Microsoft Project is a desktop tool and much easier to manipulate task schedules, especially when you have large projects. Celoxis allow you to export tasks to Microsoft Project, make changes in Microsoft Project and re-import it, thus offering true Microsoft Project synchronization. For tasks to be exportable to Microsoft Project, microsoft project synchronization should be enabled for that project in Celoxis.
Celoxis export is in the form of an XML file and the following information is exported:
Task attributes
Parent-child relationships
Dependencies including lead/lag time
Constraints
Resource allocations
Resource list - eases project managers job while assigning resources to tasks
Resource vacations
Company working hours
Company holidays
As you can see, the export is comprehensive and makes it easy to work in Microsoft Project.
The following are the key differences between Celoxis and Microsoft Project:
| In Celoxis | In Microsoft Project |
|---|---|
| You can enter start and finish dates for a task without entering a constraint. | When start or finish dates are entered for a task, they are converted to constraints. Besides, you can only have one constraint at a time. So you cannot enter both, start and end. |
| Resource allocation can be entered in hours or as a percentage of the task's duration. | Allocation is can bet entered only in percentage. |
Celoxis is more flexible because many users like that. For full compatibility with Microsoft Project, both must obey the same rules. When you enable synchronization for a project, Celoxis will behave restrictively like Microsoft Project and only these projects may be exported to Microsoft Project.
![[Important]](../../images/important.png) | Important |
|---|---|
This feature is in Beta and has been tested to work with Microsoft Project 2003 and 2007. You can only export tasks from projects that have Microsoft Project Synchronization enabled. |
Select a project
From the project tabs click →
Click button
You will be prompted to save a file. Save it on your computer. This is an XML file that can be read by Microsoft Project