@task Advantage: Tip of the Month

Many people who have switched to @task from other products have been able to save a great deal of time by importing their projects into @task from their old application. You can do this with any application that exports projects into .mpp or .mpx formats. These are the formats that Microsoft Project uses.

@task gives you several options on how you want to import your project. You will find a description of each option as you read on.

One thing you need to do before you start the import process is decide how you want to map users. For example, if a task in the previous application was assigned to User X, you need to decide which @task user will be responsible for the task in @task. If the users have been created in @task already, then you are in good shape. If not, then you may be able to import the user set into @task from your previous application.

If you can export a user list from your old application into a .tsv file, then you can import it into @task. To do this:

1. In the @task application, open a user list. The easiest way to do this is to click Find > Users in the Navigation Menu, and then click Submit to see the list of users.
2. In the Contextual Menu, click Import Users, then follow the process in @task.

For a complete description of this process, see the @task User's Reference.

After you have determined which users from your old application you will map to your @task users, you are ready to begin the import process. To import the application, do the following:

1. In the Navigation Menu, click Find > Projects.
2. In the Contextual Menu, click Import MS Project.
3. In the first screen you see, click Browse and navigate to the location of your project file, or type the path in the field. As with every screen, click Next to continue.
4. In this screen, select New Project as the import target.
5. Now name the project, type a description, associate the project to a group, and select the status of the project.
6. The next screen is where you can remove any task from the project you are importing. Uncheck the box next to any task you want to remove from the project. Leave the rest checked.
7. Now you will map the old users to your @task users. You can map the users from your old application to an @task user, or to a specific job role. If you select a job role, then any @task user who is assigned that job role can do the task.
8. If you have created multiple schedules in @task, then, in this screen, you can select the schedule that you want to use. Schedules determine the number of work hours that are in each day, what days are holidays, and so forth. Otherwise, @task uses the default schedule which is eight hours per day, Monday through Friday.
9. Review the summary, then click Finish.

You have successfully imported your project. Now you can search for it, edit it, and work with it as you do any other @task project.