Task Name Unavailable in MS Project Import Wizard Mapping Options

Anonymous
2025-01-03T18:28:59+00:00

Hello,

I have an existing MS Project mpp file.

I have an Excel Spreadsheet with task durations that I want to import into the existing mpp file.

I have both the Task Name and Work field names in the Excel file matching those (native) defaults in the mpp file.

When I try to use the MS Project Import Wizard, I select New Map and then "Merge the data into the active project" since I want to keep everything in the mpp file as is except for updating the Work fields.

I then select Tasks as the type of data for import and specify the import includes headers.

In the Import Wizard Task Mapping dialog I then select the desired worksheet.

Everything in the "From: Excel Field" shows up correctly.

When I scroll down, I can see that the wizard correctly mapped "Work" in the Excel file to "Work" in the mpp.

However, it does not map the Excel "Task Name" to anything.

This should be mapped to "Task Name" in the mpp.

When I try to manually select "Task Name" in the "To: Microsoft Project Field" the option for "Task Name" is not present.

So, I cannot map the Task Name and hence can't Set Merge Key to Task Name.

What am I doing wrong here?

Thank you in advance!

Chris

Microsoft 365 and Office | Project | For business | Windows

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John Project 49,720 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2025-01-03T18:46:20+00:00

Chris Minerva,

What you are doing wrong is looking for a field called Task Name. The field you want is simply "Name", the "task" is assumed by Project since you are mapping into a task based view.

I'll caution you on something though. In Project all time related data is in minutes, so you will need to express duration and work as minutes in Excel in order for Project to accept your Excel data as intended.

Hope this helps.

John

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  1. John Project 49,720 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2025-01-13T15:14:53+00:00

    Chris,

    You're welcome and thanks for the feedback.

    John

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  2. Anonymous
    2025-01-13T02:18:28+00:00

    OK, that makes sense. Thank you for the detailed explanation, John. I'm just coming back to using Project again after many years and this is the first time I'm trying to setup a workflow that exports from Excel to Project. *sweat* :-)

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