Forum Discussion
Can Project Plan 1 Online Truly Replace Project Plan 3 Using Desktop Project and mpp files
Dale_HowardMVP How do we access the mpp files in Project Online if Project for the Web is so bad? We don't want to have to keep relying on all of these mpp files. When we sync with OneDrive it causes massive issues with it creating duplicates because of sync issue. We want to move to the cloud but keep the functionality. Do we just have to stop using Project and buy a cloud scheduler?
When you save your mpp file to the Project Online database, the project will be stored in the database from that point forward. This will totally eliminate your problems with OneDrive since you will no longer be using mpp files. Hope this helps.
- Rich --
Thank you for that VERY KIND comment! You just made my day. 🙂 Dale_HowardMVP I would like to reach out to Dale with a virtual high-5 for the content in this particular thread. As someone who used to teach MS Project classes to companies like HP, Raytheon and EMC 15+ years ago, I always felt I knew the product better than most. After getting away from using it after many years, one of my clients decided to stand this up in their org and reached out to me to help understand it. I was totally overwhelmed by all the new offerings, and ridiculous product names used across the platform.
I have read far too many pages in the MS webs trying to decipher what is what. Luckily, I stumbled across this thread!
This is by FAR the best, most concise explanation of 'all things Project' that I have come across in months. It's a little humbling to know there are people out there that are smart enough to explain this debacle in spite of Microsoft's best efforts to keep us confused.
Kudos to you sir. And I look forward to viewing your YouTube content. I'm sure I will be just as impressed.
Thank you for your contributions.
Rich P- luvsql,
If I may add a comment to this thread. For reference, Dale, myself and others who respond to user questions on this forum are all volunteers who give freely of our time to help users. We do not work for Microsoft and have no influence on the why's and wherefore's in Microsoft products. I personally think Dale has gone well out of his way to explain the admittedly very confusing offerings for Microsoft Project. I hope you can appreciate his efforts.
Just so you understand.
John - We pay $40,000 a year for our users to have Project Plan 3 so we're certainly not going to "live" with losing all the functionality of Project.
- Well, for better or for worse, I think you should migrate your projects to Project for the Web and then live with its limitations. That would then eliminate the need for the Microsoft Project desktop app and MPP files. Hope this helps.
- Project Plan 3 comes with "Project Professional" when you install it from O365 with a license. I can't even open an mpp file from a browser in SharePoint. When I try and do that it downloads the file and have to open it with the Desktop App.
Does no other customers in the world want to be able to share links of project schedules so they can be viewed from a browser? Why do we have to have a physical application installed? Isn't Microsoft moving away from the old heavy client, laptop/PC environment? - We own Project Plan 3 licenses so I'm not sure what the "Professional" version of the software is.
I feel like a broken record here but why can't we simply have Microsoft Project work like its other free applications like Excel? We have none of these saving Excel spreadsheets to any cloud instance, to Microsoft Teams, it allows co-authoring. We get none of this with Project and it's more expensive than our Business Premium licenses.
What is "Project Web App"? It now appears there are 3 now: Project for the Web, Project Online and Project Web App.
There has to be a clear and easy way to do this.
Why is this so difficult? - luvsql --
First of all, to use Microsoft Project with Project Online, you must have the Professional version of the software. Then you connect your copy of Microsoft Project to your organization's Project Online instance by creating what is known as a Project Web App Login account. From that point forward, whenever you launch Microsoft Project, the software automatically connects to Project Online. When you create a new project in Microsoft Project, you can use enterprise templates that your organization has created. And when you go to save the new project, it is saved directly in the Project Online database. Once you have imported your existing MPP projects into Project Online, you will NEVER save projects as MPP files again.
Again, let me restate that if you absolutely must have a web-based project management tool, then I really do think you need to test drive Project for the Web to see if that tool works for you. Using Project for the Web would also eliminate the need for MPP files. Hope this helps. - Yes but how does one "save to the Project Online database"? The desktop client doesn't have that as an option. Can't we create them directly IN Project Online vs creating mpp files?
