Project: File → Save As, choose XML Format (*.xml), not the native .mpp format. That’s the interchange format GanttPM reads. If you only have a .mpp file and don’t have Project installed to convert it, most versions of Project can open and re-save an .mpp as .xml without needing an active subscription for that single operation.
Bringing it into GanttPM
From any project list, use Import → Microsoft Project (.xml) and select the file. GanttPM parses the task list, hierarchy, dependencies, and assignments in one pass. There’s no field-mapping step to configure, because the MSPDI schema already tells GanttPM what each piece of data is.
What to check afterward
Imports are generally faithful, but it’s worth a quick pass over:
- Custom fields specific to your organization’s Project setup, if you used any beyond the standard schema.
- Calendars: if your Project file used a non-default working calendar (custom holidays, non-standard work weeks), confirm task dates line up the way you expect after import.
Everything else (task titles, dates, milestones, the dependency graph, resource assignments) should be there, ready to keep working in whichever GanttPM view fits what you’re doing next: the Gantt chart for scheduling, Kanban for status, or the Resource view to check for overallocation now that assignments have come across too.